True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Looking for Richard
What a little-known gem! Actor Al Pacino initiated this film to increase
the awareness and appreciation of Shakespeare. His intent was to merge
the making of a Shakespeare play, with the play itself. So in this documentary
all the embryonic stages of play are woven unfinished into the
finished play. For instance, the table readings for the cast, the rehearsals,
the director’s research, the arguments with the producer about how to
stage it, are all mixed into the final sequence of this Shakespeare movie.
It’s a wonderfully weird hybrid, which optimizes the medium of film.
The brilliance stems from Al Pacino’s experience as a Shakespearean
actor, where he discovered that the making of the play provided far more
understanding of the text than the audience ever got, so his big idea
was to let the audience in on the construction and development. As
the actors grapple with the play’s text – what does this old word mean?
Why does the character do this at this moment? What is going on in this
scene? – they (and the audience) begin to unravel the play’s meaning.
The play in this case is one of the most challenging of all Shakespeare
plays, Richard III. There’s tons of people, with multiple names, cross-cutting
relationships, and lots of historical references. Usually, audiences
are lost. However, in Looking for Richard, you get centered and oriented
as the final film switches from full period-costume location, to location
scouting, to the same actors reading around a table and then debating
what it meant, then switching to an annotation by a Shakespearean expert,
or insightful comments by other Shakespearean actors, then a visit
to a historical footnote, and then back to the ongoing scene on stage.
Looking for Richard is the most intense and rewarding Shakespeare I’ve
ever seen. Heaven would be one of these interpretations for everyone of
Shakespeare’s plays.
By Al Pacino
1996, 118 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
Blocking out the scenes
during a rehearsal,
scripts in hand (left).
Scenes from the costumed
film. A shot of
Pacino and director discussing
the filmed parts,
still trying to figure what
Shakespeare meant
(bottom right). This too
is part of the play.
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