‘Wilde Salomé’ and ‘Salomé’
His documentary and cinematic follow-up are best enjoyed and understood together.
On the heels of their recent showings as part of an extensive Al Pacino retrospective at New York City’s Quad Cinemas comes the long-delayed theatrical premiere of a pair of Pacinohelmed, stage-centric films, “Wilde Salomé” and its follow-up, “Salomé.”
This nichey, experimental duo are best seen — and discussed — in tandem and in order, even if that wasn’t necessarily Pacino’s original raison d’etre when he cobbled these projects together more than a decade ago.
Pacino’s way into this ambitious endeavor was, at least initially, a fascination with Victorian-era poet and playwright Oscar Wilde and his provocative play “Salomé,” a Biblically inspired tragedy that was banned in Britain just before its 1892 debut. The play eventually premiered in Paris in 1896, at which time Wilde, who was gay, was serving a two-year prison sentence for “gross indecency.”
“It’s gonna look a lot like I don’t know what I’m doing — because I don’t,” says Pacino at the start of “Wilde Salomé,” a captivating, enjoyable, often edifying documentary written and directed by Pacino.
The film largely tracks a period in 2006 when Pacino performed in a production — actually a developed staged-reading in modern dress — of “Salomé” (directed by Estelle Parsons) at UCLA’s Wadsworth Theatre, while he was also making a movie documenting the mounting of said show, concurrently shooting a narrative film version of the play and exploring the life and career of Oscar Wilde.
Pacino bites off an awful lot here, yet, as our puckish, ebullient and, later, prickly guide on this kaleidoscopic journey, he manages to present an intriguing and passionate view of artistic risk and reward.
Like his approach to examining William Shakespeare in his 1996 documentary “Looking for Richard,” Pacino hops the globe (London, Dublin, Paris) to enlighten himself — and the viewer — about Wilde and gain understanding of how “Salomé” came to be.
Pacino’s second film, simply titled “Salomé,” is the result of his efforts portrayed in “Wilde Salomé” to transfer Parsons’ stage version of the play to the screen. And, despite bits of duplication, you’ll be better off for having seen the documentary first, based on the insight, context and history it provides about Wilde’s often dazzling piece.
That cinematically, Pacino’s “Salomé” is ultimately little more than a well-shot and edited theater piece — stagebound and focused on the cast’s compelling faces and Wilde’s vivid text — is as much a practical matter (time, money) as, it turns out, a creative plus.
Jessica Chastain, in what was then her first feature film, shows the radiance and star power she would soon exhibit on a regular basis. With her ruby lips, translucent skin and mane of flame-red hair, she plays the petulant and privileged young seductress Salomé with great vigor and fearsome self-possession. Her “Dance of the Seven Veils” is mesmerizing.
Pacino’s Herod, who’s married to Herodias (a steely Hart), Salomé’s mother and the widow of the king’s brother, is a singular creation: playful, taunting, persuasive, a bit fey.
The “Salome” film proves a chilling and watchable look at lust, power, reprisal and decadence that, along with “Wilde Salome,” validates Pacino’s obsessive interest in Wilde’s stillresonant play while also giving movie and theater lovers a candid and involving window into the artistic process.