Al Pacino has become a mainstay at the Venice Film Festival in recent years. The actor/director debuted his “Wild Salome” film at the fest in 2011 —with Jessica Chastain before she became famous— and this year, he’ll be a dominant presence once again. Pacino will star in two films at Venice 2014, one in competition, David Gordon Green’s “Manglehorn,” and one out of competition, Barry Levinson’s “The Humbling.”
The latter co-stars Greta Gerwig and is an adaptation of Philip Roth’s late-era 2009 novel about an aging stage actor whose empty life is altered by a “counterplot of unusual erotic desire.” Pacino plays said actor and Gerwig plays his romantic foil. It’s interesting to note that Roth’s novel was largely critically panned and seen as a misstep in his long and lauded career.
Here’s the official synopsis for the film: The Humbling tells the story of a legendary stage actor who has an affair with a lesbian woman half his age at a secluded country house in Connecticut. Based on Philip Roth’s final novel, it is a tragic comedy about a man who has lived inside his own imagination for too long.
Co-starring Dianne Wiest, Kyra Sedgwick, Dan Hedaya, Mandy Patinkin and Charles Grodin (is CG in the middle of a comeback? He’s been in “Louie” episodes and is also in Noah Baumbach’s “While We’re Young”). ‘The Humbling’ makes its world premiere in Venice at the end of August and will be screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival in September. New photos below.
