TS: Godfather vs Godfather II

and to the extent that Michael even loves his family.

Watched I and II over the weekend.

I - I adore Brando, not so much his delivery but all the small things he does to add color to Vito. The way he casually brushes off Solazzo's pants at the sit-down, that opening scene with the cat...he feels like a real person, somehow? I read Kael's review and I like the thing she said about how Brando internalizes all of the power of the Don. It's like his violent past is buried deep in his old man soul so you can feel his power just by him being in the room. And the quietness of Pacino just gets me. He's so measured and good in the beginning, and then measured and ready, and tough; and then measured and calculating.

II - I've only seen it once before. I def found the details of the story a lot more confusing, especially the Roth connections and the double-play Michael was making about his suspicions on who shot him up at Tahoe...but the DeNiro scenes were fantastic. And the way it was like the thread you were watching going forwards with DeNiro, by contrast wtih Pacino it's like even though he's building that empire you're seeing him lose everything that Vito gained. All through I, Vito is surrounded by associates and family and friends adn everyone is so close to him, the parties seem like huge extended families...but Michael has everyone on a pending kill list, even his own family. I have been thinking a lot about what exactly it was that bred that impulse in Michael, as though he misinterpreted the shooting of his father as a call to arms to shoot everyone who crossed his path from then on.

The last couple of scenes of II really slayed me though. That table scene with Sonny, Fredo, Michael and Connie and I'm kind of teary just on the weight of seeing them all alive again, lol. And then Michael staring out at the lake alone at that big mansion.

Oh, and I adore the score. Adore it. Maybe moreso in I than II though. I it was much more noticeable, felt much more like a radio melodrama with its musical cues.

sorry for the blather I've just had it in my head all day and had to get it out!

It was only over many viewings that that most of the details in II started to fall in place--there are probably still a couple that I couldn't fully explain. (E.g.: Why does Michael go off on Pentangeli the way he does during his "In my home" tirade? He seems to have made up his mind by that point that it was Roth who set him up, not Pentangeli.) My favourite line from the flashback dinner scene: "Talked to my father about my future? My future."

YES. That killed me.

I loved Fredo's speech in the chair to Michael too, the one you said some of the kids in your class performed upthread; the way he's flailing around helplessly in that stupid chair while simultaneously pleading for respect was hilarious and sad.

Coppola notepad

http://cinephilearchive.tumblr.com/post/39323234557

I really think evidence that Coppola even fleetingly considered the Indian chief from "F Troop" for Don Corleone to be p significant.

TS: Anthony Zerbe as Sonny Corleone vs. Anthony Zerbe as Tom Hagen

I didn't realize Zerbe was in his mid 30s at the time, always seemed older.

The theatre where I saw II last night was giving these out at the door:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/fredo_zpsaa284eb3.jpg

I'm sure this has been raised many times, but I'd never thought about how puzzling the timeline is jumping from II to III. II ends sometime after 1958--within a year, say. III is set in 1979. Mary is around, what, 6 or 7 in II? That'd make her late 20s in III. But isn't Sofia Coppola supposed to be 18 or 19 in III? Or am I mixing up the actress's age with the character's?

yeah that whole thing did my head in, I had to stop thinking about it

Literally the first time I'd ever thought about it, primarily because I try never to think about III.

did you know today was the day don michael corleone traveled forward in time to die on at the end of godfather 3?

I watched them back to back a while ago (or at least, within a day or two of each other)...such a bad idea.

You need a xanax to deal wtih the transition

I did II and III within a couple of days of each other too. It's interesting to see up close just what happens to the functioning of it all when you tear out the European art film element and replace it wholesale with a US soap element.

It took me a good hour to stop saying GAH! MY EYES

i really loved III when i saw it at the movies. but i was 15 and i was so damned in love with sofia coppola. can't face seeing it again.

http://www.scoutingny.com/the-godfather-the-new-york-city-filming-locations-then-and-now/

at last we know where clemenza's house is!

lol 128 Mott St

Ned that is neato!

kinda sad about that Bronx restaurant going, since Tessio said "it's perfect for us... good food..." My fave bad laugh of the movie.

Ambience was important, too: everyone minds his business.

I hafta think the mansion in Staten Island gets some drive-up tourism.

Reminder: Abe Vigoda is still alive.

tessio's yelp review was glowing iirc

The commenters up re seem to locate the barbershop in the St Regis Hotel, so all my fave noise enemies are invited there for a shave.

Being alive is the smart move. Tessio was always smarter.

the stuff on page 2 about the tollbooths/AFB is great

The Godfather. Only the Deniro part of the second movie are any good. I barely cared about Al Pacino's character at the end of the first movie why would I (or anyone else) want to struggle through half of another movie and ANOTHER whole movie after that. Blurch.

Really the best way to watch the first two movies is that 7 hour long thing (The Godfather Epic) they did for NBC where they put them all in chronological order and added an hour or so of outtakes, but I don't think that's available anywhere anymore.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, January 22, 2004 1:32 AM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://i.imgur.com/euQhZxX.jpg

every time I pass Old St Patrick's (maybe once a year) I get the urge to go in and reject Satan and all his works.

And settle all family business?

"Really the best way to watch the first two movies is that 7 hour long thing (The Godfather Epic) they did for NBC where they put them all in chronological order and added an hour or so of outtakes, but I don't think that's available anywhere anymore."

I dig the ending on that edit where they use that unused scene with Michael coming back from WWII at Christmas time as the bookend showing the family together and happy.

The first one is a better stand alone movie, but to me it's all one piece in my mind as I have spent more than a few holiday's watching them back to back on TV over the years.

that Christmas scene is in the official cut of G2, I do believe.

Was just going to say that.

It's been so long since I saw the 7-hour version, I can't specifically remember any of the added scenes. But I do recall that even the slightest change--a few extra seconds at the beginning or end of a standard scene--jumped out at me immediately.

Brando wanted too much $ to be in it, but since they got Caan and the other dead folks they put it in anyway. xxp

I def saw the Complete Novel in '77 before I saw II standalone.

if it's the scene in which Michael announces he's enlisted it's in the original GII.

that's right, it's sposed to be '41 and he's back from Yale.

have we ever discussed the Vito chronology? i think he's identified as nine in 1901 when he flees Sicily, so when the first movie starts he's 53?? Brando is made up and acts like 70 at least.

The chronology in the three films is a muddle. So is costume and set design.

I like the eighties cuts of the disco-era GIII Andy Garcia.

Did discuss the questionable chronology of Mary Corleone's age on this or another thread--the character, as I figure it, is almost ten years older than Sofia Coppola in III. (Which is tied for the 83rd most questionable thing about III.)

http://www.filmsquish.com/guts/files/images/the-godfather-part-ii-alone_2.JPG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbchmWS5jIU

the prince of darkness

Duvall:

What was Brando like?

This might sound like heresy to some: More right for “The Godfather,” that part, was the guy who starred in “The Sopranos.” [James Gandolfini] was more willing to play the pr—. Brando was more heroic. On the second day of filming, there was a makeup guy who came in the dressing room, saying, “He’s playing this like a kindly old uncle.” He was more romantic. But Brando was wonderful to work with. His scene with Al Pacino, he had a big sign in a tree. He was reading his lines. [Laughs] He was a master at reading those lines all over the place.

A picture went viral recently of you on the set with Brando’s lines attached to your body.

Yes! Someone pointed that out to me recently! Another guy, Luca Brasi [actor Lenny Montana], we’d have him take Brando’s lines away. And Brando would have to stop. We had him do his monologue to Brando then stick out his tongue and say, “F— you!” We put him up to it. It was good to have fun on the set, to keep it relaxed.

http://www.metro.us/newyork/entertainment/movies-entertainment/2014/05/16/robert-duvall-night-old-mexico-interview/

Wilford Brimley is still alive?!

he's not THAT old... he was barely 50 when he did Cocoon.

Anyway, Willis:

“There weren’t a lot of contemporary mechanics introduced, like helicopters and zoom lenses. It was a tableau form of moviemaking, where the actors move in and out of frame, very straightforward. It was supposed to feel like a period piece… There was no discussion of lighting. I just did what I felt like doing. The design came out of the juxtaposition of the bright, cheerful garden party wedding that was going on outside, and the underbelly in this dark house. I used overhead lighting because the Don was the personification of evil, and I didn’t always want the audience to look into his eyes, see what he was thinking. I just wanted to keep him dark… (In those days) screens were so blitzed with light that you could see into every corner of every toilet and closet on the set. I’d always hear, ‘They have to be able to see it in the drive-ins….’ When the dark stuff started to appear on the screen, it seemed a little scary to people who were used to looking at Doris Day movies.”

http://thedissolve.com/news/2271-gordon-willis-1931-2014/

wilford brimley is only 79 years old, but he's looked 60+ since 'the thing'.