‘The Humbling’ Trailer: Al Pacino Embraces The Chaos Of Aging
Al Pacinoshows up in two big festival films this year: David Gordon Green’sManglehorn, andThe HumblingfromBarry Levinson. Here’s a firstThe Humblingtrailer, in which Pacino plays an aging actor who embarks upon an affair with a younger woman (Greta Gerwig) after he has a minor breakdown. OK, maybe not such a minor one.
If that sounds like it should really be Woody Allen material, keep in mind that the film is an adaptation of the novel byPhilip Roth, who could almost be considered Allen’sliterary twin. Pacino picked up rights to the novel, reunited with Levinson, hisYou Don’t Know Jackdirector, and gotBuck HenryandMichal Zebedeto script. Check out Pacino in the firstThe Humblingtrailer below.
Deadlinehas the trailer. Kyra Sedgwick, Dianne Wiest, Charles Grodin, Dan Hedaya and Nina Arianda also star.The Humblingjust premiered at Venice, and will have its North American premiere soon at TIFF. Here’s info from theTIFF write-up:
To devote one’s life to acting is to live always in the space between reality and fiction. And as the life of Simon Axler (Al Pacino, also appearing at the Festival inManglehorn) reaches its denouement, that space gets hazier with each passing day. Once a universally acclaimed thespian, the now-sexagenarian Simon has fallen from grace — literally. After swan-diving into the orchestra pit in the middle of a performance, he slides into an intense depression, and quite possibly dementia, leading to a spell in a psychiatric facility. Upon his release he agrees to continue therapy and swears that he is giving up acting. But Simon is always acting, always rating his “performance” in the theatre of everyday life. It’s only when he finds himself in an unlikely affair with the much younger Pegeen (Greta Gerwig), the daughter of some old friends — and until now a lesbian — that Simon seems to be back in the moment. Or is he? If all the world’s a stage, then Simon seems to be losing his grip on who’s playing which role.
