By Jill Lawless
VENICE, Italy (AP) --Al Pacino made two trips up the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, with a pair of movies about aging, regret, giving up and letting go.
But fear not — the actor says he's not about to lower the curtain on his own career.
Pacino plays a small-town Texas locksmith with a key for everything except his own unhappiness in David Gordon Green's "Manglehorn," one of 20 films competing for the festival's Golden Lion prize. And he's an aging actor who has lost his mojo, and his grip on reality, in Barry Levinson's "The Humbling," screening out-of-competition at the festival.
In both films, the 74-year-old actor looks a wreck — shambling, disheveled and drawn. But speaking to journalists before Saturday's dual premieres he was black-clad, sharply coiffed and sporting ice-blue mirrored sunglasses — every bit the movie star.
He said he could relate to his "Humbling" character's desire to pack in the rigors of acting — but hadn't lost his own appetite for the job.
"I feel very lucky, I have to say," Pacino said. "When I think of my life and my background, where I came from — like all of us I had issues as a youngster and had to overcome things, and I found something in life that I love to do.
"I've been riding it a long time and so far the plane is not landing yet.
"I don't like that metaphor," he admonished himself, "but it's all I've got right now."
Four decades after he burst to fame as the wiry young star of "The Panic in Needle Park" and "The Godfather," Pacino pours his skill and soul into these two meaty autumn-years parts.
The title character of "Manglehorn" is an emotionally stunted grump who sends countless letters to a long-lost love, all of which come back marked "return to sender." He reserves his affection for his granddaughter and his cat, rebuffing tentative romantic overtures from a sweet-natured bank teller (Holly Hunter).
"This is a man who has trouble letting go of something, basically, and it leads him to a very strange and closed life," Pacino said.
"He finally learns he has to let that go."
In "The Humbling," waning actor Simon Axler rattles around his half-empty mansion like a Connecticut King Lear, pinning his misguided hopes of love and redemption on a much younger lesbian, played by Greta Gerwig.
Pacino said he was drawn to a character "going through this tragic fall" and struck by the story's juxtaposition of comedy and darkness.
"He's a person who feels that he had a life filled with missed opportunities," Pacino said.
"He's getting older and the feelings he has for his work are dissipating or becoming less available to him."
He said that any actor could relate to the film, which explores the way the demands of performing, the distractions of drinking and drugs and the pressures of fame "intellectually and emotionally get you to stray somewhat."
In "The Humbling," Axler must choose between Shakespeare — "King Lear," naturally — and a commercial for a hair-loss cure.
Pacino said it wasn't an art-or-money choice he'd ever had to make. He's done few commercials, and relatively few big Hollywood movies.
He prefers to work with directors he knows and respects, like veteran Levinson ("Diner, "Rain Man") or Green, whose work ranges from stoner comedy "Pineapple Express" to tough Nicholas Cage drama "Joe."
"I don't know, and I never did know, what Hollywood was," Pacino said.
"I'm not an expert. I never went there as a young actor. I did movies with (Sidney) Lumet out of New York, with (Francis Ford) Coppola. My association with (Hollywood) was not unfriendly, it just wasn't really clear. And it still isn't."
But that's not to say he doesn't enjoy its products.
"They do some great stuff, great films," Pacino said. "I just saw — 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' is it, a Marvel thing? It was amazing. I saw it with my young children. I must say, I wouldn't have gone naturally.
"(It was) entertaining, inventive, beautiful, full of rich stuff. So I'm not anti-that at all."
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More