Al Pacino in "Kramer vs. Kramer"—a role that Pacino had declined. During the 1970s, Pacino had four Oscar nominations for Best Actor, for his performances in "Serpico", "The Godfather Part II", "Dog Day Afternoon", and "...And Justice for All". Pacino's career slumped in the early 1980s; his appearances in the controversial "Cruising", a film that provoked protests from New York's gay community, and the comedy-drama "Author! Author!", were critically panned. However, his performance in "Scarface" (1983), directed by Brian De Palma, proved to be a career highlight and a defining role. Upon its initial release, the film was critically panned due to
Al Pacino pictures. In 2000, Pacino released a low-budget film adaptation of Ira Lewis' play "Chinese Coffee" to film festivals. Shot almost exclusively as a one-on-one conversation between two main characters, the project took nearly three years to complete and was funded entirely by Pacino. "Chinese Coffee" was included with Pacino's two other rare films he was involved in producing, "The Local Stigmatic" and "Looking for Richard", on a special DVD box set titled "Pacino: An Actor's Vision", which was released in 2007. Pacino produced prologues and epilogues for the discs containing the films. Pacino turned down an offer to reprise his