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Al Pacino spent time with some old friends, attending a 50th anniversary screening of “Dog Day Afternoon” at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre — those friends being the other collaborators he misses from making the classic bank-robbery-gone-wrong drama a half-century ago.

The avuncular Pacino also made a lot of new friends at the Aero, with Tuesday’s capacity crowd reveling not just in his tales of making “Dog Day Afternoon” but assorted takes on other aspects of his career.

“Let’s just say it’s always a 50-year anniversary, you know,” Pacino said with a chuckle. “I mean, I did ‘The Godfather’ — it was 50 years; people celebrated — and I did ‘The Godfather Part II,’ which you got another, but I’m due on this one.”

The 84-year-old acting giant was pinned down on what he now considers the favorite role of his career (spoiler: it’s not one of the...

This is our final round-up before the end of 2024, and it’s a good one. There are plenty of gift ideas lurking here––some choices to enjoy during time off, too. Note also that The Film Stage Holiday Gift Guide includes a list of my favorite cinema books from the last 12 months. One of those picks kicks off this column, and it is written by none other than the great Al Pacino.

Sonny Boy by Al Pacino (Penguin Press)

Al Pacino’s memoir, Sonny Boy, is easily one of the most eagerly awaited books of 2024. And for me, this look at the actor’s life and career more than lives up to the hype. Many highlights have already earned some social-media chatter––most notably young Al’s penis trauma (!), a near-death experience after a recent bout with Covid, and the reasons behind his decision to do Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill.

Over 50 years ago, Sidney Lumet released "Serpico," a powerful indictment of NYPD police corruption that was based on a true story. Decades later, New York's "boys in blue" are still being consistently called out for corruption, but at the time of the film's release in 1973, "Serpico" felt like it might just cause a sea change in the way America — or at least Hollywood — saw its law enforcement systems. "Sidney Lumet's 'Serpico,' the first in what threatens to be an avalanche of movies about policemen, picks up the old cop film and brings it with lights flashing and sirens blaring into the middle of the Watergate era," Vincent Canby wrote in his original review for the New York Times.

"Serpico" may not have ended up changing the world, but the movie based on the book of the same name by Peter Maas was a box office and critical hit,...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.

In honor of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Conor O’Donnell and I dig into the directorial efforts of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. While the two performers are often lumped together in the world of cinema, their filmmaking styles are about as different as their acting styles. That is to say Very different! We examine A Bronx Tale and The Good Shepherd from the more formalist De Niro, and Looking For Richard, Chinese Coffee, Wilde Salome and Salome from a process-obsessed Pacino.

We talk about the duo’s long friendship, Pacino’s humble awareness of his own legacy, De Niro’s growth as a storyteller between his two films and much, much more.

Be sure to...

Pasquale Buba, a film editor on Day of the Dead and several other efforts from the zombie movie maestro George A. Romero, died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 72.

A proud son of Pittsburgh, Buba cut the Steel City-set thriller Striking Distance (1993), starring Bruce Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker, and worked on Michael Mann's Heat (1995), starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, and The Brave (1997), directed by Johnny Depp and starring Depp and Marlon Brando.

Buba also collaborated with Pacino the director on Looking for Richard (1996) —...

Pasquale Buba, a film editor on Day of the Dead and several other efforts from the zombie movie maestro George A. Romero, died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 72.

A proud son of Pittsburgh, Buba cut the Steel City-set thriller Striking Distance (1993), starring Bruce Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker, and worked on Michael Mann's Heat (1995), starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, and The Brave (1997), directed by Johnny Depp and starring Depp and Marlon Brando.

Buba also collaborated with Pacino the director on Looking for Richard (1996) —...

This year Al Pacino may pick up his third career Emmy Award as Best Movie/Mini Actor for the HBO telefilm “Paterno.” He plays the title role of disgraced Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, whose successful 45-year career ended after his assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was revealed to have been a child molester. Pacino previously won the same prize for “Angels in America” in 2004 and “You Don’t Know Jack” in 2010, and he was nominated once more for “Phil Spector” in 2013. But of course, most of Pacino’s career has been in film and not television. In honor of his latest small-screen achievement, let’s take a look back at some of his best big-screen performances. Tour through our photo gallery above of Pacino’s 25 greatest films above, ranked from worst to best.

Pacino is an Academy Award winner for his cinematic work, but it took him 20 years and...

Over the last half century, Al Pacino has revealed himself to be – quite objectively – one of our greatest performers, both on stage and screen. Along with his incredible success in film, the man has remained consistently present in theater and enthralled by those playwrights who’ve come to define it. In 1996, he made his directorial debut with Looking For Richard, an engaging documentary that explored the actor’s fascination with Shakespeare as he prepared, performed and filmed select scenes from the play “Richard III” with the likes of Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and Winona Ryder. While a bit messy and thin in its execution, the documentary feeds off the passion of its filmmaker.

Two decades later, Pacino’s exploring Oscar Wilde and his play “Salomé,” a tragedy written in 1891 and adapted from the biblical story of the titular stepdaughter of King Herod, who demands the head of John The Baptist...

We are kicking off the 54th edition of the New York Film Festival with a behind the scenes look of three big premieres.

Director Alex Horwitz had no clue “Hamilton” would become a cultural phenomena when he started filming his friend Lin-Manuel Miranda writing hip hop tracks (originally for a concept album, not a musical) for the founding fathers. Horwitz came by the podcast to explain how he was inspired by Al Pacino’s “Looking for Richard” and became fascinated by Miranda’s search for the man Alexander Hamilton. Following him around as he wrote in Aaron Burr’s real life bedroom and did research at Valley Forge, Horwitz explained that his goal was to capture history through Miranda’s perspective.

Read More: Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast: Andrea Arnold on Capturing the Poetic Realism of ‘American Honey’ (Episode 6)

Head Programmer of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Dennis Lim, also dropped...

Editor’s Note: Alex Horwitz had no way of knowing “Hamilton” would become a cultural phenomenon that would change Broadway and launch his friend Lin-Manuel Miranda into super-stardom. Early on, however, the genre filmmaker (“Alice Jacobs is Dead”) and documentary film editor (“Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger”) could tell Miranda was onto something special. Specifically drawn to the way Miranda was bringing history to life through hip-hop in his early tracks, Horwitz picked up a camera and started capturing the creation of the musical, while joining Miranda on his research and exploration of the Founding Fathers.

In anticipation of the “Hamilton’s America” premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 1 and its television premiere on PBS’s “Great Performances” on October 21, IndieWire reached out to Horwitz to find out more about his new film, backed by RadicalMedia. What we got was this detailed...

April has arrived and a new batch of movies are coming to Netflix like The Princess Bride and The Shawshank Redemption. It also means we’re losing a few titles, this month we’re losing Amistad, Hotel Rwanda, and 2 Fast 2 Furious just to name a few. On the TV side of things, season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt arrives, so if you enjoyed the first season, you should be good to binge the new season.

On the Amazon Prime front, check out below to see what you’ll be able to stream for free and what’s going to have a cost. Let’s watch!

All Title Dates are Subject to Change

Netflix U.S. Release Dates Only

Available 4/1

16 Blocks (2006)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Anthony Bourdain: Parks Unknown: Season 5

The Ascent of Woman: A 10,000 Year Story

Beat Bobby Flay: Season 1

Best in Show (2000)

Bob’s Burgers:...

Here's what's new or newish for home viewing over the past two weeks for DVDs, BluRays, or Streaming. Now you can...

• see if the Pinkett-Smiths had any reason to be upset about the lack of Oscar interest in Concussion (hint: no)

• stab your eyes out while watching Daddy's Home

• find out if The Hateful Eight is Tarantino's worst (hint: yes)

• discover the stuff they left out of Pt 1 in order to make another billion with Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt 2

• watch Juliet Stevenson be Mother Teresa in The Letters

• endure yet another Paranormal Activity movie because they will never stop making those

• use Point Break (2015) discs for coasters because who needs a remake when Point Break (1991) is still such a knockout?!

Reader's Choice Streaming

We kicked off the biweekly reader's choice series with Gattaca (1997) and Cruel Intentions (1999). Time for another on Wednesday April 6th only I'm forcing a move away from...

In April, fire up Netflix and prepare to binge-watch hit movies like "The Princess Bride" and "The Shawshank Redemption" as they're added (finally!) to Netflix streaming. Also new to streaming: Stanley Kubrick classics "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) and "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).

Also, say hello to Netflix Originals "The Ranch," starring Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, and Sam Elliott; Season 2 of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"; and Ricky Gervais's "Special Correspondents."

Here's the complete list of what's new on Netflix in April 2016. Of course, titles and release dates are always subject to change.

Available April 1, 2016

"16 Blocks" (2006)

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)

"A Clockwork Orange" (1971)

"Anthony Bourdain": Parts Unknown": Season 5

"The Ascent of Woman": A 10,000 Year Story

"Beat Bobby Flay": Season 1

"Best in Show" (2000)

"Bob's Burgers": Season 5

"Boogie Nights" (1997)

"Breathe" (2014)

"Chaplin" (1992)

"Charlie and "The Chocolate Factory" (2005)

"Codegirl" (2015)

"Colegas" (2012)

"Cujo" (1983)

"Cutthroat Kitchen": Seasons 34

"Deep Impact" (1998)

"Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang...

"Get Mean" (1975), the most obscure and final entry in the series of "Stranger" Westerns starring Tony Anthony is getting a long-awaited release in North America thanks to the new deluxe edition Blu-ray that is jam-packed with extras including an insightful collector's booklet written by Cinema Retro columnist Howard Hughes.

Here are the details from the official press release:

The Stranger’s Thrilling Final Adventure!

When an American cowboy stumbles upon a gypsy family in a wind-swept ghost town, they offer him a fortune to escort a princess back to her home in Spain. But this silent Stranger finds himself in over his head (and strung up by his feet) when he gets caught in the middle of an epic battle involving Vikings, the Moors, brutal barbarians, evil spirits, a raging bull, and a diabolical Shakespeare-quoting hunchback. Tired of their never-ending attempts to kill him, the cowboy arms himself to the teeth with guns,...

★★★★☆ The shrouded world of the stage proved very much the theme of last year's Venice Film Festival. Director Barry Levinson's Philip Roth adaptation The Last Act (2014) is a bird of an entirely different feather to the screwball antics of She's Funny That Way (2014) or the anarchic brio of Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman (2014). Featuring a masterly turn by Al Pacino, The Last Act is actually closer to Pacino's own theatre-based documentaries Looking for Richard (1996) and Wilde Salomé (2011) in its looseness and postmodern playfulness. It's also by turns moving and very funny. Simon Axler (Al Pacino) is an ageing actor in decline and verging of a nervous breakdown.

Looking for a juicy documentary to sink your teeth into on a rainy afternoon? Or perhaps you’d like to learn more about the casting or production process? These seven sensational docs provide crucial behind-the-scenes insight into various aspects of film and theater. By watching them you’re guaranteed to learn something new about this crazy industry. “Every Little Step” How’s this for meta-theatrical? “Every Little Step” chronicles the most difficult challenge an aspiring Broadway actor could undertake: booking a role in the classic show about aspiring Broadway actors. Following the ups and downs of real-life dancers auditioning for the 2006 revival of “A Chorus Line,” this documentary tugs at the heartstrings of starry-eyed triple threats everywhere. The film features interviews with both struggling auditioners and the musical’s creators, providing an astonishing look at what drives Broadway hopefuls. “Looking for Richard” Al Pacino’s directorial debut is ambitious in scope yet relaxed in style.

Los Angeles — Al Pacino is wiped out. He's tirelessly promoting an independent film after hitting the red carpet circuit (or "syndrome," as he puts it) in the fall and he is, as ever, balancing a number of on-going projects, the most recent one being a David Mamet play written for him specifically. On top of it all, old rotator cuff injuries from his sporting days are acting up. But Pacino is a warrior. "No problem," he says after wincing from the pain. "I'll be fine." Ostensibly we're talking about Barry Levinson's "The Humbling," which is angling for an Oscar-qualifying run this month. In the Philip Roth adaptation, Pacino stars as a famous actor who has, for lack of a better phrase, lost his mojo. It's a curious note in Pacino's filmography, fascinating for his commitment to the role, which he says spoke to him. In David Gordon Green's "Manglehorn,...

Now: In the Wings on a World Stage, a new documentary from executive producer Kevin Spacey about his world tour of Richard III with nearly 20 actors for 200 sold-out performances, actually has a very apt subtitle, since viewers of this doc remain in the wings for the entire runtime, away from much of the stage action and the creative journey of its stars.

Now relies heavily on context and easy quotes from Spacey and Sam Mendes (who directed the play) – both Oscar-winners for their first collaboration, American Beauty – to introduce audiences to what draws these men best known for cinema to the theatre. Mendes was the brainchild of The Bridge Project, a trans-Atlantic company that brought actors from the New York and London theatre scene together. Its final production in 2012 was Richard III, with Spacey in the title role as one of Shakespeare’s most gleefully corrupt misanthropes.

“The thrill of...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 31 Oct 2013 - 07:01

We train our sights on the year 1996, and the 25 underappreciated films it has to offer...

Independence Day managed to revive both the alien invasion movie and the disaster flick in 1996, and just about every other mainstream picture released that year lived in its saucer-shaped shadow.

Yet beyond the aerial battles of Independence Day, the flying cows in Twister, and the high-wire antics of Tom Cruise in Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible, there sat an entire library of lesser-known and underappreciated movies.

As part of our attempts to highlight the unsung greats of the 90s, here's our selection of 25 such films from 1996 - the year chess champion Garry Kasparov lost to the might of the computer Deep Blue, and the year comedy star Jim Carrey starred in an unexpectedly dark tale of obsession...

25. The Cable Guy

We can't sit here and...

Scarecrow and The King of Marvin Gardens – quirky, unstylised films made in the 60s and 70s that refused to smooth their rough edges. This bravery, Adam Mars-Jones argues, is what film-makers are missing today

The label "independent film" doesn't mean what it once did, and the Sundance festival is part of the reason. The moment aspiring film-makers realised there was a potential shortcut to distribution and acclaim, they started smoothing off their rough edges – consciously or without even noticing – or at least they began to stylise themselves. Either way, the overall effect of the festival has not been to promote individuality but to erode it. So it's a mild beneficial shock to watch two American films of the early 1970s on re-release – not because they're masterpieces, exactly, but because they give the flavour of a different set of assumptions.

Scarecrow, directed by Jerry Schatzberg, won a prize at Cannes in...

Houston, Texas is best known for oil and cowboys. Like most things, there is way more than meets the stereotype. My favorite Houston secret is Worldfest, a nine day international independent film festival held every April.

What is so great about it? It’s a point of pride for Houstonians because it is the oldest in the world. It was founded in August 1961 as Cinema Arts, and International Film Society. It became the international film festival it is today in April 1968. In all of this time it has been under the care of founder Hunter Todd. His goal was to create a quality film festival for independent filmmakers.

Meh, who cares how old it is. If it’s last power doesn’t impress you, here’s a short list of some of the filmmakers discovered at Worldfest:

Steven Spielberg George Lucas Ridley Scott The Coen Brothers Oliver Stone David Lynch

Pretty sweet,...

To mark the discovery of Richard III's skeleton under a car park in Leicester, we've put together some clips of the monarch's most memorable screen portrayals

Reading on a mobile? Watch here

Laurence Olivier's 1955 Shakespeare adaptation remains the dominant source for our assumptions of all things Richard III. Dressed in black, scowly as hell, and with that creepy, reedy intonation, Olivier's interpretation defined Richard as evil Crookback, of whom we should be grateful to Henry Tudor that we are rid. Perversely, punk rocker John Lydon cited him as a major influence, and clips from the film pop up in Julien Temple's Filth and the Fury doco. (Look for him at 1:45 in this clip.)

Reading on a mobile? Watch here

Olivier was endlessly, instantly parody-able, as Peter Sellers showed on a 1964 Beatles TV show, doing Hard Day's Night in the style of Winter of Discontent.

Reading on a mobile?...

The best of this week’s DVD releases is Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut Coriolanus and he translates his fearless embodiment of the battle scarred general shoe-horned into a politician’s role with tremendous effect.

From his lauded stage version to this new cinematic vision he transposes the political discomfort and intense personal tragedy of Shakespeare’s play with ease and the film is definitely one to take the time to catch up with. Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Cox are on terrific form as is Jessica Chastain and Fiennes proves an intelligent director of actors allowing the dialogue to flow freely and with gravitas without ever distancing us from the modern parallels at play.

From the imagined discovery of The Bard’s muse in Shakespeare in Love and the recent history churning revelation of who actually wrote Shakespeare’s play in Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous there is much stock in the...

Liddell Entertainment, the innovative production and distribution financier is launching a new theatrical distribution entity, Ld Distribution, and named indie veteran David Dinerstein as head of the new company. The company's initial slate includes: William Friedkin's critically acclaimed Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey; the recently wrapped production, Disconnect, starring Jason Bateman and Alexander Skarsg&#229rd from the Oscar nominated director Henry Alex Rubin; and the horror film, The Collection, from Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, the writers of Saw VI, which is currently in post-production. The company plans to release 4 to 6 films in its initial year.

Ld Distribution will actively acquire films and provide distribution for Liddell Entertainment's expanding production slate. Liddell Entertainment is aiming to produce four to six movies a year with budgets of up to $25 million.

"We are thrilled to bring David Dinerstein on board to run our new distribution operation. He is one of...

HollywoodNews.com: Liddell Entertainment, the innovative production and distribution financier is launching a new theatrical distribution entity, Ld Distribution, and named indie veteran David Dinerstein as head of the new company. The company’s initial slate includes: William Friedkin’s critically acclaimed Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey; the recently wrapped production, Disconnect, starring Jason Bateman and Alexander Skarsgard from the Oscar nominated director Henry-Alex Rubin; and the horror film, The Collection, from Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, the writers of Saw lV, V and Vl which is currently in post-production. The company plans to release 4 to 6 films in its initial year.

Ld Distribution will actively acquire films and provide distribution for Liddell Entertainment’s expanding production slate. Liddell Entertainment is aiming to produce four to six movies a year with budgets of up to $25 million.

“We are thrilled to bring David Dinerstein on board to run our new distribution operation.

"Pacino came to see Richard 3 last night. He was so kind, especially since his Buckingham in Looking for Richard is now playing Richard." Kevin Spacey was thrilled to see Al Pacino in the audience of Richard 3 at the Old Vic theatre in London.

Legendary American actor and director Al Pacino is the recipient of the Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2011 Award, a prize of the Venice International Film Festival (organized by the Biennale di Venezia), created in collaboration with Jaeger-Le Coultre, and dedicated to an artist who has left an original mark on contemporary cinema. The prize has previously been awarded to some of the greatest figures in film including: Takeshi Kitano (2007), Abbas Kiarostami (2008), Agnès Varda (2008), Sylvester Stallone (2009) and Mani Ratnam (2010).

This year, the award celebrates Al Pacino and his achievements as a filmmaker. The awards ceremony took place on Sunday September 4th during the 68th Venice International Film Festival (August 31st . September 10th 2011) directed by Marco Mueller and organized by the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta. Festival Director, Marco Mueller, describes Pacino as, .An amazing director, whose experience is precious and original, and enriches the world of contemporary film.

"More personal and obsessive than his 1996 Shakespeare documentary Looking for Richard, with which it has much in common, Al Pacino's long-in-the-making Wilde Salome is both an intriguing exploration of Oscar Wilde's play about the destructive use of sexuality and an intimate self-portrait of the actor/director as he over-extends himself into performing Salome on stage and shooting a film — this film — at the same time." Deborah Young in the Hollywood Reporter: "Researching Salome, which he performed twice on stage, becomes an 'obsession' as he struggles to find the right mixture of the play, Wilde, himself making the play and making a movie about all of the above. Editors Roberto Silvi and David Leonard do a Herculean job compiling very disparate material into an engrossing, smooth-flowing film."

It's "an enjoyable mess," finds Movieline's Stephanie Zacharek, "particularly for anyone who gets a thrill out of documentaries about process…. [D]uring the course of it,...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: There has been a lot of chatter around the amount of time Glenn Close has poured into “Albert Nobbs,” which she guided to the screen over the course of several years, serving as a producer, co-screenwriter and star.

Al Pacino feels her pain. The Oscar-winning screen legend has spent years getting under the skin of Oscar Wilde’s play “Salome,” and his passion for the tragedy shines through in the new drama “Wilde Salome,” which Pacino brought to the Venice Film Fest over the weekend so it could screen out of competition.

A sort of work-within-a-work film, “Salome” explores how Pacino stretched himself thin by acting in a stage production of Wilde’s film (alongside Jessica Chastain of “The Debt” and “The Help”) as he also prepared this film about the experience.

THR calls the movie “more personal and obsessive” than his similar film “Looking for Richard.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

What a pleasure it is to watch Al Pacino’s Wilde Salome. There is no need to present the legend that is the man who played Michael Corleone, Serpico, Tony Montana and Sonny Wortzik, just his name evokes scenes, characters and quotes from dozens of films. Yet after a career of more than forty impressive years, Pacino still finds a way to challenge himself and share his passion about acting with the rest of us.

Wilde Salome is his second documentary as a director, the first was Looking for Richard, where a camera followed him while preparing for the staging of a performance of Richard III by William Shakespeare. That was in 1996 and although the world and Hollywood has changed a great deal, Pacino’s passion for acting and for the classics is still as strong as ever.

In Wilde Salome he takes the same concept...

[1] Al Pacino's known for many memorable roles -- most notably, Tony Montana in Scarface and Michael Corleone in The Godfather -- but it turns out one of the parts nearest and dearest to his heart is one that few film buffs have seen. Pacino has a little-known obsession with Oscar Wilde's play Salome, and has played the part of King Herod in multiple stage productions. When he reprised the role in 2006, he brought along a film crew to collect footage for a documentary he was directing about his attempt to understand one of his favorite works and the iconic writer behind it. Five years later, Pacino's film is ready to make its debut at the Venice Film Festival. Wilde Salome follows Pacino all over the world as he explores his passion for Wilde and his work, much as 1996's Looking for Richard saw him examine William Shakespeare's Richard III.

Who knew Al Pacino had such a thing for Oscar Wilde's "Salome?"

When the "Godfather" and "Scarface" star turns his attention to a theatrical stage production, he tends to get rather... immersed. His 1996 documentary, "Looking For Richard," explored the veteran actor's strange, obsessive process while putting on a production of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, "Richard III."

Pacino's hitting the stage again with a production of Oscar Wilde's "Salome," which chronicles the relationship between King Herod's torrid relationship with his stepdaughter, Salome, who requests the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils.

Al's not just doing a stage production of the play, though -- he's also simultaneously producing a film adaptation and, of course, a documentary. Watch as an actor agonizes over his craft in this sort-of trailer for "Wilde Salome," courtesy of Yahoo! Movies. The film...

Okay, I’m aware that anyone can use Flickchart to filter their favorite documentaries. That’s Flickchart 101, Derek.

But I decided to focus on documentaries this week because I made an organic list of my ten favorite documentaries for a post I wrote last year on my own blog. This was at a time when I wasn’t aware of Flickchart’s potential to do the same thing, or at least, didn’t yet use the site that way, if I did know.

What truer measure of the effectiveness of Flickchart at distilling my true feelings, than to compare a list I produced from my brain with one produced from Flickchart’s algorithms? As an added bonus, Flickchart might also help me identify a movie I didn’t realize I loved as much as I do. Here is the list I came up with organically, to prepare you for what...

Source: FilmShaft - Al Pacino To Be Honoured At This Year’s Venice Film Festival

Al Pacino will be awarded the Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2011 award at this year’s Venice International Film Festival. The award celebrates artists who have “left an original mark on contemporary cinema”, and was originally created in collaboration between Le-Coultre and Venice organisers Biennale di Venezia.

Festival director Marco Mueller describes Pacino as “an amazing director, whose presence is precious and original, and who enriches the world of contemporary cinema”. The award ceremony is planned to precede the world premiere of Pacino’s latest directorial effort, Wild Salome, on the 4th of September. With the film, Pacino uses “documentary, fiction and improvisation” to unravel and re-interpret the “scintillating tale of lust, greed and one woman’s scorn” of Oscar Wilde’s once-banned play Salome. Pacino features both as himself and King Herod, alongside...

Filed under: Movie News, Awards

Al Pacino will be awarded the Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2011 Award during the upcoming Venice International Film Festival as "an artist who has left an original mark on contemporary cinema."

Festival director Marco Mueller described Pacino as "an amazing director, whose experience is precious and original and enriches the world of contemporary film."

Pacino is being honored as a director; his third film, 'Wilde Salome' will premiere after the award ceremony. The feature-length documentary explores the actor's obsession with Oscar Wilde's play 'Salome,' just as his first film ,'Looking for Richard,' examined the Shakespeare play 'Richard III.'

The honor will be given out Sept. 4 as part of the 68th Venice International Film Festival, which runs Aug. 31 through Sept. 10.

Continue Reading...

I don't have the patience or the time to research this but what do you suppose was the tipping point moment when Hollywood decided that they Must have Jessica Chastain in every single movie in production? She's like Michael Fassbender's twin sister in terms of output. This happens fairly regularly with actors that Hollywood suspects you'll go crazy for. The most recent examples: Mia Wasikowska and Chloe Moretz. Sometimes the audience complies fawning all over the actor, other times they get all excited about the person as a celebrity but not as an actor (Colin Farrell's weird initial trajectory some years back), and other times they barely notice and don't care and Hollywood starts scrambling for another next big thing. [Editors note: Actually they're always scrambling for that even if you do embrace the one before.]

What will happen in 2011 with Jessica Ubiquity Chastain? Hollywood has gifted her with a potentially huge year. Will her work return that investment? Here's what her year is like.

How do you make a king leer? Put the queen in a bikini. Yes, an old joke from The Simpsons, but as literary jokes go – it’s a goodun. The Bard has always been something of an obsession for actor Al Pacino. In the late 1990s, he directed a documentary – Looking For Richard – then he teamed up with Il Postino’s Michael Radford for an adaptation of Merchant Of Venice.

Now Pacino and the Rad are getting back together, so say Total Film, along with a.c.e. cinematographer (see what I did there?) Benoit Delhomme to have a crack at King Lear.

Lear is one of Will Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy’s and no doubt Pacino will be ‘ooh-ahing’ all the way to the bank with this. King Lear is the story of an old king who decides to divvy up his kingdom to his daughters without realising what a bunch of scheming,...

Al Pacino is to play euthanasia activist Dr. Jack Kevorkian in a star-studded new TV movie. The movie star will team up with Susan Sarandon, John Goodman and Danny Huston in Barry Levinson's "You Don't Know Jack".

Kevorkian was dubbed Dr. Death when he stunned the world with his "Mercy Machine" in the early 1990s, and performed his first assisted suicide. As a doctor, he also builds controversy with his epic legal battles defending a patient's right to die.

Professionally, Al Pacino made his movie debut in 1969 film "Me, Natalie." He went to appear in some movies such as "The Godfather", "The Merchant of Venice" and "Ocean's Thirteen". Beside playing in front of the camera, he is also involved behind the lens. His directorial credits include "Looking for Richard", "Chinese Coffee" and "Salomaybe?".

Writer, producer and actor Frederic Menner Kimball has died of lung cancer. He was 75.

Kimball passed away at his home in New York on 4 October.

He is best-known for his role opposite Al Pacino in 1996 film Looking for Richard, which was partly written by the pair.

In the 1960s, Kimball formed the Theater Company of Boston with his colleague David Wheeler. The organisation became home to many young actors, including Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight and Robert De Niro.

Kimball's credits cross boundaries between theatre, television and film, and include performances with Pacino in the 1979 production of Richard III and the first American production of The Balcony.

His writing credits include dialogue for a number of Pacino.s movies, including Author, Author, And Justice for All, and Dick Tracy as well as television scripts including Blind Alley, starring Chloris Leachman and Pat Morita.

Kimball.s first novel, An Indelible Mark - about growing up in mid-century America - was published just last month.

He is survived by his wife, Ellen Graff, and his two children.

Hollywood icon Al Pacino and British Royal Prince Charles have become unlikely friends after they met at the Royal Premiere of the actor's documentary Looking For Richard seven years ago. The 64-year-old has been an honored house guest at the Prince of Wales' London residence, Highgrove, and the pair have stayed in contact by letter since their first meeting. The news of this surprising alliance came to the surface last night at London's charity premiere for the Godfather actor's latest film - The Merchant Of Venice. Pacino was introduced to Prince Charles' long-term partner, Camilla Parker-Bowles, for the first time at the event.

NEW YORK -- Al Pacino, who co-starred with Robert De Niro in Heat, will lend his support to this year's Tribeca Film Festival, founded by De Niro with his partner Jane Rosenthal. On May 8, Pacino will host "An Evening of Chinese Coffee and Conversation With Al Pacino," which will feature a special screening of the actor's directing effort Chinese Coffee and a discussion of the film, Pacino's career and his ongoing artistic interests. Pacino will additionally host another event as part of the TFF's Family Festival: On May 10, local high school students who are aspiring actors will gather with Pacino to view his Looking for Richard and participate in a discussion with the star. The TFF also said this week that rap mogul Damon Dash's latest directing effort, Death of a Dynasty, will make its world premiere May 7. A satirical feature about the world of hip-hop, Death stars Dash and his offscreen partner in Roc-a-Fella Records, rapper Jay-Z, along with Rashida Jones and Devon Aoki and cameos by Chloe Sevigny, Jamie Lynn-Sigler, Lorraine Bracco, Carson Daly, Denise Rich, Walt Frazier, Ed Lover, Dr. Dre, Flavor Flav, Peter Sarsgaard and Run-D.M.C.'s Daryl McDaniels and the late Jam Master Jay. The TFF runs May 3-11.