Simultaneously, Pacino directs a filmed version of the play (directed by Estelle Parsons) with the same cast in the hours before each night’s performance. In ninety-five minutes, the film captures Pacino’s attempt to put on a staging of “Salomé” at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles (all the way back in 2006), explore Wilde’s tumultuous life, and ultimately examine/acknowledge the folly of the whole process. Wilde Salomé is an ambitious documentary that bites off more than it can chew, and quite knowingly. Though adapted since, it’s a bit of a lost work to the general public. Vastly different then the bulk of his work, “Salomé” was controversial upon its initial release, eventually premiering while Wilde was in prison in 1896. Two decades later, Pacino’s exploring Oscar Wilde and his play “Salomé,” a tragedy written in 1891 and adapted from the biblical story of the titular stepdaughter of King Herod, who demands the head of John The Baptist on a platter after he rebuffs her advances. While a bit messy and thin in its execution, the documentary feeds off the passion of its filmmaker. In 1996, he made his directorial debut with Looking For Richard, an engaging documentary that explored the actor’s fascination with Shakespeare as he prepared, performed and filmed select scenes from the play “Richard III” with the likes of Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and Winona Ryder.
Along with his incredible success in film, the man has remained consistently present in theater and enthralled by those playwrights who’ve come to define it. Over the last half century, Al Pacino has revealed himself to be – quite objectively – one of our greatest performers, both on stage and screen.
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