He is recognized as the "god of acting" and is known as the four kings of the "new Hollywood movie", and his achievements have made the younger generations look up to Takayama.
His early life, however, was a mess, with drugs, alcoholism, dropouts and gangsters, and if he followed this path, Al Pacino was more likely to become a new York gangster than the majestic godfather he was known for.
"Maybe each of us will sink to the bottom of the moment, but please give yourself the opportunity and time to discover your own unique "smell and know people" characteristics, find the wonderful places of life, and justify your life. ”
Pacino's most appealing smelling qualities are his love of acting and his superb acting skills.
01
Al Pacino was born in New York on April 25, 1940, when his mother gave birth to him at the age of nineteen.
Unable to cope with the pressures of family life and new motherhood, the mother left her two-year-old son and husband behind and returned to her parents, and Pacino's father had to take him to his grandfather's house to live.
Soon after, however, his father was drafted into the army, and the young Pacino was sent back to his maternal grandfather's house to be raised by his mother and maternal grandparents.
Pacino's maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Sicily, Italy, who lived in the most ethnically diverse and crime-rate region of the United States.
Fearing that a poor community environment would have a negative impact on Pacino, Pacino spent most of his time locked up at home with little contact with other children.
However, the harsh living environment still affected the young Pacino, who began smoking and drinking from the age of 9, and by the age of 12, Pacino became more and more rebellious in school, spending all day with a group of.
He began to be exposed to marijuana at the age of 13, but fortunately he was able to control himself and did not have further exposure to more severe drugs.
Such a rotten life seemed to have no hope, but drama and performance had knocked a crack in his narrow world.
When Pacino was four years old, his mother took him to see the movie "Lost Weekend" for the first time, and since then he has become interested in acting, and every time he watches a movie, he always imitates the characters in the film and performs them for his family.
This became his hobby and way of fighting reality, and it also planted the seeds of acting in his heart.
At the age of fourteen, Pacino watched Chekhov's plays. The wonderful performances of the actors on stage shocked him and inspired him to learn the seeds of acting in his heart.
Soon after, he was admitted to the Performing Arts High School in New York, but the boring curriculum extinguished Pacino's vision and passion for acting, so he chose to drop out.
After leaving school, Pacino had to work part-time to earn money in order to make a living, working as a postman, cashier, newspaper, shoe polishing, and even as a male prostitute in exchange for food and clothing.
To save money, Pacino has stayed in inferior bars, junkyards, rental houses and dirty hotels. For him, any room with water and bathroom is paradise.
The unsatisfactory life made Pacino addicted to alcohol, and every week he would spend all his salary to buy beer and drink it, and then worry about the rest of his life after drinking it.
In rare moments of sanity, Pacino would go to various theaters for interviews. Because of his poverty, he even had to borrow money from friends for the bus.
However, his diminutive stature and humble appearance made Pacino turned him away after every interview.
The decadent life was like a never-ending crash, making a dull sound in Pacino's heart. But fortunately, he still has a love of drama, and fortunately, he believes that life will not stop moving forward.
02
There is a line in "Smelling the Woman": "People often lack the courage to choose the right path than the ability to discern the right path." ”
At the age of nineteen, movie star Charles Lawton said to Pacino, "You're going to be a star." ”
This sentence became the inflection point of Pacino's life, giving him the motivation to break through the fog and get out of the world that made him addicted.
Soon after, Pacino entered a drama academy and knocked on the door of a brilliant life.
At the Drama School, Pacino showed a strong talent for acting. Once, when performing a play, the audience said, "Hey, Marlon Brando, this guy's performance is very similar to Marlon Brando." ”
In this way, Pacino traveled from place to place to perform. Life is not good, but it is full and heavy.
However, fate caused Pacino to die of illness when he was twenty-two years old. Soon after, his grandfather, who grew up with him, also left the world.
The bumpy experience of childhood gave Pacino the composure of the pain, and he hid the grief in his heart and then continued on his way.
In 1966, Pacino entered the prestigious "Actors' Studio" and studied with Lee Strasberg. His efforts were rewarded, and at the age of twenty-nine he received the Tony Award, the highest award in the world of theatre.
He was later discovered by director Francis Coppola, who was casting for the movie The Godfather, and after watching Pacino's performance, he immediately had the idea of having Pacino play the godfather's younger son.
However, this idea was opposed by everyone, many of whom thought that the thin, short and rustic Pacino was not up to the role of the introverted and insidious Mike Corleone.
Coppola eventually insisted on his choice, and Pacino did not disappoint Coppola.
His performance in The Godfather is a classic, in the words of critic Larry Cohen: "Everyone else is great, the low to the small characters are good, but Pacino is the best." ”
From "dwarfs" to majestic godfathers, from street thugs to movie stars. Pacino completed his metamorphosis through his pursuit of art and his unwillingness to compromise.
In 1992, Pacino won his Oscar for "Smelling a Woman", in which Pacino played Lieutenant Colonel Frank, a retired military officer who lost his vision due to an accident and lost courage and confidence in life.
Frank has elegance and charm, but also inner resentment, gloom and wandering. These qualities can be found in Pacino's life course.
Pacino is not playing a role, more like looking back at his own life. Just like the classic tango dance in the film, even though there are many flaws in life, Pacino is still dancing.
03
Life off-screen made Pacino particularly uncomfortable and panicked.
Growing up in a single-parent family, the untimely death of her mother and maternal grandfather, made Pacino emotionally sensitive and mysterious.
He was once in love with a teacher in acting class at the Actors Academy, and the two had a daughter.
Between 1996 and 2003, Al Pacino and actress Beverly de Angelo maintained a seven-year relationship, and the two had a cute pair of dragon and phoenix babies, but still could not enter the palace of marriage.
The longest time with Pacino was Diane Keaton, the two of whom met and fell in love with The Godfather.
At the low point of Pacino's life, Diane Keaton did not abandon it, and the two could be described as a tribulation, but unfortunately, the two could not escape the fate of breaking up.
The personality fit has made the two good friends to this day, and Diane Keaton has publicly praised Pacino as the sexiest man, not only an actor, but also an artist, he was born for acting.
After breaking up with Diane Keaton, Pacino became acquainted with Argentine actress Lucila Sola. He fell in love with football in order to follow his girlfriend, and joined the Argentine Athletic Club, which appeared on the sports section of the news. However, the two still regretted breaking up, and the ten-year relationship came to an end.
Al Pacino then met israeli actress Meto Dohan, and after two years together, the woman proposed to break up and publicly complained that it was really difficult to be with the old man.
When asked by the media about the details of the relationship, Meto Dorhan exposed that the Hollywood superstar did not like to spend money, only bought flowers for her, and once made Al Pacino a Joke in Hollywood.
Although Pacino's love history is rich, it has not been able to repair results, but it has created a lot of material for gossip reporters.
The unsatisfactory love life once put Pacino into depression, and the tough guy on the screen chose to anesthetize himself with alcohol.
During that time, Pacino often drank until late at night, and then went to the set the next day to shoot, as if returning to the decadent days of youthful drunkenness.
It was still Charles Lawton who dragged Pacino out of the quagmire this time, the man who predicted that Pacino would become a star.
Every day, he took Pacino to the Alcoholics' Association for healing, where he discussed with Pacino the two of them' beloved Shakespeare.
They often recited Shakespeare's play Macbeth, which read: "No matter how long the night is, the day will always come." ”
Asked what love is, Pacino quotes a quote from Othello:
"I was in a state of doom. But I do like you, and when I don't like you anymore, chaos comes. ”
It is precisely because of the pursuit of the value of life and the understanding of love that Pacino finally chose to face life with love.
That's his way of perceiving the world, and it's his weapon to dispel chaos.