A look, silences, anger, an approach ... The imprint of Al Pacino has deliciously haunted our memories of cinema for half a century. Because time flies. The immense New York actor was born, already 80 years ago, on April 25, 1940. Today, Le Figaro , to wish him a happy birthday, looks back on a unique career which will have seen him play with the same genius, a godfather of Cosa Nostra, a shabby mafia, an oversized Scarface, honest cops ... Without forgetting what will remain as his two great passions, the works of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde.
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It seems difficult to speak of Alfredo James Pacino without sinking into the dithyramb. Intuitive, of course, but also worked under the guidance of his mentor Charles Laughton, his colorful play of a thousand shades allowed him to masterfully portray very different characters, sometimes even the opposite of each other, throughout a extraordinary filmography.
Read also: From the Bronx to Hollywood, Al Pacino tells his story
For the vulgum pecus, Al Pacino merges with two heroes - anti-heroes? - of legend, Michael Corleone and Tony Montana. In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola, by imposing the young Alfredo Pacino in the role of the son of the godfather while he was still unknown to the great pundits of Hollywood, showed an instinct of visionary. The career of this Broadway actor who had been noticed by theater critics in The Indian Wants the Bronx by Horovitz in the late 1960s, was, after the triumph of the great fresco over the American-Sicilian mafia, to be placed in a planetary orbit that it will never leave.
Al Pacino in Scarface by Brian De Palma Leemage
Magistral interpreter of Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde
Now considered a demi-god across the Atlantic, Al Pacino will work with the greatest directors of his time. Under the direction of Sydney Lumet, he embodies - for him this verb takes on its full meaning -, two heroes inhabited by their destiny, first in Serpico then in An afternoon of a dog , which some of the critics consider his real masterpiece.
Brian De Palma, by giving him the responsibility of bringing Scarface to life on screen , also participated in the aura of the New York actor. Like Che Guevara's, the scarred portrait of Tony Montana, an authentic icon of a postmodern world, will be displayed as an emblem on all the walls of adolescents in search of rebellion.
Al Pacino in Looking for Richard. Leemage
It is the privilege of film stars like Orson Welles and Al Pacino: to be able to devote oneself to their true passions, without worrying the least about the sacrosanct Hollywood profitability. From the 90s and until today, the actor will have decided to go behind the camera to stage the works of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde. This cinema ( Looking for Richard , Salomé ) resembles theater, this theater synonymous with his first love of acrobats.
Humble, by putting the notion of "success" into perspective, he explained to Le Figaro last September: " The question, always, with Shakespeare and elsewhere with everything else, is: do you feel that you have managed to express something you were looking to reach? "
Read also: Al Pacino and the magic of Oscar Wilde
Actors, and especially the greatest, often admit at the end of their career to have acted only under the influence of their instinct. This may also be the case for Al Pacino. But one can not help thinking that these words of Oscar Wilde will have had an influence on his destiny as an artist: "I am capable of believing anything as long as it is incredible."
As a happy birthday, Le Figaro presents, in images below, an anthology in ten films of Al Pacino's career: from the Godfather of Francis Ford Coppola to The Irishman by Martin Scorsese via Scarface by Brian De Palma and Looking for Richard directed by the American actor himself.
The Godfather ( The Godfather ) by Francis Ford Coppola in 1972 and the other two parts in 1974 and 1990 with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, James Caan, Robert Duvall ...
Serpico by Sidney Lumet, in 1973, with Al Pacino, John Randolph ...
Dog Day Afternoon ( Dog Day Afternoon ) of Sidney Lumet in 1975 with Al Pacino, John Cazale ...
Scarface by Brian De Palma in 1983, with Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer ...
The impasse ( Carlito's Way ) in 1993, with Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller ...
Heat by Michael Mann in 1995, with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer ...
Looking for Richard by Al Pacino, a film about the work of William Shakespeare, with Penelope Allen, Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey ...
Donnie Brasco by Mike Newell in 1997, with Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Michael Madsen ...
Salomé ( Wilde Salomé) by Al Pacino, based on the work of Oscar Wilde, in 2011, with Jessica Chastain, Kevin Anderson, Al Pacino ...
The Irishman by Martin Scorsese in 2019, with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino ...