Al Pacino dominated the 1970s onscreen and never looked back
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
February 18-24
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
Perhaps no actor has dominated a decade the way Al Pacino ruled over the 1970s. With five Oscar nominations in eight films, he experienced unprecedented breakout success, so it is with good reason that Film Forum has named its retrospective “Pacino’s ’70s,” because he owned the period onscreen. Born in East Harlem in 1940, Pacino, currently finishing up a celebrated Broadway run as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, cut a brooding swath as gritty films came of age in the 1970s, particularly those made in New York City. The series — which includes all of Pacino’s work from 1971 to 1979 save for his one misstep, Bobby Deerfield (Sidney Pollack, 1977) — begins February 18 with The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972), which seems to keep getting better with age, followed by the even better sequel-prequel, The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), on February 19, both of which will be screened on Sunday. On Monday, Pacino and Kitty Winn are badly in need of a fix in The Panic in Needle Park (Jerry Schatzberg, 1971), while on Tuesday Pacino thinks a sex-change operation for his lover will fix things in Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975). On Wednesday he finds himself in quite another fix in Serpico (Sidney Lumet, 1973), then on Thursday discovers that nothing can fix the legal system in …And Justice for All (Norman Jewison, 1979). The festival concludes on February 24 with the small gem Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg, 1973); the 7:40 show will be introduced by Schatzberg. The series is a testament to Pacino’s immense talent, demonstrating his innate ability to immerse himself in memorable characters like few ever have, from the whirling dervish lawyer Arthur Kirkland to the deeply conflicted Michael Corleone, from the virtuous Frank Serpico to the anarchistic Sonny Wortzik, from drifter dreamer Lion Delbuchi to drifter addict Bobby.