PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK: Q & A with JERRY SCHATZBERG, KITTY WINN & JOAN DIDION (Recorded January 30, 2009)

Summary: PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK: That’s the little triangle at the intersection of Broadway and 72nd St. (aka Sherman Square, adjacent to Verdi Square) and Shootup Central for West Side drug addicts, and where decent Midwesterner Kitty Winn is headed from the moment she spies artist boyfriend Raul Julia making a connection with small-time crook and pusher Al Pacino. Scintillating star debut for Pacino (Paramount execs green-lighted him for The Godfather only after Coppola screened Panic for them) as the Boyfriend from Hell — and an equally smashing debut for Winn, granddaughter of General George C. Marshall: she won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her performance. Stark, music-less, near-documentary treatment of drug life — and an offbeat love story — with scenes shot (by Polish DP Adam Holender) on Gotham streets (B’way & 69th doubled for the real Needle Park), and with Pacino often improvising from the solid basis of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne’s screenplay (based on the book by James Mills). Only the second film from photographer Schatzberg (already renowned for his fashion work and Bob Dylan images, including the iconic Blonde on Blonde cover), Panic established him as a distinctive stylist. With Richard Bright as Pacino’s thief brother, the unsung Alan Vint as the narc (setting new records for low-key delivery) and Paul Sorvino cameoing as a john. This podcast is a recording of the Q & A with JERRY SCHATZBERG, KITTY WINN & JOAN DIDION, recorded January 30, 2009, at Film Forum.