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Sidney Lumet and Vin Diesel unveil mob movie at Berlinale
2006-02-17
The unlikely duo of legendary director Sidney Lumet and action hero Vin Diesel appeared Thursday at the Berlin Film Festival to premier mafia drama "Find Me Guilty", telling the true story of the longest mob trial in US history. Diesel, best known as the buffed star of blockbusters such as "xXx", sports gray hair and a healthy paunch to play Giacomo "Fat Jack" DiNorscio, a New Jersey gangster who spent more than half his life in prison. The 81-year-old Lumet, who accepted an honorary Oscar last year for his work on classics including "12 Angry Men", "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network", told a news conference that he had consciously cast Diesel against type. "The truth of it is, we're all -- and I include myself in this -- great snobs about action heroes," he said. "We sort of relegate them. It's what we used to do with beautiful actresses. All of this despite the fact that we know differently. Despite the fact that there's a Sean Connery, a Clint Eastwood or even going back much earlier a Humphrey Bogart or a James Cagney." Diesel said he had been a life-long student of Lumet's work. "The luxury of doing this picture was that I could follow Sidney Lumet and give myself over to Sidney Lumet in a way that in that made it very easy for me because I just went where he told me to go." The film traces the extraordinary racketeering trial of DiNorscio and a dozen other underworld figures which dragged on for two years before ending in acquittals for all defendants on all charges. Lumet brushed aside allegations that he had glorified the mobsters. "I'm not going to be dishonest about it -- the mafia are not heroes. They kill people," he said. "It's a conflict that is present as soon as you pick this kind of a subject matter. You're doing a movie, so clearly you have to have a hero and a hero has to be likeable. "In the two 'Godfather' movies, Al Pacino kills 40 people and your heart breaks for him when he's left alone at the end -- a completely immoral situation but that's the difference between movies and real life." The film traces the courtroom antics of DiNorscio, who served as his own attorney and is shown in the film using his humor, charm and warmth to regale and manipulate a jury of his peers. The picture depicts him as a loveable clown, which Lumet said was true to life. "I think that what happened is that the personality of DiNorscio was so irresistible that it took over everything, that it wipes out facts," he said. "And that happens, that's real. Yes, it's not fair, yes, it's not just. But it is the truth." Lumet said he was pleased to be back at the Berlinale, where "12 Angry Men" won the Golden Bear top prize in 1957. He said he did not attend the festival that year because for a Jewish man, the city was too burdened by the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. "I was in Berlin in 1954 and it was a very different city. It broke your heart. And that was one of the reasons I didn't want to come back. The city was deeply depressing then. History was still very much present," he said. Lumet said he was pleasantly surprised by Germany's honest confrontation of its past and the stunning transformation of the capital in the last half century. "I must tell you that what you have done about the past is so noble and so beautiful and unlike any other country. It's magnificent and very important for the world." The 56th Berlinale, running through Sunday, is showcasing a number of veteran film-makers this year. They include Robert Altman, who premiered the radio musical "A Prairie Home Companion", and French luminary Claude Chabrol, who unveiled his corruption drama "The Comedy of Power".
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