You’ll recall that earlier in the year we were psyched to hear the news of “I Knew It Was You,” a documentary on the late, great ’70s actor John Cazale who died of lung cancer just as his career was hitting its peak in 1979. Cazale, only appeared in five feature films, during his brief movie career, but what a resume it was, man. “The Godfather I & II,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Conversation” and “The Deer Hunter” (the five unimpeachable classics garnered 40 Oscar nominations in total and the underappreciated Cazale never even received one nomination).
We were then further psyched when we had a chance to see the film at the Independent Film Festival of Boston earlier this year. The 40 minute documentary on the actors brief, but incandescent film career turned out to be a fascinating and excellent doc that we highly recommend and New Yorkers should note they’ll be getting it early for a limited five day run.
Starting July 29, all of the actor’s films will be screened in succession at Brooklyn’s Academy of Music and before every screening, “I Knew It Was You” — which was directed by Richard Shepard, and produced by Stacey Reiss and Brett Ratner — will play. The doc features intimate interviews with many of Cazale’s closest friends including Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Francis Ford Coppola, Gene Hackman, and Meryl Streep, who was his girlfriend at the time and essentially was at his bedside when he died (plus many others).
So all this is tied to the HBO debut of the documentary, right? Wishful thinking and just a Brooklyn/NY first look. Producer Stacey Reiss tells us its still scheduled for a “fall premiere,” but that’s the closest thing we have to a TV release date so far. Unfortunately there’s no trailer yet, but hopefully closer to its cable debut. The film is grabbing strong accolades wherever it goes and also just won the audience award at the Newport International Film Festival last weekend.