My last post reminded me of Looking for Richard, a brilliant 1996 documentary film about making Shakespeare’s Richard III intelligible and enjoyable for a modern audience.

Co-written by and starring Al Pacino, who also directed, Looking for Richard takes us behind the scenes to watch Pacino and his fellow players –- Alec Baldwin, Aidan Quinn, Kevin Spacey, Winona Ryder and others –- analyze the play and its characters and find creative ways of bringing a Renaissance tragedy to life. It’s a fascinating glimpse of actors at work.

It’s also an education on the history behind the play and the life and work of Shakespeare. The film includes interviews with such famous interpreters of the Bard as Sir John Gielgud, Kenneth Branagh and Vanessa Redgrave.

My own favorite moment in the film is when one of Pacino’s colleagues declares in exasperation, “People don’t talk in iambic pentameter!” Pacino makes a shrewd face and replies, “They don’t talk in rap, either.”

Pacino’s point is that the actors have to tune the ears of the audience to appreciate Shakespeare’s poetry, just as rappers have to educate audiences to respond to their own rhythms.

The film includes crucial scenes from the play, and the excepts are tantalizing enough to make anyone who doesn’t know Richard III already want to see a whole production uncut.