Tag Archives: al pacino

PRINCE OF THE CITY: REMEMBERING SIDNEY LUMET

Al Pacino gives a fiery performance as a would-be bank robber in Sidney Lumet's DOG DAY AFTERNOON

DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Sidney Lumet, 1975) and SERPICO (Sidney Lumet, 1973)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Serpico: Saturday, July 23, 9:00
Dog Day Afternoon: Saturday, July 23, 6:30, and Monday, July 25, 1:00
Series continues through July 19-25
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s tribute to the late Sidney Lumet continues tonight with two of the Philadelphia-born New Yorker’s greatest works, a pair of tense, powerful fact-based dramas starring Bronx native Al Pacino that helped define the 1970s, both onscreen and off. First up, at 6:30, is one of the most bizarre bank robberies gone wrong you’ll ever see, Dog Day Afternoon. Pacino stars as Sonny, a confused young man desperate to get money to pay for his boyfriend’s (Chris Sarandon) sex-change operation. But things don’t go quite as planned, and soon Sonny is leading the gathered crowd in chants of “Attica! Attica!” while his partner, Sal (John Cazale), wants a plane to take them to Wyoming and Det. Moretti (Charles Durning) is trying to get them to surrender without hurting anyone, primarily themselves. Dog Day Afternoon is a blistering, funny, biting commentary on mid-’70s New York as well as a fascinating character study of a deeply conflicted man. Following at 9:00 is another gritty, realistic drama, Serpico, with Pacino giving an unforgettable performance as an undercover cop single-handedly trying to end the rampant corruption that has spread like a disease throughout the NYPD. When his fellow officers and supposed friends turn their back on him, he is left on his own, vulnerable but still committed, risking both his career and his life to do what he thinks is right. Pacino is explosive in both films, playing two very different protagonists on different sides of the law yet similar in so many ways. “Prince of the City: Remembering Sidney Lumet” features three other Lumet films today, 1978’s The Wiz (10:30 am), 1968’s The Sea Gull (1:15), and 1988’s Running on Empty (4:00), while tomorrow’s schedule includes 1962’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (12:30), 1990’s Q&A (4:00), and 1981’s Prince of the City (7:15), the latter two followed by Q&As with cast members and real characters depicted in the films.

PACINO’S 70’S

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.