The Godfather’s face
SAVITHA GAUTAM
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Lawrence Grobel’s authorised biography throws light on Al Pacino’s romance with films.
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What makes Pacino accept a role? if I relate to the director, if the text is pretty good, and if I can do something with the character.
Al Pacino; Lawrence Grobel, Pocket Books, Rs. 375
Al Pacino was known to be a film buff’s delight but a journalist’s nightmare. Getting a meaningful interview out of him was almost next to impossible. Or so thought Lawrence Grobel, writer and journalist.
Till he got a call to say Pacino was willing to talk to him. Why this sudden change of heart, wondered Grobel. Because Pacino had read his interview with Marlon Brando published in Playboy and was impressed.
Pacino is and will always remain Michael Corleone in the minds of “Godfather” followers. The film may have starred Marlon Brando, but it belonged to Pacino.
There he was effortlessly changing, in critic Pauline Kael’s words, “from a small, fresh-faced darkly handsome college boy into an underworld lord… more intense, smaller and more isolated at every step.”
Compelling account
But what was Pacino’s take on the whole ‘lights, camera, action’ game? Grobel’s authorised biography quite simply titled “Al Pacino” is an affectionate and compelling account of the Hollywood star’s romance with fame and fortune. In this series of interviews done over a span of 26 years, Grobel tries to understand what makes the now 67-year-old Pacino tick.
The introduction reads more like a filmography, with nuggets of information about his childhood thrown in. Born Alfredo James Pacino to parents of Sicilian origin, he was the product of a broken home. While in eight grade, he loved reciting “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.
But his first love was Shakespeare. He used to read the Bible at church and was often referred to as ‘Marlon Brando’ by some boys, and that’s the first time he heard of his soon-to-be co-star.
He did various jobs to feed himself and attend acting school — mail boy, janitor, salesman at a fruit shop, usher, office boy and even drug store attendant. We learn that his debut film “Panic in Needle Park” was about a New York drug addict. Also that he was not Francis Ford Coppola’s first choice for the role of Michael Corleone.
When Grobel asks him to name his top five best films, Pacino chooses “Godfather I and II”, “Scarface”, “Serpico” and “Looking for Richard”. In fact, there are many interesting insights into the way the actor prepared for his roles or achieved certain effects. While talking about his role as Michael, Pacino divulges, “When you see Michael… looking wrapped up in a kind of a trance, that’s what I was doing. I was actually listening to Stravinsky on the set, so I’d have that look.” Incidentally, Pacino is a Western classical and jazz buff, we gather.
What makes Pacino accept a role? “… if I relate to the director, if the text is pretty good, and if I can do something with the character.” For his role of “Serpico”, a meeting with the cop proved decisive. “The moment I shook his hand and looked into his eyes…, I thought there was something there that I could play.”
In fact, Pacino just hung around Frank Serpico “just to feel like him”. The obscure “Bang the Drum Slowly” is Pacino’s all-time favourite film because of “the baseball motif. Maybe I relate to it because I always wanted to be a baseball player”.
His sense of humour comes to the fore when Grobel asks him about how he communicates with his friend Robert de Niro, who is said to be an introvert. Pacino replies, “Sign language.”
If you hoping to get a dekko at Pacino’s love life, forget it. All the man is willing to reveal is bits and pieces about some of the women he dated.
But as Grobel tries to use his journalistic prowess to probe deep, all he manages are single sentences that hardly reveal much. But at most times, he simply withdraws into a shell. Well, that’s Pacino for you.
Other facets
But, other facets of the actor come alive, especially his love for the stage and or when he talks about “Looking for Richard”, which he wrote, directed and also acted in. “Where America meets Shakespeare” won him a lot of critical acclaim and, sure enough, he holds it dear to his heart. And here’s a man who spouts Shakespeare at the drop of a hat.
A similar passion emanates when the Western classical and jazz buff talks about music. “There’s nothing more joyful than coming together with somebody through music… I used to play the Congo drums and the piano… I would sit for hours and touch the piano keys until finally the rhythm would come out, tunes would come.”
The chapter titled “The Night Pacino Came to Class” where the actor is quizzed by English Department students of UCLA makes an interesting read. Asked what motivated him to be an actor, he replies, “I was able to find through acting — in certain kinds of plays, certain materials — a way of expressing myself."
Well, this book tells you more about how one of Hollywood’s most charismatic and intense actors thinks and acts. read it, if you love Al Pacino, “Godfather” or just the movies.
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