LOOKING FOR RICHARD Galas

Ranging from New York’s streets to the reconstructed Globe Theater in London, talking with everyone from strangers encountered by chance to scholars and celebrated actors, Pacino is the voluble, mercurial center of a film that ingeniously interweaves commentary on Shakespeare with analysis of, rehearsals for and key segments from a Richard Ill on film. (Pacino) draws in scholars as well as other actors to elucidate the War of the Roses and other elements of the historical backdrop that help viewers grasp the motivations of the ploy’s characters and the gist of such speeches as Richard’s famous opening monologue. At the same time, watching top-notch actors grapple with these roles gives both the history and the literature a vivid immediacy. While Pacino listens appreciatively to the likes of Gielgud and Vanessa Redgrave (who discourses eloquently on the spiritual force of iambic pentameter), he casts his Richard Ill with Americans and builds the drama’s foundations on the very physical rehearsal-hall interplay of cast members such as Penelope Allen, Estelle Parsons and Harris Yulin. The play emerges from all these commentaries and preparations like a gathering storm. Endlessly stage-managing and commenting on his own villainy, Richard is himself simultaneously player, playwright and director, a grandly theatrical creation suited to the purposes of both the classroom and the cinema. -Godfrey Cheshire, Variety. Looking for Richard is Godfrey Cheshire’s Critic’s Choice.