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Pacino draws Oscar buzz in "Merchant of Venice"
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-13 17:27
William Shakespeare may have shuffled off this mortal coil 400 years ago, but
his take on fundamentalism has warnings for today, in a new movie version of
"The Merchant of Venice" starring Al Pacino.
A new movie version
of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" which had its North America
premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, has already started
to draw whispers of Oscar potential for a tortured rendering of Shylock
the moneylender by Al Pacino, pictured at the Venice Lido.
[AFP] | The film is already drawing whispers of
Oscar potential for Pacino's tortured rendering of Shylock the money lender --
and its North American release was set for late this year to meet Academy Award
2005 requirements.
"The Merchant of Venice," a tale of romance and revenge, is one of the Bard's
most popular plays, yet until now never made it to the big screen, though Orson
Welles had hoped to film it.
English director Michael Radford sets the battle of vengeance between Shylock
the moneylender and the merchant Antonio in a dark and heaving Venice, a mine of
distrust, torn between extreme Christianity and Judaism.
Co-star Jeremy Irons said the film, which had a North American premiere at
the Toronto International Film Festival, shows "what happens if you take
fundamentalism to the nth degree."
"We seem to be living in a world that is more and more fundamentalist, people
are polarising themselves more and more."
The play still resonates in a modern world plagued by radicalism and
misunderstandings between religions : "it is about two cultures who don't
understand each other," Radford said.
Productions of "The Merchant of Venice" often spark accusations of
anti-Semitism, as Shylock, while demonised by his enemies, is a stereotype of a
vindictive and greedy Jew.
The plot hangs on Shylock's demand for the letter of the law on a bond which
offers him a pound of Antonio's flesh, once a loan to the merchant is forfeited.
But Shakespeare also portrays Shylock and his tribe as unjustly persecuted in
the famous "if you prick us, do we not bleed" speech.
Pacino, kept from Toronto by filming commitments, offers a growling Shylock,
broken and humiliated at the end of the movie, which dispenses with much of the
unfathomable comedic scenes of the play.
Best known for his roles in "Scarface" and "The Godfather," Pacino is a
lifelong Shakespeare enthusiast and once made "Looking for Richard" about the
play "Richard III."
"People don't want to do Shakespeare, they are afraid," Pacino told the
London Times at the Venice film festival, where due to a clerical error he was
locked out of the movie premiere.
"We have a tendency to close off when we don't understand something. If we
were made to feel more open and not afraid, we'd be able to experience it more."
Even with Pacino on board, the "Merchant of Venice" was a hard sell to
Hollywood financers, said co-producer Cary Brokaw.
"There was a lot of scepticism about doing this movie, largely because of the
anti-Semitic aspect to it," he said.
Playing opposite Pacino, Irons draws on a rich career on the English stage
for his portrayal of Antonio, embuing his speeches with the rhythm of modern
conversation.
Joseph Fiennes plays Bassanio, locked with Antonio in a 16th century love
triangle with Portia, a beautiful maiden he woos with the help of the ill-fated
loan Antonio secured from Shylock.
The movie introduces Texas-born novice Lynn Collins, who as a teenager, once
attended a Shakespeare masterclass at Oxford University.
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