CAST / CREW
Directed by
Daniel Algrant
Writing credits (WGA)
Jon Robin Baitz (written by)
Cast Al Pacino .... Eli Wurman Kim Basinger .... Victoria Gray Ryan O'Neal .... Cary Launer Téa Leoni .... Jilli Hopper Richard Schiff .... Elliot Sharansky Bill Nunn .... The Reverend Lyle Blunt Robert Klein (I) .... Dr. Sandy Napier Mark Webber (II) .... Ross Eldon Bullock .... Washroom Attendant Juliet Papa .... Radio Announcer (voice) Ramsey Faragallah .... David Fielding Brian McConnachie .... Jamie Hoff Frank Wood (III) .... Michael Wormly Rex Reed .... Himself Lewis Dodley .... Himself (more)
You are Visitor No:
ARTICLES
Soundtrack available (buy at Amazon.com)
FEATURING SONGS BY RICKIE LEE JONES AND JAZZ LEDGEND JON HENDRICKS
ORIGINAL FILM SCORE BY TERENCE BLANCHARD
The much anticipated film, People I Know, starring Al Pacino finally gets its U.S. premiere after a successful showing at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Rounding out the film's cast are Ryan O 'Neal, Tea Leoni and Kim Basinger. Complimenting the intriguing story line, legendary composer Terence Blanchard successfully blends a mix of jazz and blues that lends itself to the movie's dramatic, soul-searching theme. These lush, emotionally evocative melodies give the viewer a feeling of suspense and drama.
The soundtrack will be released on Decca Records April 22 and features "Bye Bye Blackbird" performed in the film by jazz legend, Jon Hendricks as well as the classics version by Rickie Lee Jones. Blanchard has composed original scores for many movies such as Malcolm X and Son Of Sam to name a few. Some of Blanchard's honors include a 1995 Emmy nomination for Best Original Score for a Documentary for The Promised Land, a 1996 Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Performance for The Heart Speaks and a 2001 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for his 2000 Sony Classical recording, Wandering Moon.
The movie starts out with a New York publicist, Eli Wurman (Al Pacino), whose career has seen better days. He realizes that after spending his life devoting his time to smoothing out the lives of the rich and famous, that famous actor, Cary Launer (Ryan O'Neal) is one of his only remaining A-list clients. Although Eli is a seasoned publicist, he has been enlisted to get Launer out of trouble with a young starlet named Jill (Tea Leoni). Launer asks Eli to discreetly escort Jill out of town and out of his life forever. This seems like an easy enough task for Eli to handle- more like a degrading babysitting job, but he soon finds himself entangled in a web of mystery involving politics and celebrity. After his crazy night with Jill, Eli reaches out to an old friend, Victoria (Kim Basinger) for help. Victoria shows him that she understands the high-stakes game he is playing and tries to convince him it's not worth it. Eli soon finds out the true meaning behind the movie's title-it is not who you are that matters, it's who you know!
People I Know, a Myriad Picture in association with Southfork Pictures, is set to open on April 25 in select theatres in New York and Los Angeles and opens nation-wide in May 2003.
Al Pacino: Walking the high wire
(nice pics) Tuesday, April 29, 2003 Posted: 1:59 PM EDT (1759 GMT)
(thanks NJ for this info)
Suntimes Sundance Article
( Thanks Lisa W. for this info )
PARK CITY, Utah--It began with Oscar winner Al Pacino and ended with Oscar winner Anna Paquin (who is slightly shorter than Pacino), and in between there were 10 movies, nine parties, 27 cups of coffee, 18 shuttle bus rides and a couple of J. Lo sightings.
My Sundance Film Festival journal for 2003:
Friday. Pacino hasn't had a chance to see a lot of the Oscar contenders, so he asks me what's good and I give him some recommendations--and even as I'm rattling off my opinions of "Gangs of New York" and "Minority Report," part of me is thinking, "Talking movies with Michael Corleone, are you bleepin' kidding me?"
Prior to "People I Know," starring Pacino as an old-school public relations legend, Miramax hosts a small party for about 25 people.
We talk for a while about what makes a movie resonate."For me, I know it's a good film when I find myself thinking about it days later," says Pacino. "But to really appreciate a film, it takes time. You have to step away . . . give it a chance to breathe."
As for "People I Know," Pacino says, "It's hard get a handle on, especially the first 15 minutes. I'm trying to come up with that one thing to describe
it, that one phrase. But that's YOUR job, isn't it?"
Cue the waiter, who approaches as Pacino finishes an appetizer, and says, "I'll take your skewer for you.
"I've never heard a man say that to another man, I say."
Maybe that's the catch-phrase!" says Pacino. " 'I'll take your skewer for you!' "
And when the movie comes out, you'll know what he means.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/roeper/cst-nws-roep23.html
Released on video/dvd for rental in Australia
On 16/12/2002 exclusive to VIDEO EZY stores. Thanks Tony for this info
Premiering at Sundance Film Festival, Yahoo news
Thanks Karen W. for this info
By DEBBIE HUMMEL, Associated Press Writer
The 2003 Sundance Film Festival (news - web sites) will begin with a little levity — Ed Solomon's "Levity," that is.
The directorial debut from Solomon, a longtime writer and producer, stars Billy Bob Thornton (news) as a convicted murderer seeking redemption after 19 years in prison. Morgan Freeman (news), Holly Hunter (news) and Kirsten Dunst (news) co-star in the film, which opens the festival on Jan. 16.
Movies from two actors who are directing for the first time also are ont he festival lineup, announced this week.
Salma Hayek (news) directed Ruben Blades and Peter Fonda (news) in "The Maldonado Miracle," about the testing of a small town's faith when a statue of Jesus appears to be shedding tears of blood.
And Matt Dillon (news) directed and stars in "City of Ghosts," featuring James Caan (news), Stellan Skarsgard (news) and Gerard Depardieu (news) in a story about a con man on the run.
Also premiering at Sundance is "People I Know," a mystery with Al Pacino (news), Tea Leoni, Kim Basinger (news) and Ryan O'Neal (news).
Danny Glover (news) and Whoopi Goldberg (news) star in "Good Fences," about an upwardly mobile family for whom the American dream becomes a nightmare.
"Born Rich," a documentary that survived a court battle over claims from one of the film's subjects that he was tricked into appearing, will screen in the American Spectrum program.
A New York State Supreme Court Justice ruled in October that Jamie Johnson, a 23-year-old New York University film student and Johnson & Johnson heir, had the right to distribute the documentary featuring the offspring of wealthy families, including Ivanka Trump and Georgina Bloomberg.
The ruling dismissed a lawsuit filed by Luke Weil, whose father ran the gaming technology company Autotote. Weil said he was tricked into taking part in what he thought was a school project that "embarrassed" and "humiliated" him and his family.
In the documentary competition, "Bukowski: Born Into This" captures the life of late cult author Charles Bukowski. "The Education of Gore Vidal" explores another famed author, filmed in part at Vidal's villa in Ravello, Italy.
Dramatic competition films include "Party Monster," staring Macaulay Culkin (news) in the true story of Michael Alig, a club kid who killed his drug dealer roommate. "The Cooler" pairs William H. Macy (news) and Alec Baldwin (news) with 'N Sync (news - web sites)'s Joey Fatone (news) in the story of an Ivy League-educated man sent by the mob to revamp a casino.
Over its 11-day run, Sundance will show 125 feature films.
On the Net:
http://www.sundance.org
Released in Italy/Mexico and Peru
According to Andrea at http://www.kimbasinger.too.it, People I Know premiered in Italy October 4th.
According to Tito it also opened in Mexico on September 6th, and will be opening in Peru in October.
No word yet on when it will premiere here, or why it's opened outside the US first.
Possible Release Date
(thanks Lisa for this info. I don't know the original source)
"Schiff has had a busy offseason. He recently finished a run in a play with Patricia Wettig at Vassar College, and he's got two movies set to be released in December. One, "I Am Sam," stars Sean Penn; the other, "People I Know," stars Al Pacino."
Terrorism Projects Shelved, By Michael Fleming, NEW YORK (Variety), Tuesday, September 18, 2001
(thanks curiouscat for this info)
The latest feature that finds itself with uncomfortable images of the felled landmark is ``People I Know,´´ the Dan Algrant-directed drama filmed earlier in New York starring Al Pacino as a Gotham publicist.
The World Trade Center is seen liberally as the publicist heads to the financial district for his drug binges. One of the more creatively inspired shots showed the twin towers upright, then turned sideways as the vantage point switches from the audience to a prone Pacino waking up from a rough night of booze and pills. The surreal shot was meant to convey his world turned on end, but the tragedy evokes other symbolism that renders the footage unusable.
``It is an abstract, highly stylish shot that is completely inappropriate and will be removed from the film,´´ said producer Leslie Urdang. ``We´ve known in our minds that and some other shots of the landscape would have to be reviewed, but this is the first day we´ve gotten a chance to look at it.´´
The film's downtown cutting room has not been accessible since the disaster. Both the director and his film were displaced, as Algrant lives just five blocks from what is now called ``Ground Zero.'' Miramax has begun testing the film and won't release it until next year. Urdang said they will use the time to ``carefully assess the impact of each scene.´´
Variety
(here is another article on it. Thanks Joan Butryn for the info)
"The latest feature that finds itself with uncomfortable images of the felled landmark is "People I Know", the Dan Algrant directed drama filmed arelier in NY starring Al Pacino as a Gotham publicist. The World Trade Center is senn liberally as the publicist heads to the financial district for his drug binges. One of the more creatively inspired shots showed the twin towers upright, then turned sideways as the vantage point switches from the audience to a prone Pacino waking up from a rough night of booze and pills. The surreal shot was meant to convey his world turned on eand, but the tragedy evokes other symbolism that now renders the fottage unusable. The film's downtown cutting room has not been accessible since the disaster. Both director and his film were displaced, as Algrant lives just 5 blocks from what is now called "Ground Zero". Miramax has begun testing the film and won't release it until next year."
Oscars: Scent of a Winner for Al
(thanks Lisa for this info. I don't know the source. Newswires probably.)
It's only September, but the forecasts for Oscar nominations already have begun.
People who attended an early screening of the Al Pacino film "People I Know" say that the veteran actor's portrayal of a public-relations man (who may or may not be loosely based on hype maven Bobby Zarem) could be worthy of another Academy Award.
Pacino won Best Actor in 1992 for his work in "Scent of a Woman" and has been nominated eight times.
Oscar talk is surrounding Al Pacino once again.
But getting the movie out in time to make it eligible this year is problematic, sources said, because the distributor, Miramax, is pushing other actors and films particularly Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis from "Gangs of New York" and Kevin Spacey from "The Shipping News." Those movies are due out in December. Miramax has no release date for the Pacino film, which also stars Kim Basinger, Téa Leoni and the leukemia-stricken Ryan O'Neal. Director Daniel Algrant "just showed us his first cut," said a Miramax rep. "It's still a work in progress."
Pacino Touted for Oscar Nom
(here's another, again thanks to Lisa.)
Sep 07, 2001 (WENN via COMTEX) -- Ageing heart-throb AL PACINO is already being tipped for an OSCAR nomination for his role in PEOPLE I KNOW, despite the ACADEMY AWARDS ceremony being next year (MAR02).
The screen idol plays a public relations man in the film which also stars KIM BASINGER, Téa Leoni and the leukaemia-stricken RYAN O'NEAL.
Pacino won Best Actor Oscar in 1992 for his work in SCENT OF A WOMAN, and has been nominated eight times.
PEOPLE I KNOW is yet to be released. (RP/WNWDN/NFA)
An Offer She Couldn't Refuse (Click on the title to go to the original article where there is a nice behind the scenes picture of Pacino.)
(Thanks Suzanne Brouillard for this info)
When Al Pacino wanted to film a scene in my mom's bathroom, she welcomed him with open arms, By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff, 4/19/2001
The Academy Award-winning actor was searching for a bathroom to film two scenes of "People I Know," costarring Kim Basinger, Ryan O'Neal, Téa Leoni, and Robert Klein. The movie - in which Pacino plays Eli Wurman, a once-great celebrity publicist struggling to maintain his power - was shot on several locations around New York City earlier this month and is scheduled for release early next year.
The offer came in a "Dear Resident" letter slid under the door of my mom's Greenwich Village apartment. The letter said a movie company was looking for a hallway leading straight into a bathroom with the original 1950s fixtures intact. My mom, Mildred, a retired schoolteacher who taught in the South Bronx for 30 years, responded quicker than the cops in "Serpico."
What woman is going to tell Pacino - who still looks dashing at 60 - that she doesn't want him to take a shower in her bathroom? Plus, Mom would get a nice location fee.
A few days later, set designers arrived and placed a bottle of Mylanta Supreme, torn sheets of Mylanta Gels, Tylenol PM, and a Chivas Regal glass on the window sill behind the toilet. They hung a picture of Yale University, Wurman's alma mater, on the side wall and changed the shower curtain to powder blue.
Thirteen trucks, including a 90-foot-long trailer for Pacino, were parked outside. Forty-six people set up lights, taped the windows black, and shut the refrigerator. Three Grossfeld family members took turns sprucing up the porcelain bowl after each use.
Then it was quiet on the set. His shirt-tail out and hair tousled, Pacino arrived, speaking in the Southern drawl of his character. A method actor par excellence, Pacino reportedly had been using this accent for months on and off the set.
"Take One and roll." The sound of tinkling, moaning, and an occasional swear word could be heard for 40 seconds. Pacino zipped up and staggered down the hallway before turning into the kitchen.
"Cut," said director Dan Algrant.
"I had to pee like an elephant," said Pacino.
"You forgot to flush," somebody said.
"Make it a shorter experience," said Algrant. "And ... action."
They filmed the scene again, taking 35 seconds of toilet time. Pacino, dubbed "Al Cappuccino" for his love of caffeine, was wired. But how many doubles had he gulped? On the next take, we learned Pacino's secret: He had a hot water bottle filled with cranberry juice in his pants because he was supposed to be urinating blood. We knew because he forgot to shut off the valve and the juice dribbled all over mom's oriental rug.
Pacino shook his head sadly. "Why do I have the feeling that the woman who owns this apartment is gonna sue me?" he asked.
"Oh, no, she's not," said my sister, Sandy, a lawyer, as the crew laughed.
"Well, you're one of only a very few then," said Pacino.
Pacino finished the scene, then retreated to his trailer. Meanwhile, his double stripped down to a bathing suit and stood in the shower. There was barely enough room in the 5-by-9-foot bathroom to set up the tripod and camera.
After 45 minutes, Pacino was back but now had to use the bathroom for real, and that meant someplace other than center stage.
The magic of cinema had seized me. I sprung into action, ringing a neighbor's doorbell. A good-hearted senior citizen named Helen answered and appeared stunned. "Where is he?" she asked. "I'm a-comin' Helen," yelled a voice next door. The site of Al Pacino running in slippers and a green bathrobe brought an instant smile to Helen's face. "I'msooo sorry we have to meet under such unusual circumstances," he said.
When he returned, Pacino got into the shower, looking trim in his brown bathing trunks. My mother and sister had already warned the crew: If they mistakenly flushed the toilet while the star was in the shower, "Serpico might get scalded." We were all doing our part for Hollywood.
The scene was done in one take. Pacino slurped Chivas in the shower. You could feel his whole character, dark and moody, going down the drain. He seemed to know exactly how many tiles were in the camera viewfinder and he worked from one edge of the scene to the other.
"Too much?" somebody asked the director.
"That was great," said Algrant, who directed the 1994 comedy "Naked in New York."
Pacino walked out of the bathroom with towels wrapped around his hair. He changed in my mother's bedroom.
"It's people like you that make it nice to work," he said when he emerged. Pacino, who was raised in the South Bronx, wished mom, whose birthday was around the corner, a happy 80th birthday.
"You've got to make it to 100," he told her.
Then he put his arm around mom, called for my sister, and put his arm around her as well. This was our real payoff.
"Let's make a family picture," he said, still in character but smiling broadly for the first time all day.
Amy Archerd: O'Neal Bravely Faces Leukemia, Daily Variety Senior Columnist, Reuters, 5/14/2001
(thanks Lisa Wollney for this info)
(Variety) - ''I'm on something that seems to be working,'' Ryan O'Neal told me Monday. ''I've only known about it (leukemia) for 3-1/2 weeks. What a shock. It buckled me. I just had a pain in my stomach -- it hurt. They examined me, tested my spleen and discovered my white cell count was enormous. My doctors at Cedars-Sinai are going to try an even newer medication next week.''
O'Neal has refused interviews on the usual talk shows. ''What am I going to say -- I've got it (leukemia)?'' he added. ''I didn't even announce it in the first place -- like Suzanne Somers. This is some switch for me.''
O'Neal (60) had just come back from the gym he owns in Brentwood -- after a workout -- not as strong as he'd been accustomed to.
''I had just finished doing this movie ('People I Know') with Al Pacino. I hope it's not my last. It was such a good experience. Al is such an amazing person -- so dear, a good man, loving.''
How'd O'Neal get the role? ''He's a fading movie star who lives in Malibu -- they didn't have to look far,'' he laughed.
Ryan is also familiar with the type of press agent he plays. And Pacino remembered him when he lived on the beach near Ryan and they'd played paddle tennis together.
Ryan said he's received calls from longtime friends -- like Ali MacGraw, with whom he costarred in ''Love Story'' for director Arthur Hiller in 1970. Ali, you remember, ''had this same disease in the movie,'' he laughed. ''She said to me, 'I hope you didn't catch it from me.'''
As for the future, O'Neal says he hasn't received any offers (since the news of his illness) -- as for ''People I Know,'' he said ''I'll go out on the road with it'' -- if he feels much better. He is cheered in these tough days by his friend of six years, actress Leslie Stefanson.
Sophie Upstages Bookworm Pacino, by Chris Hughes, Daily Record, 02-17-2001
(thanks curiouscat for this article)
SOPHIE Dahl's skimpy winter wardrobe doesn't seem to be enough to raise a glance from her hero, Al Pacino.
The model dressed down to a swimsuit and fur coat to parade around chilly Central Park in New York for the veteran film idol.
But, wrapped up against the biting cold, he kept his head firmly stuck in a book as the catwalk sensation - grand-daughter of author Roald Dahl - strutted her stuff.
Sophie, 24, was filming scenes for her debut movie, People I Know, alongside Pacino.
One insider said: "Sophie couldn't stop laughing on set and seemed to really enjoy herself.
"And she was thrilled to be working with Al Pacino - she may even have upstaged him in this scene."
The film is set for release later this year.
Soundtrack released
(buy at Amazon.com)
FEATURING SONGS BY RICKIE LEE JONES AND JAZZ LEDGEND JON HENDRICKS
ORIGINAL FILM SCORE BY TERENCE BLANCHARD
The much anticipated film, People I Know, starring Al Pacino finally gets its U.S. premiere after a successful showing at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Rounding out the film's cast are Ryan O 'Neal, Tea Leoni and Kim Basinger. Complimenting the intriguing story line, legendary composer Terence Blanchard successfully blends a mix of jazz and blues that lends itself to the movie's dramatic, soul-searching theme. These lush, emotionally evocative melodies give the viewer a feeling of suspense and drama.
The soundtrack will be released on Decca Records April 22 and features "Bye Bye Blackbird" performed in the film by jazz legend, Jon Hendricks as well as the classics version by Rickie Lee Jones. Blanchard has composed original scores for many movies such as Malcolm X and Son Of Sam to name a few. Some of Blanchard's honors include a 1995 Emmy nomination for Best Original Score for a Documentary for The Promised Land, a 1996 Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Performance for The Heart Speaks and a 2001 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for his 2000 Sony Classical recording, Wandering Moon.
The movie starts out with a New York publicist, Eli Wurman (Al Pacino), whose career has seen better days. He realizes that after spending his life devoting his time to smoothing out the lives of the rich and famous, that famous actor, Cary Launer (Ryan O'Neal) is one of his only remaining A-list clients. Although Eli is a seasoned publicist, he has been enlisted to get Launer out of trouble with a young starlet named Jill (Tea Leoni). Launer asks Eli to discreetly escort Jill out of town and out of his life forever. This seems like an easy enough task for Eli to handle- more like a degrading babysitting job, but he soon finds himself entangled in a web of mystery involving politics and celebrity. After his crazy night with Jill, Eli reaches out to an old friend, Victoria (Kim Basinger) for help. Victoria shows him that she understands the high-stakes game he is playing and tries to convince him it's not worth it. Eli soon finds out the true meaning behind the movie's title-it is not who you are that matters, it's who you know!
People I Know, a Myriad Picture in association with Southfork Pictures, is set to open on April 25 in select theatres in New York and Los Angeles and opens nation-wide in May 2003.
REVIEWS (warning, possible spoilers)
People I Know, Lee Marshall in Rome 09 October 2002
(thanks Anne for this info)
Dir: Daniel Algrant. USA. 2001. 100mins.
Anyone who wants to see Al Pacino in his one of his most impressive roles since Scent Of A Woman is going to have to get on a plane to Rome, at least for the time being. A combination of commercial bad timing and self-regulatory censorship has meant that Miramax still has no US release scheduled for this tight, dark, compelling political drama, over a year after it was wrapped and ready. People I Know has emerged in Italy, however, where it took $682,000 from 274 screens in its first weekend for a screen average of $2,489. Sophisticated urban markets in Europe and elsewhere look to be its best hope, at least until the US comes out of its don't-rock-the-boat coma. The whiff of censorship could even turn into a box-office boost if distributors take the bull by the horns and sell this as the film that is too hot for America to handle, a strategy which CDI in Italy has so far failed to capitalise on.
Daniel Algrant (Sex And The City) examines the New York of corrupt political cabals, and is openly critical of an unnamed, right-wing mayor who, Pacino's character complains, is one of those responsible for turning the town into a "police state" in which "a lot of people... have come to fear us and hate us".
One can see, as with The Quiet American and Buffalo Soldiers, Miramax's dilemma: in the present climate of grin-and-bear-it solidarity, the film's bad-ass attitude to US politics means that it is going to be a difficult prospect on home ground, even more than a year after September 11. In less troubled times, Al Pacino's performance as a tired, jaded, pill-popping New York publicist and theatrical agent struggling to hold onto the only thing that reminds him he is human - his militant past as a civil liberties campaigner - would be on the fast track to an Oscar awards campaign.
The action takes place over 24 hours in a New York that has a nicely dark, grainy, 1970s feel to it - a feel reinforced by the cool urban jazz soundtrack. The audience first see Ely Wurman - who hails from Georgia - at the Broadway opening of a play he's representing: a no-hoper, like many of his recent briefs. Soon he's drafted in to mop up a mess left behind by Carry Launer (O'Neal), the only celebrity actor who has stayed faithful to him. Carry sends Ely to bail out a dazed and confused supermodel girlfriend (Leoni), who drags the publicist off to an exclusive Wall Street opium party, where he is surprised to recognise some really heavyweight movers and shakers.
Things spiral, as they say: Ely slips into a twilight zone of growing menace, compounded by lack of sleep and a cocktail of prescription drugs. The only still point in his physical and moral loss of control is represented by Victoria (Basinger), his dead brother's wife, who has come up from Georgia to get Ely out of the New York jungle and tempt him back to the old country. Unfortunately, she's too late.
The dialogue is sharp, edgy, and occasionally hilarious (Ely, looking around the supermodel's hotel boudoir: "This is not a room - it's a vagina"). Pacino's magnetic performance as a good guy in a bad world who is too tired even to emote is given strong support by Leoni, O'Neal, Basinger and Richard Schiff (from the West Wing) as a Machiavellian New York Jewish leader. Just occasionally, the insider's view is taken so far that certain offhand references, or the faces of certain NY society figures playing themselves, are lost on those of us from outside the Big Apple. But this minor distraction is also one of the things that gives the film its air of authority. Pacino fans, and all those who care about cinema, should chase this one around the world.
Variety, People I Know, New York; Oct 14-Oct 20, 2002; David Rooney
(thanks Vladka for this info)
A Miramax Films (in U.S.)/Medusa Film-CDI (in Italy) release of a Myriad Pictures presentation of a South Fork Pictures production, in association with Galena/GreeneStreet Films, Chal Prods., InMotion, WMF V. Produced by Michael Nozik, Leslie Urdang, Karen Tenkhoff. Executive producers, Robert Redford, Kirk D'Amico, Philip von Alvensleben. Coproducer, Nellie Nugiel.
Directed by Dan Algrant. Screenplay, Jon Robin Baitz. Camera (FotoKem color), Peter Deming; editor, Suzy Elmiger, music, Terence Blanchard; production designer, Michael Shaw; art director, Charles E. McCarry; set decorator, Andrew Baseman; costume designer, David Robinson; sound (Dolby Digital), Michael Barosky; assistant director, Jude Gorjanc; casting, Juliet Taylor, Laura Rosenthal, Ali Farrell. Reviewed at Metropolitan Cinema, Rome, Oct. 4,2002. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 100 MIN.
While Rudy Giuliani's name is never pronounced, the references to the former mayor-turned-national hero's tenure as top man of NYC are clear in "People I Know," whose bitingly critical view of the period might explain why Miramax's still-pending U.S. release has been continually pushed back. But this compelling 24-hour odyssey into the life of a world-- weary Gotham publicist, driven by a vivid performance from Al Pacino, deserves some theatrical exposure (although pic has already popped up on airlines). Despite sensitivity over its portrayal of the rotten underbelly of celebrity, politics and the power elite, sophisticated urban audiences both in the U.S. and abroad should tap into the textured drama's incisive script and fascinating characters, fueling arthouse mileage.
Shot in early 2001 and just completing post when the events of Sept. 11 changed the rules overnight regarding screen depictions of New York, this brooding character study-cum-- thriller couldn't have come along at a more inopportune time. The much discussed shot in which Pacino's drug-and-booze-addled character, in a post-binge haze, sees the World Trade towers lying on their sides has been removed. But even with that strategic cut, the film's cynicism could hardly play more abrasively against the mood of renewal and rehabilitation in wounded Gotham.
A not-so-distant relative of Sydney Falco in "Sweet Smell of Success," Eli Wurman (Pacino) is Georgia Jew whose youthful involvement in the civil rights movement, along with his morality, has been put aside to serve a now-depleted client list. Moth-eaten and almost washed up, he's angling to redeem himself by organizing a benefit for imprisoned Nigerian immigrants without green cards.
Eli is distracted, however, when Cary Launer (Ryan O'Neal), one of his few remaining movie star clients, calls for crisis management. Launer's affair with druggy TV starlet/model Jilli Hopper (Tea Leoni) causes problems when the girl lands in jail. Launer asks Eli to bail her out and put her on a plane before the scandal can damage his chances in the upcoming senatorial race.
But Jilli drags Eli downtown to a luxury Wall Street opium den and sex club. Before being thrown out, Jilli reveals she has a recording gadget with downloadable images of the club's high-profile clientele including Jewish civic leader Elliot Sharansky (Richard Schiff). Back in Jil's hotel room, Eli is onthe verge of passing out when an intruder overpowers the girl and sticks her with a fatal overdose.
Unsure of what he witnessed, Eli avoids police to focus on the benefit. Led by the Rev. Lyle Blunt (Bill Nunn), the black community is up in arms about the mayor's persecution of underprivileged minorities and incensed over the lack of support from the city's well-heeled Jews.
Eli corners both Blunt and Sharansky and gets them to speak at the benefit. Strong-arming Launer into attending, Eli dangles the star as a carrot to entice the two reluctant adversaries.
Sleep-deprived, ailing and becoming visibly unhinged, Eli underestimates the danger from his knowledge of Jilli's murder and possession of the incriminating recording device. His vulnerability is further heightened by the presence in town of his widowed sister-in-law, Victoria (Kim Basinger), for whom his feelings clearly run deeper than friendship.
Adopting a colorful Southern accent and looking distinctly haggard, Pacino conveys a cogent sense of Eli's drained state. Also palpable is the self-loathing over the direction his life has taken, squandering his Harvard law background to be a celebrity lapdog. Ranking alongside "The Insider" as Pacino's best, most controlled work in some time, it's a pained, exposed performance that rivets attention even as playwright Jon Robin Baitz's script veers at times into murky ambiguity.
The drama's kinship with '70s anti-- establishment thrillers is underlined by a poster on Eli's office wall for "The Parallax View." But the information on manipulation of the Senate campaign by Sharansky and his cronies is too sketchy. Likewise the pic's ending, which cleverly aligns Eli's downfall with his media triumph and represents an audaciously downbeat conclusion rather than a Hollywood-style copout, but underdefines certain key climactic events.
Generally, however, the screenplay is taut and intelligent, sizzling with enough sharp dialogue and dark humor to coast over its flaws. In addition to the unseen mayor, clear parallels between fictional characters and their real-life counterparts add to the caustic edge. Womanizing, politically ambitious Cary Launer appears inspired by Warren Beatty, while Rev. Blunt owes much to Al Sharpton. Eli himself is believed to be modeled after legendary press agent Bobby Zarem, who has publicly denied the similarities.
Director Dan Algrant ("Naked in New York") keeps a propulsive grip on the action, communicating a dizzying sense of Eli's determination while working on diminishing reserves of strength and lucidity and trying to sidestep entanglement in politics.
Cast is uniformly terrific. In a small but significant role, Basinger radiates tenderness, intelligence and hope; Leoni shapes a raw but nuanced character out of the jaded party girl; and Schiff brings chilly authority to Sharansky, amusingly playing off Nunn's performance of empowered umbrage as the reverend. O'Neal combines professional public-profile charm with self-centered focus and Mark Webber registers sympathetically as Eli's put-upon assistant.
Peter Deming's gritty lensing puts an appropriately seedy gloss on the Manhattan settings, while Terence Blanchard's cool, jazz-tinged score quietly fuels the suspense.
MOVIE REVIEW: Pacino's role is washed up, but he's not
Copyright © 2003 Nando Media, Copyright © 2003 Christian Science Monitor Service, By DAVID STERRITT, Christian Science Monitor (April 24, 2:30 p.m. ADT) - Al Pacino hasn't been on a roll lately.
He's a good actor, and when a solid opportunity like last year's moody thriller "Insomnia" comes along, he rises nicely to the occasion.
But for the past few seasons he's been mostly stuck in junk such as "Simone" and "The Recruit," squandering the artistic capital he earned with "The Insider" and "Any Given Sunday" in the late 1990s. His starmaking performances in the "Godfather" movies seem like products of a vanished era.
All of which is relevant to Pacino's latest film. His performance in "People I Know" is the best thing he's done in ages, and while the main reason is his still-robust acting talent, his career history also contributes to the strength of his characterization here.
Like the strung-out publicity man he plays, Pacino has been on the entertainment scene a very long while, and at times - including recent times - he's looked like an incipient has-been. But he's not ready to roll over yet, and when the time does arrive for his final exit, you know he'll try to make it with a satisfying bang.
The story woven around Pacino's new character, public-relations man Eli Wurman, is more mysterious than you might expect.
At first it seems to be a show-business morality tale, with the protagonist trying to revitalize his career by organizing a fundraiser for a worthy cause. This necessitates courting a high-profile movie star by helping him out of a romantic dilemma that could cripple his political ambitions.
The stakes grow drastically higher when a dreadful crime transpires almost under Eli's nose, unveiling a network of sinister activities. The rest of the movie revolves around his efforts to pull off his great project in the midst of enigmatic forces.
Imagine mixing "The Sweet Smell of Success" with "Eyes Wide Shut," plus a dash of the recent "ivans xtc" for extra spice, and you'll have an idea of what this offbeat fable is like. Pacino is the dynamo that drives it, giving a relentlessly imaginative performance that draws on all the professional expertise and personal experience he's gathered in a lifetime of screen and stage work.
More surprising yet is the supporting cast. It's headed by Ryan O'Neal, who's having even more of a comeback than Pacino this year, via his fine work here and in "Malibu's Most Wanted," where he also plays a rich guy with political stars in his eyes. Right behind him are Kim Basinger as Eli's confidante, Robert Klein as his befuddled physician, and Bill Nunn as an African-American leader who's no more idealistic than the other egomaniacs in the plot.
At some moments, "People I Know" becomes as murky as the conspiracy it portrays, and it's too willfully peculiar for its box-office prospects to be very strong.
It's a refreshing change from the business-as-usual that's dominating most of this season's fare, though, and Pacino's performance alone makes it a must-see for admirers of creative film acting.
Rated R; contains violence, sex and drugs.
CULTURAL STUDIES, Publicists, Once Again in the Cross Hairs
NOT SO SWEET In "People I Know," Al Pacino is a press agent who gives the profession a bad name.(thanks Andy B. for this info)
Christine Loss/20th Century Fox, HELLO. GET ME HELP. Colin Farrell, in "Phone Booth," plays a publicist who has a vengeful enemy. By ADAM STERNBERGH
In the 1998 film "Sliding Doors," Gwyneth Paltrow's character leads two alternate lives. In one, she's a frumpy pushover with mousy hair and a cheating boyfriend. In the other, she wears fabulous outfits, sports a platinum hairdo and is pursued by a charming
Scotsman. In one, she toils at a greasy spoon. In the other, she whips up a fabulous party to open a friend's chic restaurant. In one, she's a waitress. In the other, she's a publicist.
Now compare this portrayal of the publicist's life to the one now playing in theaters. In "People I Know," Al Pacino stars as Eli Wurman, a harried and haggard career flack. His existence is not one of sly banter and glamorous clothes. Rather, Wurman is a
professional bootlicker, a sad and regretful man whose own potential (he graduated from Harvard Law) has been frittered away on a life spent cleaning up the messes left by other, more important people. He's like Willy Loman with a pill addiction and a Rolodex.
Wurman is better off, however, than Stu Shepard, the publicist played by Colin Farrell who is at the center of "Phone Booth," another recent film. Shepard is a small-time press agent who finds himself pinned down in a phone booth by a vengeful sniper.
What are Shepard's crimes? Well, he plays two magazines off each other to win a cover story for a C-list client. He tells another client that he has booked a party in what he claims is the hottest restaurant in Manhattan but which is not, in fact, the hottest restaurant in Manhattan. For this, he is targeted for assassination.
How did publicists become Hollywood's villains of choice — tragic characters at best, and sleazy liars at worst? (In "Phone Booth," the sniper's other targets are a pornographer and a corrupt corporate executive.) To be sure, pop culture has often taken a dim view of the publicist's trade, from Paul Shaffer's pathetic flunkie in "This Is Spinal Tap," in which he literally bends over and begs his clients to kick his behind, to that of the 1957 gold standard of flack-bashing, "Sweet Smell of Success." In that film, Tony Curtis plays Sidney Falco as an amoral snake who slithers through the canyons of Manhattan, running errands for Burt Lancaster's imperious gossip columnist, J. J. Hunsecker.
But if anything, the prospects for celebrity publicists should now be on the rise; after all, Hunsecker and Falco have all but reversed roles. Today's "image managers" wield unprecedented power, while it is the gossip-gobbling journalists who scramble for scraps. Hollywood publicists like Pat Kingsley of PMK/HBH, the industry's most influential firm, don't have to curry favor with journalists.
Instead, they guard their star clients like bouncers at the entrance to the world's most exclusive nightclub.
For a brief moment not long ago, pop culture celebrated this new breed of publicist, heralding them as the very model of urbane glamour. In addition to "Sliding Doors," television shows such as "Absolutely Fabulous" and "Sex and the City" portrayed public relations executives as vain but endearing glamour girls who whirled through a city's night life one air-kiss at a time.
Now it is the publicity industry that could use, well, a good publicist. On screen, press agents are ducking bullets when they're not dodging petulant clients. Meanwhile, the trade's most visible real-life practitioners have been Lizzie Grubman, who backed her
car into a crowd in 2001, and Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, who was Iraq's minister of information, who amused the world with his delusional dispatches on the imminent defeat of the coalition forces.
"The culture now depends so heavily on spin, puffery and the exultation of personalities," said Jon Robin Baitz, the screenwriter of "People I Know." "These guys are the disseminators, dealing in a strange currency. They don't just promote a star. They're
ecclesiastical figures for the whole infotainment culture."
Not surprisingly, publicists don't see themselves in the same terms. "I don't know why people have a negative connotation about us," said Heidi Schaeffer, an account executive at PMK/HBH. "We serve a purpose, and we're not bad people."
Publicists can be forgiven for wondering why the mood has suddenly turned ugly. In "Phone Booth," for example, Shepard tearfully renounces his profession, screaming, "I lie to the media, who sell my lies to more and more people!" When he spots his eager intern
in the crowd, he pleads: "Don't be a publicist! You're too good for it!"
Publicists are doing what they've done since the days of Sidney Falco: managing information to protect their clients. The difference now is that everyone's paying close attention to their work.
"There's a very high premium placed by the public on the idea of `knowing,' " said Neal Gabler, the author of a Walter Winchell biography. "We want to know how everything operates and we don't want to feel like we're being fooled. There's always been a disparaging attitude toward publicists; they've been seen as shills, hucksters or ballyhoo artists. But this large universe of people who once worked behind the scenes are now in front of the scenes."
At first, this attention made publicists into new-style stars. In the 1990's, hype outpaced worthiness: every ingénue was a superstar, every mannequin a supermodel, every I.P.O. the next Amazon. As architects of the buzz glut, publicists were naturally fascinating. They seemed like the ultimate string-pullers, generating notice for others while winning it for themselves.
The fascination with them reached a peak with a 1998 New York magazine cover story, in which a clique of publicists in their mid-20's, including Lara Shriftman, Liz Cohen and Ms. Grubman were dubbed the "Power Girls." Sure, they came across as a tad
repellent, but those connections! Those parties! Those shoes! The article portrayed them as somewhere between Bridget Jones and Samantha Jones, the vampy public relations queen on "Sex and the City."'
The new century brought an economic hangover, however, and, consequently, a ballyhoo backlash. Who better to blame than the ballyhoo artists? "The feeling is that publicists have gone too far," said Michelangelo Signorile, a cultural critic who started his career
planting gossip items for a public relations firm, Michael Hall Associates. "Now publicists are seen as dangerous, as a threat. But they're not really doing anything more than what they're hired to do."
Yet, like Pacino's character in "People I Know," the public has become disenchanted with the publicist's wizardry. Having clamored for a peek behind the curtain, it is now recoiling at the sight of that exposed machinery. And publicists have been caught red-handed with their hands on the levers. So we have a film like "Phone Booth," in which we're shooting the messenger, literally.
Most publicists say they never wanted the attention. They would be happy to quietly return to their business. "I don't think everybody needs to know how things happen," Ms. Schaeffer said. "Let there be a little magic left. Why do we have to explain how everything gets from A to Z?" When asked if she would like to see more positive portrayals of publicists in pop culture, she said, "I don't want to see any portrayals."
Publicists, the "power girls" notwithstanding, have never been fans of scrutiny. They prefer to work just outside the spotlight. This is because they've always understood what the rest of us temporarily forgot: that their business is inherently unglamorous and, yes, occasionally ugly. It just looked pretty for a moment.
QUOTES ABOUT THE FILM
RICHARD SCHIFF (plays Toby on the TV show "The West Wing")Appeared on the Rosie O'Donnell Show in April:
ROSIE: Now how were you able to do this (referring to I Am Sam, the movie he was there to promote) while still doing the West Wing? Because, doesn't your schedule go all year round?
RS: It was actually interesting, it was part of the problem, figuring out what to do because there were two movies that I was asked to do at the same time. One was this one and the other was with um... I just saw myself [in the monitor] and now I don't want to talk anymore... (Rosie laughs) and the other one was a movie called People I Know with Al Pacino. And so at one point I was asked to make kind of a "Sophie's Choice", to pick... and I was very lucky because the directors and writers of the two movies were best friends with Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlommy who run the West Wing. So they all did favors... no one cared about me... they all did favors for each other...
ROSIE: Right, and they Let you out.
RS: And they let me out and I was able to kind of fulfill a dream... my day job was The West Wing and then I got to work with these amazing people (referring to the cast of "I Am Sam" sitting next to him) and with Al Pacino who is the reason I got interested [in acting] in the first place.
ROSIE: No kidding. What was the role you saw him in that made you want to be an actor? Do you remember what it was?
RS: Oh, just pick it, but probably Dog Day Afternoon. Panic in Needle Park you know was shot in my neighborhood on the west side.
ROSIE: Right.
RS: You remember that was his first movie. You probably remember that, right?
ROSIE: Yea
RS: He played a drug addict back when the west side was a bad neighborhood and that's where I lived. It wasn't a bad neighborhood but it was all mixed up and stuff.
ROSIE: Right, right.
RS: And I saw neighborhood kids in the windows of shots cuz they would shoot up in buildings and I'd see Maria... like you know...
ROSIE: Like your friend...
RS: my friend...
ROSIE: from 4th grade up there...
RS: There was one scene where they were playing stickball in the street and they shot up to some kid looking and it was a kid I went to school with. But I was aware of him [Al] from the very beginning of his movie career."
RYAN O'NEAL
"Al is such an amazing person -- so dear, a good man, loving.''
TEA LEONI
( an interview on page 79 of the May 2002 issue of Premiere Magazine)
PREMIERE: Yeah, I saw [Vanessa Redgrave] in Tennessee Williams's Orpheus Descending and -
TL: Oh my God, that's so funny, because I'm going to do that play one day. I've had too many people - even Al Pacino - say, "Have you read that? You've gotta do it."
PREMIERE: Speaking of Pacino, what's happened to People I Know?
TL: I don't know. I mean, there's a sort of drug-induced vision that Al's character has of the World Trade towers on their side, and I don't think that's what's holding it up, but it's indicative of a darkness that's in the film. I'm guessing that Miramax is thinking, "We need to wait awhile on this one."(snippet from an interview from "Talk" Magazine, August 2001)
(about her part) "I'm an extremely troubled, vulnerable actress - that's the part - and I play the role mostly with Al."
"The work was very intimate and intense. If I had Al Pacino for my leading man for the rest of my life as an actor I'd die fulfilled."
QUOTES FROM THE FILM
ELI WURMAN (Al Pacino)
"This is not a room - it's a vagina."
TRIVIA
New York Daily News, Thursday, March 22, 2001
There's obviously no cash problem at the Palm on W. 50th St. The restaurant closed its doors for five days over the past week so it could serve as a location for the Al Pacino-Kim Basinger movie "People I Know." Pacino's caricature, which was already up on the Palm's wall, was kept there for the movie. But his name was changed to J. Eli Werman, his character in the film.
[Pacino's] character bears some resemblance to Bobby Zarem, a film and talent publicist who's been credited with creating the "I Love New York" campaign. Pacino's character was raised in the South, attended Yale, lives on the East Side and frequents Elaine's -- all characteristics shared by Zarem.
Zarem said he knows about the project, but denies that it's based on his life. Playwright Jon Robin Baitz ("The Substance of Fire," "Ten Unknowns") wrote the script
DVD INFO
Not for sale to persons under age 18.
