Paul Sorvino makes quiet authority unsettling. We rate his work in GoodFellas especially highly: he holds his place beside louder performers without strain, though the recurring gangsters and policemen can make such careful acting too easy to take for granted.
Fi1m perspective
In GoodFellas (1990), Paul Sorvino makes a mob boss's authority seem settled before he has done much to assert it. His Paul Cicero does not compete for attention, and we never mistake that restraint for weakness. We found him unnerving because his quiet delivery suggests a man who expects to be obeyed. Sorvino's imposing size helps, but Martin Scorsese gets more from him by letting him underplay. There is none of the fuss that can make an actor playing a powerful man look anxious about his casting.
By then, Sorvino had been a prolific character actor through the 1970s and 1980s. His work included Phil Romano in the stage production of That Championship Season (1972), a part he reprised in the 1982 film. After Cicero came detective Phil Cerreta in Law & Order (1991–1992), reinforcing the association with authority on either side of the law. It is easy to see why that casting persisted. The drawback is that a succession of gangsters and policemen can make a carefully judged performance look like a familiar face doing the usual job.
Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996) uses him as Fulgencio Capulet, Juliet's father, keeping that association with authority even in a different sort of film. We recommend its romance warmly, though its noisy interruptions can be frustrating. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes make Shakespeare's words belong in the modern setting, despite editing that sometimes gives them too little room; Sorvino is part of the supporting company around them.
GoodFellas is where that familiar casting produces the richest result in the films we have reviewed. Joe Pesci puts aggression into Tommy DeVito's humour, and Robert De Niro makes James Conway's listening worrying. Sorvino's quiet authority matters just as much to the company, even if it is less likely to be the first thing we notice. We would start there, and give the quiet man as much attention as the loud ones.
Biography
Paul Sorvino (1939–2022) was an American actor who appeared in film, television and theatre. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and trained at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. He made his Broadway debut in 1964 and later received acclaim for the play That Championship Season, which he also filmed in 1981.
Sorvino was frequently cast as authority figures on both sides of the law. He played the mob underboss Paul Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas (1990) and NYPD Sergeant Phil Cerreta in the television series Law & Order. Other film roles include Lips Manlis in Dick Tracy (1990), Eddie Valentine in The Rocketeer (1991), Henry Kissinger in Nixon (1995) and Fulgencio Capulet in Romeo + Juliet (1996).
He was the father of actors Mira Sorvino and Michael Sorvino.
