50 years have passed since the premiere of
The Godfather,
by Francis Ford Coppola, a masterpiece of cinema, a drama as Shakespearean and family as it is mafioso and criminal.
In the US it was launched in mid-March 1972 and it would not arrive in Spain until months later, in October.
The worldwide re-release in theaters of a remastered version in 4K, to which film restoration specialists have dedicated 4,000 hours of work, once again excites moviegoers who love an immeasurable film, in which shadows, contrasts and darkness created by cinematographer Gordon Willis.
In
The New York Times,
Coppola confesses for the anniversary: “As a filmmaker, I didn't know how to make
The Godfather.
I learned as I went…doing it.”
To remember that trip, what better than a dictionary of
The Godfather.
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ANDOLINI, VITO.
Vito Corleone doesn't actually have that last name, and we'll find out in
The Godfather II.
His real name is Vito Andolini, born on December 7, 1892. When he emigrated to the United States at the age of nine, on Ellis Island —where immigrants who entered New York by boat were registered—, the official registered as his surname his native town, Corleone.
One fact: more than 12 million immigrants passed through these facilities between 1890 and 1940.
Duvall holds up Brando's text on the set of 'The Godfather.'
BRANDO, MARLON.
Paramount president Stanley Jaffe told Coppola, “I assure you, Marlon Brando will never appear in this film.
Also, because of my position, I will not allow you to contradict me.”
The entire production of
The Godfather
It is full of resounding unfulfilled phrases.
For the role of Vito Corleone, they interviewed a hundred actors, although the casting director, Fred Roos, focused on Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando and George C. Scott.
The final duel between Olivier and Brando was resolved because the former fell ill.
Mario Puzo, author of the novel that would be taken to the big screen, had pointed to Brando two years earlier as the perfect protagonist.
But Paramount considered him poison for the box office and, in order to put Coppola and Puzo between a rock and a hard place, they asked Brando to do a camera test, something that the actor systematically refused.
Coppola went to the interpreter's house, and he slicked back his hair with black polish and put dental cottons on his cheeks to look like a
bulldog.
He recorded him when he was 47 years old, looking like he was 60. And he swept it away.
During filming, Brando was capricious, playful—he didn't take even himself seriously—and forgetful.
There are plenty of photos from the shoot where his co-workers are seen hiding posters with Brando's dialogue from the camera for him to read.
All in all, what Vito Corleone composed!
Francis Ford Coppola and Marlon Brando, on the set.
COPPOLA, FRANCIS FORD.
When the irrefutable offer of
The Godfather arrived,
Francis Ford Coppola had already directed five feature films, although none were commercially successful.
His name was 13th on the Paramount list, where Arthur Penn, Franklin J. Schaffner, Peter Yates, Richard Brooks appeared before... Coppola, 32, knew how to work with tight budgets, was cheap and of Italian descent, although he had no interest in or knowledge of the mafia.
Beset by debt, he agreed to a contract with a percentage of the film's profits.
In addition, Coppola co-wrote the script with Mario Puzo, who had already written a first script, transferring the action to its present (the seventies,
hippies) .
by order of Paramount.
It was Coppola who made him return to the book's timeline, set in the mid-1940s.
In
The Godfather,
the filmmaker hired many friends and family: he had gone to high school with James Caan;
his sister, Talia Shire, plays Connie Corleone;
His parents, his three children and his wife appear at some point on screen, and his brother August helped him with the script.
There is documented evidence of at least five occasions when Paramount almost fired him.
Luckily, he held on.
DON, KISS AL.
When The Godfather
was filmed and released ,
mobsters no longer kissed their bosses.
It was a custom that had disappeared.
After 1972 they recovered the tradition.
And fascinated by the film, they took on much of what was shown on screen (like dressing smartly).
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EVANS, ROBERT.
Head of international productions for Paramount, in the early seventies Robert Evans was a god in Hollywood, where he was compared to another pretty boy and mythical executive, Irving G. Thalberg.
Evans put Albert S. Ruddy at the helm of production of
The Godfather
and Gray Frederickson as its production manager (when Coppola was nearly fired in the middle of filming, Frederickson was the only one to defend him).
They were the real engines of the film.
Evans over time tried to establish himself as responsible for the success, and assured that
The Godfather
had also cost him a divorce.
As he was very involved in the stormy filming, he never stopped by the set where
The Escape was filmed,
in which his wife, actress Ali MacGraw, found love in the arms of Steve McQueen.
From left, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans, and Albert S. Ruddy.
FAMILIES, THE FIVE.
They are the families that make up the New York mob and make up the Commission: the Tattaglias, the Barzinis, the Corleones, the Cuneos, and the Straccis.
The commission with the five families.
GENOVESE, VITO.
Vito Corleone is born from the mixture of two real capos, Vito Genovese and Joseph Profaci.
Genovese, like Corleone, ordered his family not to get into the drug business.
By the way, name
of Genovese 's
caporegime ?
Michael
TriggerMike
Coppola.
No relation to the director.
HAGEN, TOM.
Picked up from the streets by the Corleones, who consider him part of the family, Tom Hagen will be don Vito's
consigliere
after the death of his predecessor, Genco.
He is the CEO of the company, the trusted man who executes the orders, because a Don never orders other subordinates (so he can never be accused of anything by justice).
For the rest of the families, that Hagen is of Irish origin is a sign of weakness.
But Don Vito knows his loyalty, Hagen lives under his protection since he fell in love with Sonny, and besides being intelligent, he is a lawyer.
Why doesn't he appear in
The Godfather III?
Because the producer rejected the economic requests of his interpreter, Robert Duvall, who wanted the same salary as Al Pacino.
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I BELIEVE IN AMERICA.
And it follows “America has made my fortune” (“I believe in America, America made my fortune”).
These are the first sentences that are heard on the screen, recited by Amerigo Bonasera, owner of a funeral home, in Don Corleone's office.
The first line of the script is a typical indication: “1A INT DAY: Don's Office (Summer 1945)”.
JONES CAUSEWAY, BEACH OF.
Sonny's savage murder takes place on the lookout over the Jones Causeway beach, although it was actually filmed on the runway at Floyd Bennett Field (New York).
It cost $100,000, James Caan had 127 blood-filled detonating devices to simulate the impact of bullets (he was protected with a brass plate) and the car, a 1941 Lincoln, hid 200 holes previously drilled with detonators.
Sonny's murder.
KAY or KEATON, DIANE.
"It's my family, Kay, I'm not like that."
Michael blurts out a phrase to his girlfriend that will backfire on him throughout the saga.
Kay is the viewer's guide, the one left outside in the last shot as Al Neri closes the door behind which the
caporegime
kiss Michael's hand.
Keaton dazzles in the role of her, gives her liveliness ... and that almost did not hire her because she came from doing comedy on stage and television.
Only when she joined Pacino was the producer able to verify that she was not taller than him.
STRATEGY LESSONS
(book).
The godfather
reveals many details about business techniques.
In 2007, a book by Guillermo de Haro entitled
Lessons in Strategy
(Editorial Pearson) analyzed the film from that perspective and dissected the competitive environment.
Leadership, human resource management, operational structure, vision and mission... and the strategic differences between Vito Corleone and his son Michael.
MAFIA or
MOB
.
None of these words, associated with organized crime, are pronounced in the film.
ORANGES.
Production designer Dean Tavoularis used this fruit on numerous occasions to brighten up darker scenes.
In addition, for Coppola the citrus fruit was a symbol of Italy that he placed in the hands of characters at risk, as if anticipating his death.
The first to underline this coincidence was the critic Judith Vogelsgang, who found seven premonitory appearances with oranges or orange clothing.
And the eighth: what fruit are the peels that Vito Corleone puts in his mouth to joke with his grandson just before suffering a fatal heart attack?
Fredo cries with his seriously injured father.
On the ground, several fallen oranges.
OSCARS, AWARDS.
She was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in Hollywood.
The godfather
won the statuettes for best film, best adapted screenplay (Mario Puzo and Coppola) and best actor (Marlon Brando).
The interpreter did not attend the gala and instead collected the Sacheen Littlefeather trophy, a Native American who spoke to claim the rights of those peoples.
Sacheen Littlefeather, after collecting the Oscar for Marlon Brando.
PACINO, AL.
Albert S. Ruddy wanted Robert Redford for Michael Corleone, a name that scared the rest of those involved.
But Redford, like Warren Beatty, turned down the offer.
James Caan (who would end up playing his brother Sonny his) failed the test.
And Coppola and Puzo looked at Al Pacino, 31 years old and a movie,
Panic in Needle Park.
He did a camera test with Diane Keaton and he didn't even know the lines.
They went back to Caan, who didn't improve on his test, something he did on Pacino's second chance.
The actor has always said that every day during filming he thought he was going to be fired and that it would be his last day.
Al Pacino and Vito Corleone, in the sequence of instructions for the future of 'The Godfather'.
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND FEET OF FILM.
They are the ones that were filmed, which in meters are equivalent to about 150,000.
In hours of footage, 90 hours, so since the film is two hours and 55 minutes long, the ratio between what was filmed and what was used is 30 to 1. Shooting days: 77.
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BROKEN, BOY.
Initially,
The Godfather
garnered 11 Oscar nominations, but Nino Rota's nomination for best soundtrack was annulled after it was found to be
too much
inspired by his earlier work, the score for Eduardo De Filippo's
Fortunela
(1958).
Rota, who had already worked with the great Italian filmmakers, was a choice of Peter Bart, vice president of creative affairs at Paramount (he was the one who bought Puzo's book draft), which Coppola also supported.
Robert Evans preferred Henry Mancini, whom Coppola did not want.
Finally, Rota composed the score that he made known to him in the Hollywood cinema.
SPAGHETTI.
Clemenza explains to Michael that for his
spaghetti
recipe he first adds the tomatoes and fry them, a detail that exasperated Mario Puzo, author of the novel, because such an aberration does not appear in the book.
Then yes, then add sausages and meatballs well.
In the novel his secret is not sugar, but red wine.
It's a secret because Clemenza and all the Italians around him are Sicilians, and adding wine to
spaghetti
sauce is from Northern Italy.
TATTAGLIA AND TESSIO.
They are the traitors.
The Tattaglia family wants to strike down the Corleones, and Tessio, who as a young man had formed a trio of thugs with Vito and Clemenza, approaches Michael at his father's funeral to propose a peace conference.
That movement marks him as a traitor to the Corleones.
Before he is executed, he asks Hagen to explain to Michael about his betrayal: "It's nothing personal, it's just business."
Tessio and Michael Corleone, at Don Vito's funeral.
URZÌ, SARO.
Sicilian actor who played Vitelli, owner of the Vitelli bar and father of Apollonia, Michael's first wife.
The bar has existed since 1963, and its exterior remains as in the film (they changed its name) in the small town of Sàvoca, 15 kilometers from Taormina.
It is a magical place.
Inside the bar, the owners, two sisters, have created a temple to
The Godfather,
with a multitude of photos from the shoot.
In the nearby 13th-century church (the portico is from the 16th century), Coppola filmed the wedding between Michael and Apollonia.
The Vitelli bar, in Sàvoca.
I'LL MAKE HIM AN OFFER HE CAN NOT REFUSE.
One of the most famous phrases of
The Godfather.
It is pronounced four times.
Michael tells Kay a story that includes that admonition;
Vito explains to Johnny Forlane that there will be such a proposal to producer Woltz;
Sonny tells Michael that this is the Tattaglia family's offer, and Michael tells Fredo that he will propose something similar to Moe Greene.
WILLIS, GORDON.
Huge cinematographer, nicknamed the prince of darkness for his propensity to shoot in low light and use shadows to draw characters without clearly showing their eyes.
The fights between Coppola and Willis were Homeric.
Alan J. Pakula and Woody Allen worked with Willis whenever they could.
Being the most important cinematographer of the seventies, he was only nominated for an Oscar twice
(The Godfather III
and
Zelig),
and only received the Honorary one.
X.
There are several unsolved puzzles in
The Godfather.
The most striking is: who puts in the bed of Woltz, the film producer, the severed head of his horse
De he Karthoum?
The montage implies that Woltz discovers his pureblood lover the morning after the night he kicks Hagen out of his mansion.
According to Coppola's script notes, Hagen returns to New York, tells don Vito, and he sends Luca Brasi, more experienced in operations that require blood.
But with the speed of the planes of the time, they would have needed several days of transfers...
Woltz discovers his horse's head in bed. Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock (Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
SOUTH YEMEN.
On January 13, 1986, the president of South Yemen, Ali Nasser Mohammed al-Hassani, gathered his rivals in a meeting room and assassinated them.
He followed the methodology of the mafia shown in
The Godfather
, as recognized by one of his leaders.
ZOETROPE.
Coppola's production company, located in San Francisco, was called American Zoetrope at the time.
Because of his poor economic situation, Coppola agreed to direct
The Godfather.
Before committing, he consulted with the then vice president of the company, George Lucas, who told him not to hesitate.