The iconic actor visited the festival on Saturday (30 AUG. 2014) with two new films, "Manglehorn," which is showing in competition and "The Humbling" which isn't.
"I didn't think I was going to have both movies and I had both movies in the same day. So go figure that," smiled the 74-year-old star.
"But this is a great festival I have to say, it's very artistic and of course I love Venice," he added.
Despite visiting the carpet twice in the space of 6 hours, Pacino looked enthusiastic throughout and took plenty of time at both events to meet with fans.
"Meeting fans? Oh yeah I love it." Said the star.
"It comes with the territory, it's fine. There's meeting fans in an atmosphere like this and then there is meeting fans at your house, that's different. But in the world it's kind of cool, in this environment, it's fun to know that people are out there and it's good."
Both his movies happen to be about aging, regret, giving up and letting go.
In "The Humbling," he plays waning actor Simon Axler who rattles around his half-empty mansion like a Connecticut King Lear, pinning his misguided hopes of love and redemption on a much younger lesbian, played by Greta Gerwig.....
While his career is on the decline he's "not so much losing his talent," explains Pacino. "He's losing his desire which can become fretful."
"And that's part of what is so interesting to me about doing a movie about someone who is losing his desire and wants to change his life because of it. And then really makes so many strange, unusual and sort of stupid decisions in the real world which he never experienced. And I love the idea of an actor never experiencing the real world so that matters to me."
Pacino, who has enjoyed a long and successful career himself, said he was "distanced enough to understand the trouble" his character was going through.
And fortunately now for Pacino, who began acting in 1968, keeping a distance from the characters he plays has become second nature.
"When I was younger I think those early parts I played, especially 'Godfather' was very hard to let go of but now it seems, you do it enough you are able to mercifully find that distance."
The film is directed by Barry Levinson who said he sympathized with the plight of an actor who wants to retire from show business.
"I think it's complicated because on one hand actors live so much in the imagination and the fantasy and so it's hard to just turn off the fantasy and there is no more fantasy any more and there's only reality. I think that's probably not an easy process." He said.
