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LOOKING FOR RICHARD
Teachers’ Notes
This study guide is aimed at students of GCSE English and Media, A’ level English Media and Film and GNVQ Media: Communication and Production. Areas investigated include Filming Shakespeare, Language, Documentary Styles and Representation. This series of study guides aims to provide teachers with valuableresource materials for the teaching of Shakespeare throughout the National Curriculum.
Synopsis
The American actor Al Pacino is the co-producer, director and star of the film ‘Looking For Richard’. His project intertwines the telling of the story of Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’ with an intimate look at the actors’ and filmmakers’ processes as they come to grips with their characterisations and with translating their enthusiasm for the play onto film. The film ‘Looking For Richard’ follows their debates and revelations about the play, takes to the streets of New York to measure public opinion, visits the birthplace of Shakespeare and, finally, looks at a production of Richard III’. The film includes interviews with actors such as Kenneth Branagh and Vanessa Redgrave and seeks to prove that everyone can enjoy Shakespeare, and that his tales are timeless and universal. The completion of the film marks the culmination of a journey begun decades ago. when Pacino was touring colleges in the late 70’s talking to students who were reluctant to listen to Shakespeare and couldn’t see the relevance of his works. “But we would talk informally about the play and then I would read an excerpt” explains Pacino. Pacino notes, “By juxtaposing the day-to-day life of the actors and their characters with ordinary people, we attempted to create a comic mosaic - a very different Shakespeare. Our main goal with this project is to reach an audience that would not normally participate in this kind of language and world.”
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
Looking for Richard
Dir: Al Pacino UK release date: 31 January 1997 Certificate: 12 Running time: 113mins The American actor director Al Pacino’ film ‘Looking For Richard’ documents the hurdles to be leapt before performing Shakespeare‘s ‘Richard III’. He takes us behind the scenes and exposes actors in read through and rehearsal stumbling and growing to an understanding of Shakespeare’s lines and of the motivations of the characters they play. ‘Looking For Richard’ is an exploration of the Shakespeare cultural institution. During the film Pacino asks the general public what Shakespeare means to them and plunders academics for insights, quizzes the elite of British actors for their ideas, and visits the sights; pacing the stage area of the partially-rebuilt Globe Theatre in London and making a hilarious pilgrimage to Stratford-up- on-Avon to see Shakespeare’s bed. The film ‘Looking For Richard’ stands against the prejudice which condemns Shakespeare as an irrelevance his language and plots a bore. Pacino’s sub-plot is that at the end of ‘Looking For Richard’, we should have a grasp of the stage play ‘Richard III’ and a new curiosity about Shakespeare. Above all else ‘Looking For Richard’ is a film and Pacino makes use of the film’s potential to tell stories, to excite, entertain and educate while bringing Shakespeare’s stage play onto the screen. So who would be the audience for ‘King Richard Ill’? Or is there more than one audience, considering the different ways in which the play can be experienced and the ways in which the text of the play ‘King Richard III’ would attract audiences? This study guide has several functions:
- All performances of Shakespeare are an interpretation not least the version offered in ‘Looking For Richard’. What is gained and possibly lost in Pacino’s investigation tour of the play ‘Richard III’?
- The film ‘Looking For Richard’ is designed to get students to reflect on their attitudes to Shakespeare and on the ways in which film can liberate his plays and his language.
- For the majority of Pacino’s fans ‘Looking For Richard’ will seem a big departure for the film star and this study guide will help students explore the reasons which may have governed his commitment to this project over at least a decade.
- ‘Looking For Richard’ is a documentary about the making of a film, and provides many insights into the mechanics of creating a film.
- Documentaries are meant to reflect the truth and they have their own conventions and modes of address. ‘Looking For Richard’ is an ideal opportunity to reflect on some of these.
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
TASK
Assess the importance of the following film techniques in helping to clarify or enhance Pacino’s performance as Richard III in ‘Looking for Richard’:
- The soundtrack
- Slow motion
- Realistic and distorted point-of view shots
- Close-ups
- Visual motifs - such as the staircase or the dark
- Special effects - Clarence’s murder and the death of Richard Assess the helpfulness of the following film techniques which sprang from the film’s not attempting to create a seamless performance of the play:
- Flashbacks
- Voice-overs
- Repeated lines and sequences
- Obvious cuts to commentators, academics and actors to quiz them about technical details ‘Richard III’, in common with all of Shakespeare’s plays, is mostly written in heightened, poetic language. It is crammed with images and descriptions which, sensitively handled, can provide the perfect accompaniment to images although purists would claim the language is diminished by being linked to specific settings or mise-en-scene.
TASK
Look at Act IV Scene III Tyrrel’s speech ( page 12) describing the murder of the Princes in the Tower and create a storyboard to work with the words. Be bold in your use of angles, framing, shadow and the mix of shot distances.
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
Speaking Shakespeare
Can Americans speak Shakespeare’s verse or should people sounding like Lord Olivier or Sir John Gielgud be the benchmark by which all performances of Shakespeare are judged? Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare’s adoption in the late sixteenth century of the iambic pentameter, repeatedly explained in ‘Looking For Richard’ dedum-dedum-dedum-dedum-dedum, meant that verse had come most closely to resemble the emphasis and rhythms of ordinary speech. Given that universal potential, does it automatically follow that Shakespearean actors have to perform using received pronunciation (RP)? American English is as far down the historical tracks from Shakespeare’s time as modern-day British RP. There are many American accents heard in ‘Looking For Richard’. Do you find them irritating or unclear? In 1992, the theatre company Northern Broadsides toured the UK with a stage production of ‘Richard III’ in which the verse was spoken in Yorkshire accents and the actors conveyed the violence of battle memorably by stamping their clogs on the stage.
TASK
If you have a regional or other home accent make an asset of it. Learn a speech and perform it. Try the Tyrrel speech on page 12. Perform the speech again using as best you can, received pronunciation. Which performance sounded the most interesting or genuine? Can you say why? It may be that the RP seemed false and artificial. Remember many actors going to key drama colleges were required, until recently, to take elocution lessons and so lose their accents. Are there any local traditions, habits, dress which you could incorporate into a production of ‘Richard III’? How would you stage it to cater for your community?
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
FILM TITLE (^) PART PLAYED STATUS OF ROLE (lead, co-star etc.) GENRE The Godfather (1977) Michael Corleone Major role as one of the children of Marlon Brando’s Mafia boss, Don Corleone. As Michael, Pacino destined to fall from grace as war hero to corrupt inheritor of father’s empire. Crime Epic
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
Pacino: “You know, I have fun painting because I’m not worried about what somebody thinks about it...I am painting because I enjoy painting. And it was that way with ‘Looking For Richard’. If somebody could get something from it, great. But if not, nobody ever had to see it. And that’s relaxing ...” (ref 1: page 13) Playing Richard III is not such a departure - many Pacino roles embrace elements of the part. As Michael in ‘The Godfather’ he was shown betraying society‘s values and being absolutely persuasive in his portrayal of one poisoned by vengeance and paranoia. On his performance in ‘Scarface’ (1982} David Thompson says “Pacino left no doubts; he was Cuban now, mouthing the accent as if it were one hot strawberry after another; he was outgoing, randy, a show-off....gripping from start to finish...monstrous, operatic, overdone, yet filled with detail and an unforgettable love of life. “ (ref 2: page 13) Pacino : “Normally, when I do movie stuff, I have to constantly deliver. You know, be there at a certain time - and come through. You’re governed by the clock, which says we’ve got so much time to finish this thing, so you’d better deliver the goods. That’s what you’re, quote, paid for. But making a movie like Richard, I was relieved of that pressure. I can find out how I feel about things without having to deliver. Which is really refreshing .” Richard Gloucester is one of the great star vehicles. Written originally for Richard Burbage, the role has made many theatrical reputations. In restored editions of the play Richard has over 31 per cent of the lines and in Colley Cibber’s 1700 rewrite the total climbed to 40 per cent. It made an instant star of David Garrick when he ap peared in the part on the 19 October 1741 and was one of Edmund Keane’s most celebrated achievements in the early nineteenth century.
TASK
You are a journalist working for a new magazine pubtication ‘Film Profile Action’ and you have just interviewed Al Pacino about his Latest film ‘Looking For Richard’. Following a wide ranging conversation your notebook is crammed with information and research (written below). From these notes you must write an article. Obviously you will have to be selective. WRITE THE ARTICLE IN YOUR OWN WORDS. YOU MAY USE PACINO’S QUOTATIONS or TURN SOME 0F THE OTHER NOTES INTO QUOTATIONS. DO NOT GIVE THE REFERENCES. JUST PLUNDER THEM FOR THE MATERIAL FOR THE ARTICLE AND PRETEND THE COMMENTS ARE FROM OTHER INTERVIEWS YOU’VE CONDUCTED. TACTIC: Look at the following notes and work out a rank order for this information categorising it before you choose one topic or slant on the story. CATEGORIES: Personal reasons (PR); Business/film industry influences (BF); Enthusiasm for theatre (ET); Richard Gloucester as star part (SP); BiographicaI influences/parallels (IPs).
Notes:
a) b) c) d) e)
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The Pitch
The studio decision makers operate in a world in which all studio executives are considered only as good as their last film and according to a Universal Pictures boss Tom Pollock “...there’s lots of pressure to succeed instantaneously.” In th.is context what commercial difficulties do you think Pacino’s film ‘Looking For Richard’ might present? In Robert Altman’s film ‘The Player’ Richard E. Grant plays a manic writer who is granted a minute to make a pitch to a busy studio executive, describing his film in as enticing a way as he can. By blending seductive imagined images from the eventual film with sound business reasons for the studio’s backing the project he wins the executive’s backing.
TASK
Either attempt to write your own pitch for a film version of ’Richard III’ and sell it to your classmates or devise some clever answers to the following objections. “What? A documentary? Nobody goes to see documentaies in the cinema. They did that sort of thing in the 30’s, but not now.” “What? The Leading guy’s disabled and has children killed. No way! We’ll have Politically Correct Police down on us so fast...” “Let’s get this right, this guy Gloucester, has killed Anne’s husband and father-in-law and the father-in-law’s body starts to bleed when he comes by and he still manages to win the girl. And then he says he doesn’t even want her. Come on...” “Come again. There are 52 named characters and the screenplay takes three hours to run.” “Hey...hunchbacks are good..I like hunchbacks...toss in some songs, cut out the violence and get him to say he’s sorry at the end, and I think you’ve got a blockbuster - ‘Quasimodo 2!”’ “What do you mean ‘Richard III’ is really only the last in seven screenplays stretching over 100 years of chaos...” “0h no, not a civil war movie...nobody made a nickle out of a civil war picture.” “Who wants to watch a bunch of actors forgettiing their lines and hear a bunch of low lifes bad-mouthing the sciptwriter?” “It’s just too dark...the public only wants to see ‘Pollyanna’ Shakespeare..-” “Hey...hey...didn’t that guy lan McKeellan just make a film about ’Richard III’? How can you ask us to go over that ground again?”m ovies. Don’t waste my time.”
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
“This guy Richard...make up your mind...what is he? First you say he’s a kind of devil, then you say he’s a kind of mad court jester. Then, he’s a dead ringer for a kind of medieval Vice: Whatever that is. And then he’s described as some sort of scourge of God or machiavel, and somehow at the end we’re meant to feel some pity for him...weird?” “I’ve read the screeplay and apart from this guy Clarence getting wocked, all the juicy stuff happens off screen and people just talk about it. Movies are visual...this guy Shakespeare clearly hasn’t a clue about witing for the movies. Don’t waste my time.”D on Things to help you: Think about the commercial success of recent small budget alternative films such as ‘Trainspotting’. The popularity of speech loving directors such as Quentin Tarantino. The current appetite for heritage movies...Jane Austen and Shakespeare. Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Hamlet’ which is due for release and runs for four hours. The presence of many big names in Looking For Richard’ from Sir John Gielgud to Kenneth Branagh. The opportunities for the film on DVD.t waste my time.”
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
Documentary Styles
A documentary is meant to be closer to the truth than a fiction film. It is meant to record faithfully something that actually happened. Many of the events in ‘Looking For Richard’ have a distinctly spontaneous feel. What do you notice is different about the filming of the actors in rehearsal or discussion and their final performances? Which scenes seem more raw and unfinished? How does the presentation add to your response? Can you hear every word, for instance, in the behind-the-scenes sequences? How aware are you of the camera and other equipment? Are you less or more caught up in the drama? And which drama is it? The play itself or the battle to make the play intelligible? The ‘flying by the seat of the pants’ approach often employed in ‘Looking For Richard’ has been condemned by one critic already who dubbed the film ‘a home movie’. But are not the documentary sequences every bit as constructed as the finished performances? Maybe no-one is acting but the scenes which we see have been selected, and re-edited to make meaning and amuse us. It is very safe to say that the stunned academic unable to give chapter and verse on Lady Anne probably had a good go, but the film only celebrates his “I don’t know.” There is the moment when Pacino; attempting to address some students, is confronted by a couple re-creating Kevin Kline’s back row snog. A documentary about drama becomes a drama documentary. Bill Nichols, a writer of Media Studies, has identified four main modes of documentary address. All of these are at work in ‘Looking For Richard’. Each mode of address has a very different impact and suits different subject matter. Using the brief definitions below, try to identify moments from ‘Looking For Richard’ when they are employed and why? Expository: Very traditional - commentary used to explain or outline an argument to the viewer. The images are subordinate to the commentary. The expository mode suggests the objectivity of the depicted scenes and the superior knowledge of the filmmaker whose narrative reveals the truth of the subject being investigated. Observational: The fly-on-the-wall mode. Documentary linked to the real time filming of people’s lives. It uses indirect address and the filmmakers do not intervene to ask questions or conduct interviews. The raw portrayal that results often persuades that the viewer has had a unique and secret insight into a private world. By this different route, observational films can also lay claim to being the source of objective insights, though one in which the participants have a greater involvement. Interactive mode: The film’s social actors talk to the filmmakers in direct address (questions and prompts may be edited out to make the statements seem even more spontaneous). The participants can be given more authority as witnesses but also may be left to hang themselves being shown making foolish statements out of context or exposed expressing puzzling views. Reflective mode: Rare - a mode that draws attention to the filmmaking process. Usually, this demystifying mode accompanies themes of representation and the construction of reality which is inevitable when films are made. It might be the inewitable by-product of any project which examines the construction of a cultural artefact such as a play or film.
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
Representations
Just because it is Shakespeare does not mean that modern film versions of his plays cannot be analysed for the representations they enshrine. ‘The Merchant Of Venice’is frequently a source of huge controversy because of its anti-Semitic sentiments. Incredibly outdated attitudes and depictions exist in many of Shakespeare’s plays and with their shift into mainstream entertainment their assumptions do need to be discussed and challenged. PEOPLE WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITY Richard Gloucester lays much of the blame for his early discontent on his shape not being made for sportive tricks and yet emerges as someone overcoming his disabilities and achieving, atbeit fteetingly, the Crown of England. Of course in doing this, he reveals himself to be a malevotent and corrupt person and this in a period when such intellectual sources as Francis Bacon and Calvin had fulminated against the disfigured and disabled as inevitable malcontents. THE FEMALE CHARACTERS So often the victims of savage cuts in their rotes. Which female character did you find most interesting and why? Are there any other female characters which you feeI were sketchy and could have been fleshed out? VIOLENCE Just because it is Shakespeare, is the violence acceptable? Does film risk sensationalising the plays into gorefests? To what extent might this have been a fitm specific debate (as choreographed fights can seem absurdly stagegy)?
TASK
Study the analysis in the box below of one form of representation which can be suggested by Shakespeare’s stage play ‘Richard III’. Try to conduct your own research into this and the other two categories of representation suggested here. Does the film ‘Looking For Richard’ contribute to the stereotyping process? If not, how does it avoid it? Famous stage performances have tended to emphasise Richard III as a grotesque. For example, the 1984 Anthony Sher stage version depicted him lurching around on crutches like an eviI insect stripping at his coronation to reveaI a shocking prosthetic hump and curved spine. To what extent does ’Looking For Richard’ pander to these stereotypes? Does it undermine the stereotype when you witness the acting process Leading up to the finished scene? If so, why?
LOOKING FOR RICHARD
Reading List
‘Richard III’ The Arden edition of the works of William Shakeapeare (edited by Anthony Hammond) publidhed by Routledge (1994) ‘Is Shakespeare Still Our Contemporary?’ (edited by John Elsom) published by Routledge (1989) ‘Adventures in the Screen Trade’ by William Goloman published by Futura (1985) ‘Naked Hollywood’ by Nicholas Kent published by BBC Books (1991) ‘Richard III - a Screenplay’ by Ian McKellan and Richard Loncraine published by Doubleday (1996) ‘Shakespeare in Performance: King Richard III’ by Hugh Richmond published by Mancheater University Press (1991) ‘Representing Reality’ by Bill Nichols published by Bloomington lnoiana Press (1991) Notes on page 10 are reproduced from The Documentary session (English/Media Centre) 1996 led by Chris Mottershead who is a freelance Media Consultant.
