Not long ago, the 16th Tribeca Film Festival was held in New York, and this year's film festival has made "Godfather" fans happy.
At the end of the festival, following the 387-minute screening of "The Godfather" and "The Godfather 2", the film's legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, James Keane, Robert Duval, Diane Keaton, Talia Charles and others gathered together to talk about the filmmaking experience.
At this time, it has been 45 years since the release of the first "Godfather".
Marlon Brando forever
The Godfather is a gangster film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, released in the United States on March 24, 1972. Based on Mario Puzo's novel of the same name, the film tells the story of the development of a gangster family headed by Vito Don Collion and how Collion's youngest son, Mike, succeeded his father as gang leader.
In 1973, the film won the 45th Academy Awards for Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2007, it was selected by the Motion Picture Association of America as the "Second Best Film in the 100 Years".
Mario Puzzo's novel of the same name, published in 1969, makes this film famous, and the protagonist of the novel, Vito Collion, is based on frank costello known as the "gangster prime minister" and the thug vito genovese, both of whom are members of the New York Mafia, and some of the mafia actions in the novel are also derived from real events created by the two.
James Kane, Marlon Brando, Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino and John Keizer in 1972 (from left)
Since it comes from the real, it's also a super detail-oriented film, and Marlon Brando wanted to make Don Collion look like a "bulldog". During the audition, he stuffed cotton in his mouth to make his cheeks bulge. When he was actually filmed, he wore a pair of braces specially made by the dentist.
What makes people sigh is that this New York "Godfather" party, the people who should come are coming, except for the Oscar emperor who died in 2004, the soul of the film - Marlon Brando.
It's a movie you can't get tired of watching
"The Godfather" is a nuanced depiction of Italian culture (especially family culture), and many people will sigh when they first watch "The Godfather", is this not a documentary?
The scene where Clermonta teaches Mike to cook is so authentic that many Italians sincerely sigh that it feels like it was cut out of their grandparents' kitchens.
And Sonny saw the scene where his sister was abused by her brother-in-law, and the angry Sonny began to subconsciously bite his own hand at this time, this action is also very authentic, you see a lot of Italians, they really do this when they are angry.
When "The Godfather" came out, many fans wrote letters to Coppola, excitedly telling him that he could recite every line of "The Godfather" word for word, and "The Godfather" has become a cultural symbol like many great literary works.
And the new generation of movie fans, even if they haven't seen "The Godfather", can instantly understand from many flashes of detail: music, tone, and even that aura, and then shout in surprise: "Ah, yes!" This is the scene in the Godfather! ”
If you have a friend around you who tells you that he/she has watched "The Godfather" hundreds of times, don't be surprised, in a sense, it is like "Dream of the Red Chamber", any work that can be watched repeatedly has its inevitable truth.
Borrows from Shakespeare's theatrical concepts
Shakespeare once said, "Life is like a show." We are actors and God is the director. "But I wonder, who's in the audience?"
Coppola borrowed heavily from Shakespeare's theatrical ideas when filming The Godfather, and he also mentioned god's point of view many times. He said that the essence of God's perspective is to only state the facts and not to express opinions, which seems easy, but in fact it is extremely difficult, because opinions are actually worthless, but it is basically impossible to grasp the facts.
Moreover, people are subjective, we actually have our own point of view when stating the facts, the history of human civilization has been thousands of years, and there are no more than 50 writers who can approach the realm of God's perspective (the rhythm of one hundred years), and Shakespeare is undoubtedly the highest person in it.
The evaluation of the famous film critic Kenneth Turan undoubtedly represents the common voice of many fans: "I felt very good when I first watched "The Godfather", but then every time I watched it, I would see new things and feel better and better, because you will have new understandings at different ages, and the same things are different for you at different ages."
This is why we often have the feeling of watching Changxin when watching "The Godfather", which is actually the same as watching "Dream of the Red Chamber" and watching "Water Margin", which is why we will turn over and over to see these works with God's perspective. ”
The Godfather won't be adopted by Today's Hollywood
At a party in New York, director Coppola recalled that he first saw the novel "The Godfather", but at first he didn't like it very much, "When I first read it, I was disappointed with this book because it was very long. At the beginning of the film, he was even on the verge of being fired by the studio. Coppola said that today, film projects like "The Godfather" will not be approved in Hollywood.
"The first 'The Godfather' cost $6.5 million, the second 'The Godfather' cost $11-12 million, and if you convert, that investment would cost a major studio." "Today, unless you can make a whole series of movies and Marvel comics type stuff, nothing is going to pass," he said. ”
He took a step back and said that even if "The Godfather" could be made today, a big company like Paramount would no longer do the distribution of "The Godfather", because many of the actors in the film were still newcomers at that time, and the film would be released as an independent film project.
Coppola also talked about the story of the film's casting, he revealed that the original film producer Paramount did not agree to Marlon Brando's role as the "godfather" because of Brando's debt problems, and he was so anxious that he "fell to the floor with a dizzy head." ”
Pacino was once crushed by the character
Coppola said that some members of the crew have not been seen for many years, so this creative gathering made the old man very happy.
Speaking about robert de Niro's young Vito, Coppola said that he arranged a lot of auditions for the role until he discovered that Robert De Niro, when playing young Vito, did not simply imitate Brando. De Niro himself said that Brando's performance in the first part was an important learning material for him to prepare for the second part.
In addition, the choice of Al Pacino to play Mike Corleone is actually controversial. Coppola met with Pacino in Los Angeles and took a fancy to him as soon as they met" "Once you see someone fit for the role, it's hard to think of anything else." ”
But the director's support wasn't enough, and Pacino recalled that he went through countless auditions, "it seems like I'm always trying, and I'm still trying after I get that role." Pacino also revealed that he was more interested in the role of Sonny Corleone, played by James Keane, "I don't think Mike is a good character." ”
He also said that the film's busy filming schedule had caused it to collapse. Pacino described the filming process as dizzying and chaotic on set. Since they had fallen behind the original shooting plan, they had to rush to shoot the daytime scene at night, and when they returned to their place of residence, they drank and complained.
West China Metropolis Daily - Cover News Reporter Yang Fan