This is a fascinating little fragment of footage showing Al Pacino and Robert De Niro’s screen tests for ‘The Godfather’. Pacino got the role of Sonny–we see Coppola giving him some direction as well–and De Niro was passed up for Sonny in favor of James Caan. In my not so
‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975) is on my short–very short–list of movies I can watch at any time. The credit sequence, setting up a hot New York city summer, is masterfully realized and uses very simple footage, much of which I’m guessing was culled from stock. The flavor of the various
William Friedkin and Al Pacino made the unhappy undercover-in-gay-bondage-world police drama ‘Cruising’ in 1979. Friedkin, in his memoir ‘The Friedkin Connection’, makes it very clear how little the two men liked working with each other. In the above interview clip–in case Friedkin wasn’t clear enough in his book–he makes it