Globe Photos)

The seventies-era golden age of American film has
been so exhaustively romanticized that it’s hard to believe anything, or anyone,
has been overlooked�until you consider the actor John Cazale. You likely
recognize his face, but if his name proves elusive, that only strengthens the
case for I Knew It Was You, a 40-minute HBO-produced documentary from
director Richard Shepard that’s the centerpiece of BAM’s upcoming retrospective
�Rediscovering John Cazale.� The classic tidbit of Cazale trivia is that he
appeared in only five films, all of which (The Godfather, The Godfather Part
II, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter) were nominated
for a Best Picture Oscar. The films are all landmarks, of course, and so
Cazale�best known as the frail Fredo Corleone�may be vaguely familiar. I
Knew It Was You makes a convincing, even moving, argument that he’s been
severely underappreciated as well.
To call Cazale a Zelig of the seventies movie boom is to undersell his talent
and his influence. It’s true he appeared in three films and three plays with Al
Pacino�they’d met while working as messengers at Standard Oil�including a famed
1968 Off Broadway production of The Indian Wants the Bronx, written by
Israel Horovitz (the father, incidentally, of Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz). It’s
true that Cazale was romantically involved with Meryl Streep, whom he’d met
doing Measure for Measure at Shakespeare in the Park, and whom he loved
right up to his death from lung cancer, at age 42, in 1978. (�I’ve met the
greatest actress in the history of the world,� he told Pacino; as it turned out,
he may well have been right.) I Knew It Was You is a lively summation
of Cazale’s career, but its real success comes in demonstrating that, had he
lived, he’d be mentioned today in the same breath as Pacino, Streep, Robert De
Niro, and Gene Hackman�i.e., the Mount Rushmore of American Film Acting.
Shepard undertook the project simply because he, like many film nuts, is a
closet Cazale fan. He wanted to learn more, but found little was out there. So
he cold-called Cazale’s brother for an interview. Shepard knew, though, that
he’d have no film without Streep, who’d been famously reluctant to discuss her
relationship with Cazale. �Her response was �I don’t talk about my private life,
and I certainly don’t talk about it with people I don’t know,’ � Shepard says.
By chance, Streep ran into Cazale’s brother at an art opening, and he persuaded
her to take part. �That was the turning point,� Shepard says.
�I learned more about acting from John than from anybody,� says Pacino in the
film, and a half-dozen other actors�including De Niro, Hackman, Streep, and
next-generation admirers like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Steve Buscemi�dissect
Cazale’s brilliance. It’s an affecting tribute, a fascinating tutorial, and a
warm love letter to an era electric with talent. Along with Shepard’s film (and
a Q&A with the director), BAM’s festival will feature screenings of all five
of Cazale’s films. The hardest part is choosing which one to see, so don’t. See
them all.

Rediscovering John Cazale
BAM Rose Cinemas.
July 29 to August 2.