I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale

Product Description

An exploration into the life of the exceptional but little-known actor John Cazale. Cazale's film career consisted of just five movies, but all of them were Academy Award® nominees for Best Picture; THE GODFATHER, THE GODFATHER: PART II, THE CONVERSATION, DOG DAY AFTERNOON and THE DEER HUNTER. He is remembered by these colleagues as one of the brightest talents of his day, but yet, after just three decades after his promising career ended with his untimely death, Cazale is largely unknown the general public. I KNEW IT WAS YOU seeks to remedy the disparity of Cazale's success with his relative anonymity.

Amazon.ca

I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale is a must for any film fan. The documentary by Richard Shepard examines the short but brilliant career of American actor John Cazale, who starred in just five films before his death at age 42 of lung cancer. But what five films they were: The Conversation, The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter, which was released after Cazale's death. He was perhaps best known for his roles in the Godfather films, as Fredo Corleone, the weak, overwhelmed brother who resents being seen as the burden he is. I Knew It Was You refers to the famous line uttered by Al Pacino's Michael Corleone to his brother Fredo--a line that seals Fredo's fate and sends chills up the spine of the viewer. As I Knew It Was You shows, Cazale's amazing acting ability was to take a "less showy" and weak character like Fredo--one that most actors would shy away from playing--and embrace him and make him completely memorable. The interviews in I Knew It Was You are fascinating, including a long one with Pacino, who relates what it was like to work with Cazale in both Godfather films as well as Dog Day Afternoon. Pacino reveals that one of Cazale's famous lines in Dog Day Afternoon was an improvisation, and one that Pacino confesses he barely could resist bursting out laughing at. When the two bungling bank robbers played by Cazale and Pacino are regrouping about their strategy to get out of the situation they are in, Pacino's character, Sonny, tries to calm down the anxious Sal (Cazale) by promising that when they get out, they can go to "any country you want. What country do you want to go to?" And Cazale's Sal, without missing a beat, thinks for a moment and says, "Wyoming." The final scene made it into the film and Pacino says, "That's exactly what it was like to work with him--he took his craft very seriously, came up with things like that, and he made you better." Other great interviewees include film historian Mark Harris, who also wrote the lovely introduction in the boxed set, and Meryl Streep, who first met Cazale when they were acting in Shakespeare in the Park in New York in the '70s and fell deeply in love, until Cazale's death. No fan of American film, especially of its golden age in the '70s, will want to miss this amazing appreciation of an amazing actor. --A.T. Hurley

Special Features

All new feature length audio commentary with director Richard Shepard

Al Pacino - extended interview

Israel Horovitz - extended interview

The American Way (1962, produced / directed by Marvin Starkman, written by Bob Feinberg) - a rare, offbeat short film tweaking American institutions and starring a young John Cazale

The Box (1969, directed by Marvin Starkman) - Cazale, who had an interest in photography, is featured behind the ceamera as director of photography in this early short film