Great Films: #1 - The Godfather II

May 12, 2008

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Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone

Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone in The Godfather II

The Godfather II is perfect. It’s the perfect film. The fact that Francis Ford Coppola took the greatest film of all time in The Godfather and somehow not only did it again but added another wealth of life to the legend — this wholly unique accomplishment alone was the tipping point for me to pick this film over the first.

No one has done it since. The way the film business and industry has been going since the 80’s leads me to believe it probably will never happen again. I hope I’m wrong.

Robert DeNiro as young Vito Corleone

Revenge of the Don: The Birth of Don Vito Corleone

How do you make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.

Kay: It made me think of what you once told me: “In five years the Corleone family will be completely legitimate.” That was seven years ago.

Michael: I know. I’m trying, darling.

The first time we meet Michael Corleone, he’s a wide eyed kid just out of the military, beautiful fiancee in hand, ready to begin a successful career in the United States government, away from the family business.

In The Godfather II Michael couldn’t be further from his once meticulously laid out life plan. The irony is best laid out early in the film between Michael and Sen. Geary where Michael’s stone cold character is fully established in dealing with someone from a powerful and “legitimate” industry.

The Corleone son who once wanted nothing to do with the family business is not only the head of the family but now more cold hearted than could have ever been imagined. This is all exhibited throughout the film in all the choices Michael makes to consolidate his power. And it culminates in the ultimate choice that forever seals the fate of his soul.

“You broke my heart. You broke my heart!”

The Godfather II is everything America is about. The land of opportunity. The melting pot. The land of self. The land of family. The land of rebirth. The land of blood, sweat and tears.

The Godfather Saga is also about choices. The choices we make in life today may carry the most significant weight in the outcome of our futures. It happens to us everyday. It’s the thought process in how we deal with these decisions I find fascinating and see over and over again in my favorite films as in life. It’s really the greatest and most unique challenge about our lives. Everything else is just filler.

I don’t usually care for award shows but this is The Godfather II!

The only true sequel better than the original.

Thanks for indulging my blatant need to extrapolate on a very selfish endeavor. This is something I discuss with just about anyone who becomes important in my life and I’ve always wondered how my list (and my arguments for it) would play out in the written form.

I could finally put this thing to rest and get back to business at hand. There are some cool things cooking down the pipeline and I can’t wait to share so keep checking back.

Cheers.

cap

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Great Films: #2 - The Godfather

May 12, 2008

The Corleone Men

The Men of The Corleone Family

What can I say about The Godfather that hasn’t been said before?

As far as movies, films, art, story, screenplay, directing, casting, photography, editing, soundtrack and every other filmmaking element that goes into making a movie, The Godfather is about as close to perfection as it gets.

This is the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel, The Sergeant Pepper’s, The Twilight Zone (the original Serling hosted ones), the Tiger Woods, the Roger Federer, the hamachi nigiri and just about every other superlative ever all rolled into one.

I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend, not an Italian. She went to the movies with him. She stayed out late. I didn’t protest.

Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal!

When I went to the hospital, her nose was broken. Her jaw was shattered, held together by a wire. She couldn’t even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life. Beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again.

(chokes up; coughs)
Sorry.

I went to the police like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison, and suspended their sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool! And those two bastards, they smiled at me.

Then I said to my wife, ‘for justice, we must go to Don Corleone.’

The Most Memorable Opening Line Since: “In the beginning…”

The themes are not only timeless, but as you age, the film begins to mean something different than it did before. More accurately, it continues to develop and add more layers of everything about life as you revisit it again and again. It grows with you.

That is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of anything that transcends the upper echelon of any great group or list and becomes something wholly unique. Something that isn’t just a fad or a “right time, right place” sort of thing but rather something that grows as you do. Think about it. There’s really not much out there that you can make such a claim about. 99.9% of just about anything and everything is mediocre at best.

The Godfather.

“Be my friend? Godfather?”

The Godfather not only stands the test of time, culture, gender, age and all other demographics, it continues to steer itself further away from anything that remotely tries to share it’s status and legend.

From the opening note of the score to the very first spoken line, The Godfather commands your attention.

Star Wars is great. Nashville is great. Amadeus is great. 2001 is great. Citizen Kane is great. Battleship Potemkin is great. The Birth of a Nation is great pretty long and whatever. They’re all great films and movies.

“Don’t ask me about my business, Kay.”

The Godfather is something more. The Godfather is the peak of the mountain. The Godfather is the creme de la creme. The Godfather is quite simply… The Godfather.

The Original 1972 Trailer for The Godfather

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one film that could possibly be better than The Godfather.

Come back soon to find out.

cap

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Great Films: #3 - Magnolia

May 9, 2008

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Magnolia Film

“But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite your whole territory with frogs.”
Exodus 8:2

This film changed my life. Before Magnolia, I didn’t quite understand film. I loved movies. I was a fan of movies. High concept movies. Simpson / Bruckheimer type movies. Mindless, loud, obnoxious movies with little to no value other than to pass time. The kind of movies I can’t stomach very much now.

Then came Magnolia.

From the first frame (after the New Line logo) to the very last credit, I was frozen in awe. There is no traditional Syd Field three act structure (although I can imagine a lot of university screenwriting professors arguing otherwise). It’s over three hours long. No gratuitous violence or sex. Swearing wasn’t used for shock or comical value. Yet despite the lack of these elements I was completely breathtaken by every moment of this masterpiece.

When it was over, I fell silent. It was like everything I made judgments about the world and about what I thought I knew was completely turned upside down. I couldn’t believe something so not me could mean so much more to me than every Star Wars movie, every Indiana Jones flick and every piece of crap, usually associated with Michael Bay, that came before it. I had an epiphany.

Tom Cruise and Jason Robards in Magnolia

Father and Son relationships are very much a recurring theme in all of PTA’s films.

Magnolia is about people. It’s about relationships with our parents. It’s about our relationships with our lovers. It’s about our relationships with ourselves. It’s about our relationship with memories, our past mistakes and successes, our future hopes and dreams, our self images. It’s about our relationship with God.

It’s about all this and so much more.

Pay close attention. How many times can you see (or hear) a reference to 8’s and 2’s in this sequence?

To further elaborate on the technical and artistic genius of Magnolia would require an individual post for each element. But know that PTA has the complete and defining grasp of both the traditional and wholly unique filmmaking techniques. He owns modern day filmmaking. Even if the acting, story or music doesn’t grab your attention, the encyclopedic display of his techniques most certainly will.

Like Lars Von Trier, PTA has been called many less-than-stellar things: control freak, insolent, brat, difficult, etc. But like Von Trier, Anderson’s genius not only warrants any and all professional leniency but also receives it from anyone who experiences his films. Before the birth of his daughter, I have no doubt that PTA lived solely for films. It shows in every frame of anything he’s ever been involved with. Since the majority of people involved in this business is in it for the absolute wrong reasons, it’s not only refreshing and admirable but utterly integral to see someone love the art and science of filmmaking for all the right reasons.

Shame on you if you don’t check this film out.

No matter our stations in life, there are challenges to living well and happy every day. It’s not always easy but we manage. We manage and we cope. Some days are more difficult than others. But some days are so bad, so challenging and so cruel, it makes about as much sense as frogs falling from the sky.

Be sure to check out the “That Moment” documentary here. Priceless stuff!

cap

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Great Films: #4 - Lost In Translation

May 8, 2008

Scarlett Johansson looks outside st Tokyo

Scarlett Johansson + Tokyo, Japan = Perpetually Lost

Lost In Translation is a film about a very specific mood and tone. It captures both of these aspects beautifully and that is the truly amazing achievement this film accomplishes.

From the simple (and Oscar award winning) script, to the muted look of the film, to the quiet characters, to the incredible soundtrack, everything in and about Lost In Translation is all perfectly picked to fit the mood and tone of this specific emotion… a specific mind set… all created and realized by Sofia Coppola.

It’s the warm feeling of being awake at 4:00AM with the people you trust most with just enough wine in you to not be quite drunk but still maintain that perfect buzz.

It’s making a genuine connection with a complete stranger who is exactly what you need at the exact right time.

It’s about reaching a worry-free calmness you desperately needed after a chaotic week, month, or year.

It’s rare but when it happens, we never forget it. We desperately try to search for it again, usually for naught. But we know, to actively look for it already places us in a position to not find it.

We’ve all given and received the advice: “Don’t look for it and it’ll just come to you“. That’s what a lot of Lost In Translation is about.

Scarlett Johansson stares out a lot of Japanese windows

Nothing really happens in this film but it’s really a film about some of the most important things in life.

The average movie going audience don’t go to the movies looking for “mood films”. That’s their loss. Like the perfect song, it could be very theraputic.

Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray in Lost in Translation

Beautifully Photographed

The other thing I admire about this film is the honest and sincere message that Sofia Coppola communicates through the film (it’s my favorite type of communication). The legend goes that while Sofia was working on Marie Antoinette, she hit a wall. In an effort to get her head out of the Antoinette space, she took a quick detour writing about her past experiences in Tokyo while simultaneously exorcising a few internal issues about her marriage, her relationship to the world and her place in life. I feel all this comes out beautifully in the film.

Sofia Coppola is a talented filmmaker. There is a cohesive uniformity in all her films. But Lost In Translation is the one film where it seems like she wasn’t actively searching for anything… and the right film just came to her.

Get Lost.

You can watch Lost in Translation here.

cap

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Great Films: #5 - Dancer In The Dark

May 6, 2008

Bjork as Selma

Bjork’s film debut is more impressive than most actors’ careers.

The website to Dancer In The Dark is still up and it does the best job to brace you for how this film will effect you. You will love it or you will hate it. There is little to no room in between.

That’s only one of the reasons THIS FILM IS SO GREAT. It’s an unapologetically selfish exercise in filmmaking and storytelling. It’s insanely uncompromising. It’s undeniably genius.

Completely shot with 100 mini DV consumer grade camcorders (from 1999 no less!) with special cinemascope-like lenses attached, Lars Von Trier made what may be his most personal masterpiece as well as an early blueprint for how to produce a gorgeous film shot entirely on consumer grade video.

At some point I’d like to digress further about the infamous “Golden Heart Trilogy” Von Trier created with this film, The Idiots and Breaking The Waves. But this is about this one film for now.

Bjork and Catherine Deneuve

Selma and Cathy begin their day at work.

Bjork pulls off a performance here that makes the show and breaks your heart. She pulls off a performance in this one film that’s better than anything any one of these “serious thespians” have pandered to in a desperate cry for awards and recognition. Yes, Dancer is a melodramatic musical but the suspension of disbelief is never broken.

I’m not a big fan of Bjork’s music. In fact, I feel it generally goes over my head. But I do know films and great acting when I see and feel it and she is incredible in this film. The music of this film is equally unforgettable.

The music of Dancer in the Dark is haunting and beautiful. You must experience it.

I’ve read from several sources that Von Trier and Bjork could not get along. He notoriously demands too much from his actors (usually females) well beyond the breaking point and he doesn’t seem to care. It probably was too much for Bjork to have to deal with. After her experience with Von Trier, Bjork vowed to never act again because of the less than good experience she had with Von Trier (I think she was recently in another film). But the results are great and undeniable. I hope she sees it in a similar way now years removed.

Shatters your heart.

A little side note about Lars Von Trier: he’s been called many awful things. Uncompromising. Self-masturbatory. Torturous. Perfectionist. These are all the exact same reasons why his films are so unique and great. I probably would be very intimidated to have a conversation with him, and I don’t get intimidated very easily. His films are genius, straight up. End of story.

How much leeway should be allowed for genius? No one forces anyone to work with him. They actually search him out. His follow up: USA - Land of Opportunity trilogy is two thirds complete and it’s every bit as genius thus far.

That’s it. There’s no other point in the last two paragraphs. I just wanted to wax this guy’s car for a hot minute.

Wholly deserved all the accolades it received at the 2000 Cannes. Get it.

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Great Films: #10 - Cinema Paradiso

May 1, 2008

Cinema Paradiso production shot

Cinema Paradiso is truly a great film everyone needs to experience!

“It’ll remind you why you fell in love with the movies in the first place.”

I’m sure you’ve heard that quote before. Most recently for Juno and any number of douchebag flicks that try to pass themselves off as something worthwhile or “the little movie that could”.

Cinema Paradiso is one of the few films that deserves to wholly embrace that quote.

Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and released in 1988, this is a film not just about films but specifically about why we fall in love with films in the first place.

I don’t like to read film reviews before I experience them first so I’ll spare you the gratuitous critic’s review.

If a movie can be simultaneously melancholy and feel-good, this is just another of many reasons to experience this film. Once every couple of years, I have a nice little gathering with some of my closest friends, lots of food and wine, and we watch fall in love with this gem in order to remind ourselves why we fell in love with the movies and what it can still accomplish when done beautifully and done right.

Technically speaking Tornatore and his cinematographer uses a very minimalistic filmmaking approach in telling the story of Toto and Alfredo. He allows the actors, set, story and that awesome unforgettable Ennio Morricone score to propel us into their simple but beautiful world of old school village life where movies can mean anything from a place to escape from life or just from the parents.

The music!

Oh the music!

Another sign of a timeless, great movie is that everytime you watch it, it means something familiar yet so different to you as you grow older and more mature into life. This movie does just that and so much more.

Do yourself a favor and netflix or buy Cinema Pardiso: The New Version (There are two versions but the longer version is just so much better!). It’ll truly remind you why you fell in love with the movies in the first place.

Watch the New Version!

cap

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