Bored by the Bard? Tired of sorting out kings, queens and cousins in history plays like Richard III? Step up and let Al Pacino restore your faith in English lit. In two hours, methinks he'll have you talking in iambic pentameter. Yes, gang, it's Shakespeare for the stupid.

I'm kidding. But the notion of Pacino making his directing debut with a film in which he and a starry cast, including Winona Ryder, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin, perform snippets of Richard III interspersed with actors rehearsing and kibitzing, and Pacino quizzing strangers on the street, does sound mighty patronizing.

Damn, though, if the film doesn't work like a charm. Pacino has been fine-tuning his labor of love (he shot 80 hours of footage) for four years. His look changes from Scent of a Woman (cleanshaven) to Carlito's Way (bearded), but his ardor and deflating wit burn steadily on high flame. He shares his feelings with other Richards (Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Kline, a wicked Sir John Gielgud) who have boldly knocked the hunchbacked king off his pedestal to find a pulse. Pacino rises so thrillingly to the dare, you want to see more interpretations. Bring on that just-discovered 1912 silent-film version of the play. Pacino makes looking for Richard a great adventure and outrageous fun.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."