A Conversation With Gregory Peck (1999)

A CONVERSATION WITH GREGORY PECK
    D: Barbara Kopple                           (1999)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
For a few years before his death in 2003, Gregory Peck did what Vincent Price and Cary Grant had done: went on tour with a series of public appearances, telling stories and fielding questions about his long and distinguished career. Those Q&A sessions provide the centering point for this documentary, which also tracks Peck as he travels the world, graciously deals with adoring fans, scribbles notes for a possible memoir, and spends time with his family, most visibly his pregnant daughter Cecilia. Director Barbara Kopple did something similar with Woody Allen in "Wild Man Blues", but where Woody's talent for ad-libbing could carry that film over some of its slow spots, there's a sense here that Peck and those around him are always a little self-conscious, aware that there's a camera around and that they're in front if it, expected in some way to perform. What they're doing isn't always very interesting, and they talk sometimes when they don't have a whole lot to say. Martin Scorsese turns up very briefly, making you wonder what kind of film you might get if Peck and Scorsese had sat down and discussed movies in a little more depth. The rewards in this conversation are relatively minor, and include Peck recalling (with obvious affection) the time he spent making "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn, along with his response to a question about whether Sophia Loren was really naked during the shower scene in "Arabesque", something the rest of us have always sort of wondered about, too.