''Chinese Coffee'' is a 2000 American independent

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film starring

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino ( ; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Known for his intense performances on stage and screen, Pacino is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. His career spans more than five decades, duri ...

and

Jerry Orbach Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last'' bona fide'' leading men of the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical and global celebrity on te ...

. It is directed by Pacino and written by Ira Lewis, adapted from his play. Two longtime friends in New York City struggle with their relationship, which has become contentious after years of mistrust and resentment over professional and personal failures. It premiered at the 2000

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado, during Labor Day, Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 51st Telluride Film Festival, 51st edition took place on August 30–September ...

, and was also screened at the 2000

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

, where it was introduced by

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, director, and film producer. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of List of awards and ...

Plot

In 1982

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

, Harry Levine is a struggling writer barely eking out a living as a doorman. When he is fired, he visits his friend Jake Manheim, an arts photographer, to collect an old debt. When Jake says that he does not have the money, the two engage in an all-night conversation about their respective art, past and present loves, and the directions that their lives are heading.

Production

Genesis

The screenplay is an adaptation of a two character, one-act play of the same name written by Lewis. Unlike the film, all of the action takes place in Manheim's small Greenwich Village apartment. The film was produced and released thirteen years after Chinese Coffee's initial stage debut. The first fully staged production was an

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

closed-ended run in August 1987 at the Apple Corps Theatre in New York City. It was produced by Robert Barash, directed by David Margulies, starred Al Pacino as Harry Levine, and Marvin Silbersher as Jacob Manheim. The play later premiered at the

Circle in the Square Theatre The Circle in the Square Theatre is a Broadway theater at 235 West 50th Street, within the basement of Paramount Plaza, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The current Broadway theater, completed in 1972, i ...

on Broadway in 1992, directed by Arvin Brown, with Pacino reprising his role as Harry Levine, and Charles Cioffi cast as Jacob Manheim.

Film title

"Chinese Coffee" refers to a scene in which Levine explains to Manheim why he thinks a cup of coffee in

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

restaurants is superior to any other because they use the best beans, brewed fresh in Silex glass pots, and they give you real cream. Chinese Coffee is also a metaphor for the safety that Levine feels when he is in one of these restaurants. Al Pacino directs the 2000

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

of ''Chinese Coffee'', in which he stars with Jerry Orbach. Ira Lewis, who wrote the original play, also penned the

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

for the film. The film adaptation was released in New York as part of the

. Shot almost exclusively as a one-to-one conversation between the two main characters, it chronicles friendship, love, loss and humor of daily life. After years of withholding it, Pacino allowed it to be released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on June 19, 2007, as a part of a three-movie box set called ''Pacino: An Actor's Vision''. Reportedly,

Howard Shore Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is a Canadian composer, conductor and orchestrator noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for ''The Lord of the Rings'' and '' The Hobbit'' fi ...

composed the film's score before

Elmer Bernstein Elmer Bernstein ( '; April 4, 1922August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 orig ...

was hired to replace him.

References

External links

Review of ''Chinese Coffee''
at

Blogcritics Blogcritics is a blog network and online magazine of news and opinion. The site was founded in 2002 by Eric Olsen (writer), Eric Olsen and Phillip Winn. Blogcritics features more than 100 original articles every week, and maintains an archive of a ...

* * {{Al Pacino 2000 films 2000 independent films American independent films Films about writers American films based on plays Films directed by Al Pacino Films scored by Elmer Bernstein Films set in New York City Films set in 1982 Films shot in New York City 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language independent films Films about conversations