Chinese Coffee.

I watched another excellent film called Chinese Coffee, based on the play by Ira Lewis. It can be found in this Pacino box set I recently purchased. It stars Pacino and Jerry Orbach and the entire film consists of these 2 men arguing. Basically, Pacino is a writer who seeks advice from his friend on a particular manuscript. He lives in Greenwich Village, has no money, and is pissed he is unable to support himself from his work. Hmm.

Anyway, Orbach is somewhat a slimeball, and he blames others for his problems. Ultimately he is jealous of Pacino's having written a book based on their friendship that he believes can sell and make money. Orbach also wrote 2 stories in his youth, but nothing since because he just comes up with excuses why he never pursued his craft. Instead he becomes a "sell-out" yet like Pacino, has no money either. There are some great lines, such as Orbach telling Pacino he should "find something else to do" such as advertising. Then Pacino asks, "Are you seriously telling me I have no talent?" where Orbach replies, "No. Worse. You have no money." Orbach also tells him, (paraphrase) "you need to find something that will make you money because you're going to be 50 and working as a dishwasher who quotes Shaw and Proust all the time."

Here you can see Pacino as Harry: the whiny writer guy struggling to make ends meet.

There are many literary references littered throughout, and an interesting epilogue by Al Pacino. He states that he thinks there are too many flashbacks in the film, but he kept them in because they were funny and seemed to go over well with the audience. (He was the director).

I could tell there was some influence from My Dinner With Andre, yet Chinese Coffee isn't as existential or as deep as Andre, but this was definitely a film where I found myself having to sit up and really pay attention to the dialogue. Not that I don't "pay attention" normally, but honestly, when I put it in the DVD player, I was expecting more of a lighter comic type film. And although there are some comic moments, the writing took me by surprise.

Definitely a different film from The Panic in Needle Park, but both are very good in different ways. There are 2 other films in this collection, as well as a biography on Pacino, discussing his experiences with film acting as opposed to theatre acting.

I'm not sure why this film never made it to movie houses, it is certainly one worth watching. I'm sure the fact that it is more "intelligent" is an issue. Lord knows that Hollywood hasn't been putting out anything that's any good. But anyone who reads my blog I can pretty much guarantee would enjoy this film.

And with all this researching I've done, I've come to learn he's playing Salvador Dali in an upcoming film.


I will be seeing that in the theatres I can say. I wonder how Al will pull it off. Dali was such a weirdo.