Looking for Richard Page #5

It's the greatest period in British arts.

This extraordinary development

and maturing and death of drama.

In 20 years, Shakespeare's over.

You have our greatest drama.

And Shakespeare learns incredibly fast.

Already, in this very early play,

he's thinking about people as actors...

...and about the stage.

And the imagination as a bit of life.

Hey, Jimmy?

How's the sandwich?

We're gonna bite the bullet

and do Act 2 of the play.

What we said was,

we're gonna shoot Richard's death...

...and murder of Clarence, and that's it.

- No, the king makes peace.

What are you saying?

We got an end of a movie to shoot.

"My horse... " "A horse. A horse.

My kingdom for a horse. "

Fellas, the cops are here.

Police say we need a permit.

You said you'd take care of things.

What, I need...?

Why do I need a permit?

We have to give up a meal like this?

OFFICER:

You have to go, guys. You have to go.

PACINO:

Hope you like turkey.

So, we are gonna get...

...a young Lady Anne.

I want somebody very young.

KIMBALL:

Very young. How young?

As young as you can get...

...and be able to do Shakespeare

and understand the scenes.

Someone young enough to believe...

...in Richard's rap.

KIMBALL:
The problem is, we need

someone who can speak the part...

...which is why you always have

an older actress...

...because it takes maturity.

- You know, we don't need...

The problem of projecting the role...

...because it's a film, so we won't have

the need for the actor to project.

- We need a film actress.

- Great, great.

Someone like...

We'll think of someone.

Well...

PACINO:

I will marry the beautiful Lady Anne.

What though I kill'd her husband

and his father?

The readiest way to make

the wench amends...

...is to become her husband

and her father.

SCHOLAR 3:
This language is

the language of thoughts.

To do this in the theater,

you must speak loud.

There are very few actors who can

speak loud and still be truthful.

That's the actor's problem.

Every actor knows the quieter he is,

the closer he can be to himself.

When you play Shakespeare...

...in close-up, in a film...

...and have a mike

and can really speak the verse...

... as quietly as this, you are not going

against the nature of verse.

You're going in the right direction

because you're allowing the verse...

...to be a man speaking his inner world.

RYDER:

Set down...

...set down your honourable load...

...if honour may be shrouded in a hearse.

PACINO:
Was ever woman

in this humour woo'd?

Was ever woman in this humour won?

I'll have her.

I'll have her.

But I will not keep her long.

He says he'll have her...

...but he will not keep her long.

HADGE:
You're asking why he wants her?

Well, I think it's clear,

he's out to get this girl.

To take her...

...in her heart's extremest hate.

[PACINO GROANS]

He's killed her husband

in the civil war.

Tears in her eyes!

And murdered her father-in-law.

The bleeding witness of my hatred by.

He's out to get her.

To win her!

Ha.

I pour the helpless balm

of my poor eyes.

Her mourning is genuine

because she loved...

KIMBALL:
She goes out on the street, and

is it an accident that she meets Richard...

...the man who killed this man

and her husband?

Is it not possible that if...?

Did she have any idea...

...that if she went out with a corpse...

...making stops...?

You don't like that?

Does anybody have a better thing

than Frederic on this?

You just said that we didn't

answer the question...

...that what was...

PACINO:
Did that upset you?

No. Then what did you say?

You said you were gonna find

a scholar...

...who'd speak directly into the camera

and explain...

...what really happened

with Richard and Anne.

And I am telling you that

that is absolutely ridiculous.

You know more about Richard III...

...than any f***ing scholar

at Columbia or Harvard.

PACINO:
Fred.

- This is ridiculous!

You are making this documentary

to show that actors...

...truly are the possessors

of a tradition...

...the proud inheritors

of the understanding of Shakespeare.

Then you turn around and say,

"I'm gonna get a scholar to explain it. "

- This is ridiculous!

PACINO:
I hereby knight you, Frederic.

- Ph. D.

PACINO:
Ph. D. Of the realm.

- Oh, God. Ridiculous.

- No, but the point is this, Frederic.

A person has an opinion.

It's only an opinion.

- It's never a question of right or wrong.

- There's no right or wrong.

It's an opinion. And a scholar

has a right to an opinion as any of us.

But why does he get to speak

directly to the camera?

I don't really know why

he needed to marry her, historically.

I simply don't know.

Um, it's...

PACINO:

Stay, you that bear the corse.

Set it down.

Villains, set down the corse.

Or, by Saint Paul,

I'll make a corse of him that disobeys.

My lord, stand back,

and let the coffin pass.

Unmanner'd dog!

Stand thou, when I command.

Advance thy halbert...

...higher than my breast, or, by

Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot.

Spurn upon thee, beggar,

for thy boldness.

Richard needs Anne...

... because he wants to be king.

So he needs a queen.

Anne is perfect for the job.

Also, she needs protection.

Because she was on the losing side

of the War of the Roses.

She's young, she has no husband.

Basically, she has no future.

For Richard, she's someone

who'd represent...

... the other side,

the Lancasters coming to his side.

It says to the public that Anne has

forgiven him for killing her husband...

... therefore exonerating him

from his crime.

And thou unfit for any place but hell.

Yes, one place else...

...if you'll hear me name it.

Some dungeon.

Your bed-chamber.

I'll have her.

Gentle Lady Anne...

...to leave this keen encounter

of our wits...

...and to fall something

into a slower method...

...was not the causer of the timeless

deaths of these two men...

...Henry and Edward,

as blameful as the executioner?

Thou was the cause,

and the accursed effect.

Thy beauty was the cause

of that effect.

Thy beauty.

That did haunt me in my sleep...

...to undertake the death

of all the world...

...that I might live one hour

in your sweet bosom.

Teach not thy lip such scorn.

It was made for kissing, lady...

...not for such contempt.

If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive...

...lo, here. Here...

...I lend thee this sharp-pointed dagger.

If thou wish to hide in this true breast.

And let forth the soul

that adoreth thee...

...I lay it naked to the deadly stroke...

...and I humbly beg the death

upon my knee.

Nay, do not pause.

For I did kill King Henry...

...but 'twas thy beauty

that provoked me.

Nay, now dispatch.

'Twas I stabbed Edward...

...but 'twas thy heavenly face

that set me on.

Take up the sword again,

or take up me.

Though I wish thy death,

I will not be thy executioner.

Bid me kill myself. I will do it.

- I have already.

- That was in thy rage.

Speak it again...

...and, even with the word,

this hand...

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