Pacino ReFocuses on Film CareerAfter five-year absence, sctot returns to the big screen

By FMNK LOVECE

EW YORK-So therewas Al Pacino on "Wheelof Fortune"-not the one

with Vanna White, the one onCBS in the early 1950s thatrewarded good deeds. It seemsthat someone had called theshow's attention to an incidentinvolving young Al and his 12-year-old buddy Brucie Cohen.

As the episode was reported onthe show, Al and Brucie wereplaying around at a constructionsrte in the Bronx when Brucie,showing off near the edge of abuilding, loppled over and clungto the edge until Al. at the risk ofhis own neck, pulled him back.The nen thing Al knew, the TVshow was handing him a checkand calling him a hero. And if hedidn't know it already, he wassuddenly aware of the differencebetween stuprd risks and goodones.

''You have to be able to reallydefine what a risk ls," Pacinomuses cn this Dante's Infernoday, with the air-conditioning atproducer Martin Bregman's officeno match for New York's Oscar-winning humidity. With the erot-ic mystery-thriller "Sea of Love,"which opened Friday. Pacino isnonetheless draped in funerealblack*part Bela Lugosi, partbella Armani. Sweaty-eyed andweary. starting sentences fourdifferent ways before he latchesonlo the words he wants, Pacinogamely explains how risk-man-agement has kept an actordeemed one of the four or fivepost-Brando gods away frommovies for almosl half a decade.

"Doing a picture when you'renot prepared to is not a good risk,"Pacino says slowly, in a voice likecharred gravel. "I mean, jumpingoff a building and seeing if you'regonna make it when you fall . . . 'Hey, maybe I'll just breaka couplc of. Iegs!' " he jokes. "So much has to do with whereyou are. your-timing and stuff. When you start to feel youwanna make a movie again, then whatever [scriptl is there,available, you start to look at a little bit differently.Because it's a reality-your gonna do iL"

That's a relief, because he hasn't done it in quite a while..We're talking about an actor who had roled through five'Academy Award-nominated performances in sevenyears-"The Godfather" (19f2), "Serpico" (l9l3), "TheGodfather. Part II" ( 1974 ), "Dog Day Afternoon" ( 1975 ), ". . . And Justice for All" ( 19/9 ) -and co-$arred in a 1yl3Cannes Grand Frix winner ("Scarecrow") to boot. Therewas the popular, conroversial "Scarface" ( 1983 ) , followedby a successful Broadway revival of David Mamet's"American Buffalo." Yet, ever since the virtually nonexis-tent, sz8-million dud "Revolution" ( 1985), Pacino has beentn what you might cail his John-Lennon-bread-bakingphase.

Fortunately, like Lennon upon his re-emergence, the.

'When it was all happening to me, I don't thank I w8s aware of it. I knew

around me things were going on. But I kept trying to focus on the nextplay or movie. And when I looked up it was five years later.

Al Pacino

r-

il OVIES

49-year-old Pacino stiil has his chops. His burnt-out "Seaof [ove" detective, Frank Keller, is another of hisqulntessential New York cop characters, the man FrankSerpico might have become had he $ven in and stayed on

the force 20 years. treading in a sea of booze. With JohnGoodman as his partner investigating the serial murders ofpersonals-ad Casanovas, and Ellen Barkin as the suspecthe falls for in a typically crackling script by Richard Price,Pacino is, as he puts it. "in and around tenitory I've beenaround before."

Elacino. like Keller. has hit his own 20-year mark.I- a"mg from hrs movie debut in the minor drug drama"Me, Nataiie" (1969). Pacino, like Keller, has had seriousbouts with the bottle, and has known his way around thedark side of the street, losing friends to the needle. Pacino,like Kelier, is one of the best at what he does, which stilldoesn't mitigate the a7l{tst around the eyes.

"I don't feel I'm that close to that Suy," Pacino insists."You just tly to feed into the part thtngs in your life that

coincide with the characteryou're playlng. A guy like Frank,who do€sn't have the love in hislife, has the work. And now he'sabout to lose the work," smce he'sexpected a.fter 20 years to retireon half-pay. Pacrno s take "If youcan still work, if you still enjo,v-

the work, it's only time to retirewhen you no ionger wanna do rt.

"I guess playing the part now,as opposed to plalng i! l0 yearsago, I have a closer undersEnd-ing, a more tactil€ understandingof the character.' he says. "be-cause of my age and I understandthat situation he's rn. I'll look atparts now sometimes, and I'lIknow it would have excited me todo that five years ago, and nowanother kind of thing will exciteme. It rea.lly comes down to whatyou want to address at this polntin your life-the things you startto find are reievant io you."

Pacino has that luxury. Ar thesame time, Iike Hamlet, the Me-lancholoy Italian doesn't $ve theimpression of someone whoknows what he wanm. "That sprobabiy the reason I gol lntoacting," he reflects. "So I don'thave to think. I think the reason Iact is for a relief from rhinking."Yet even considenng the leewayrightly accorded artists. Pacino'schoices over the last few yearshave been puzzling. He's keptbusy. He just hasn t kept bus)'with anything any of us canactually go see.

There were workshop produc-tions of "Crystal Clear," "Nation-al Anthems" and other plays,including a current Manhattanproject he's not ready to talkabout. There was "Julius Caesar"for Joseph Papp last year. Therewas "Carlito's Way,'' if you go byElliot Kastner's lawsuit aiie$ngthat Pacino committed to the fiimlast April for $4 million plus aprofit percentage. And mosi

time-consuming, there is "The Local Stigmatic," a playPacino had starred in OfI Bmadway in 1969 rhenre-mounkd in 1985 rrith director David Wheeler and theTheater Company of Boston to film a s0-minute movieversion that may become his "Unfinished Symphony."

"I don't think people relate to that kind of pnvate work,"he says. "Becawe lacting] is such a visible profession thatif you're not real visible in it, they assume you're notworking.

"I remember back when everything was happening, '74,'?5, doing ["The Resistible Rise oI Arturo Ui"] on stage andreading that the reason I'd gone back to rhe sage was thatmy movie career was waning! Ttat's been the kind ofethos, the way in which theater's perceived, unfortunately.My big problem has been that I've been trying to ride bothrails. And I can tell that some of my work has been affectedby that. I wish I \i'as able to have gone into borh media withmore focus."

He's trying, and the $16-million "Sea of Love" requiredPlase see Po4e 83

NPacinoConti,nwdfrornPo4e 20all the focus he could give it.Froducer Bregman let the originaldirector go days before shootingwas to beg:n, bringing in HaroldBecker ("The Onion Field." "TheBoost") for a long, grueling shootthat lasted from about May throughSeptember of last year. Pacino did a

cameo in Wanen Beatty's "DickTracy," piaying Big Boy, "theworld's largest dwarf." He dabbledwith "Three Thousand," readingwilh Julia Roberts for the rolebeing played by Richard Gere. Andin November, he begins productionrn "The Godfather, Part III." "It'sthat movie to do, so you sorta gottado it," he says smiling.

"You know, I wish, in some ways,the government forced me to makea movie once a year," he adds, witha iaugh. "There would be a sort ofregularity, a kind of consistency inlhe output so that your moviesdon't become blown all out ofproportion-it turns a simple movieinto an epic kind of thing, if youmake them oniy every few years.I've decided not to go as longbetween them. The idea of goingtwo years between pictures, I'drather not."

Then again, a few years of thatmight remind him why he sloweddown.

"When it was all happening tome." he says of his firecracker

ios ANGFTFS nwSi cArtuoen

spring, Al."'

string in the '?0s, "I don't thrnk Iwas aware of it. I knew around methings were going on. But I kepttrying to focus on the next play ormovie I was gonna do. And when Ilooked up it was five years later."

The thought brings him in mindof a story:

"We were doing'Richard III' inPhiladelphia one winter, and firstwe're in this sort of marathonrehearsa.l and then playing nightafter night there. And I rememberone day finally getting in the car todrive back to New York, and westopped at a light and I looked outand lhought, 'What are these peo-ple doing, they don't have coats on,they're just walking without acoat?' And my friend says, 'It's

o.N I

Sizing Up'Saturday'Lawr ent e Chri,ston loolcs at " fo1a1 6agNi4ht Liud' os it marlcs its 15thanni,unsary. 3

Glasnost on CanvasThe uorks or 10 Swietartists and" I0 U.S.artists r.t.

to tour c

Troupelioth,in4 anoJunipooSm

. 4 in an ahibi,t schzdd,eds.ByWtllinmWilson 4

Missionwlttd,in4 Fathn+romthebarts ol

CullureClnsh,tr.,nncomed,ytroupefrorn ScnFrancisco, By MarkPinsfu ...5

Orchestral BackboneThey yrwidc about 90Vo ol th'e reumuesandthn aud,i,mces lor three Southlnnd,orchestras: A bok at liue stbscriberorganimtions ........... 6

Bloody ShadowsAlter the student uprising and'bl'ood'gcrackdoun, Ori,nni,nsists if sbushess as

uflnl uith U .5. antertainmmt f irms.BgEllcnFarlzy ........ 8

Calendar Week .. ........s

On the BeachRog* Moore andTalin Shi,re are talcin4 abreok f ron sewls tn shoot a ronvrntincomcdy ontlw coost ol Mai'nn.By ClwrlcsClwmplin ........ ' 21

Outtakes .......'..30

Pacino's Risk ManagementAttq fiae Uears attay tronr mtoies, AlPacina is batk with a detectiae thrill'sr," Sn of Loue." By Fratt./r" I'otsece . . . . . . 20

JOm{ P. UNDSAYSunday Calendar Editor