(Richard Shepard, 2009)
Nice little documentary on the career of
John Cazale, whose body of work might be the most consistently high-quality of
any actor ever. He co-starred in 5 films – The Godfather I & II, The
Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter, then died in 1978 before
the last of those films had even been released. Shepard’s documentary is
basically just a load of (excellent) clips of Cazale being brilliant cut with
interviews with his many legendary co-stars and friends.
But it really does help that those friends
include the likes of Al Pacino, Meryl Streep (Cazale’s girlfriend in the last
years of his life), Robert DeNiro, Sydney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppola and John
Savage, and that the clips are from some of the greatest American movies of the
1970s. And it doesn’t hurt either that Shepard interviews articulate
contemporary character actors like Sam Rockwell, Phillp Seymour Hoffman and
Steve Buscemi on Cazale’s influence and impact.
It might feel a little like a glorified dvd
special feature, but it does justice to the talent of an extraordinary actor
and made me want to watch each of his flms again, which seems like mission
accomplished.
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