Date: Fri 15-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

Playing-Richard-Pacino-Spacey

Full Text:

(rev "Looking For Richard" for Now Playing, 11/15/96)

Now Playing-

Pacino's Take On The Bard Is A Hybrid

By Trey Paul Alexander III

When I think of Al Pacino, I think "urban," "gritty." Iambic pentameter is

about 99,999th on the list. Despite his formidable, though basically

unheralded, stage credits, the respected actor is an unlikely choice to bring

Shakespeare to the masses, though that be his aim in the new film, Looking for

Richard , now playing at the Bethel Cinema. But then, when I think of Romeo

and Juliet , gleaming handguns and Dolce & Gabbana duds aren't the first

things to come to mind either, yet director Baz Luhrmann's contemporary take

on the doomed lovers led the box office in its first week of release and is

still going strong.

Looking for Richard , in which Pacino stars, directs, writes and co-produces,

is a strange sort of hybrid between documentary and filmed stage play.

Reportedly, Pacino shot between eight to ten hours of film for this project,

and it's easy to see how: there are several different veins running throughout

the two-hour motion picture.

It is part PBS, featuring straightforward interviews with various subjects who

expound on Richard III and the Bard in general. Included are various academic

scholars and such Shakespearean actors as Sir John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi (who

chastises Americans for feeling insuperior to Brits' interpretations of

Shakespeare), Vanessa Redgrave and Kenneth Branaugh.

Looking for Richard is also several parts experimental theater, showing Pacino

and friends (including Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder and Kevin Spacey) as they

rehearse the play and debate its characters and their motivations; part

cinema, with several scenes played out in full costume and regalia, backed by

a foreboding symphonic score by Howard Shore (two riveting sequences are

Richard's [Pacino] wooing of the woman [Ryder] he has just widowed, and a

marked man's [Baldwin] plea for clemency from his would-be assassins); and it

is part commentary, as Pacino strolls the streets of various cities and

inquires of the citizens their thoughts on the Bard and why he does (or does

not) appeal to the average Joe (especially interesting are the thoughts of a

beggar who argues that today, talk is cheap and we need to return to a more

Shakespearean conceit which esteems the power and importance of words).

If this all sounds like a mishmash, there is good reason for that: it is. But

it is a fascinating one, and paradoxically, the jumble of ideas ultimately

becomes cohesive. The whole thing is brought together by the force of Pacino,

who becomes a guide, not just of the events in the complex narrative of

Richard III , but of the whole experience of Shakespeare and his works'

ability to cut to the core of human experience, whether it be in the late 16th

Century or the 1990s.

Early in the film, Pacino claims his goal is to find a way to bring

Shakespeare - in particular, Richard III - to the people. But about 20 minutes

into the movie it becomes obvious his focus became blurred and distracted by

many other issues that crept up (there's one scene filmed at a party in which

Pacino is inundated by one too many flaky opinions on Shakespeare and seen

begging for escape out of the gathering and, arguably, the project as a

whole). But by the conclusion, the journey of this inquisitive actor seeking

to share his passion for a play (and unearth the reasons for others' affection

for the same work) succeeds in conveying the universality of Shakespeare and

the joys of experiencing the Bard.

Looking for Richard is rated PG-13 for profanity and occasional violence (most

Shakespeare, aside from his comedies, is fraught with bloody deaths). It may

not draw in the crowds like Romeo and Juliet but in the long run it will do

much more for one's appreciation of Shakespeare's timelessness.