The Godfather (1972): The Opening Scene
19/12/2019
The opening scene of the movie The Godfather is an exquisite portrayal of reciprocity in action.
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The Godfather (1972)
‘The Godfather’ and the Decline of Marlon Brando – Review by Stanley Kauffmann
02/03/2018
Hurricane Marlon is sweeping the country, and I wish it were more than hot air. A tornado of praise—cover stories and huzzahs—blasts out the news that Brando is giving a marvelous performance as Don Corleone in The Godfather, the lapsed Great Actor has regained himself, and so on. As a Brando-watcher for almost 30 years, I’d like to agree.
THE GODFATHER: BRANDO PLAYS A MAFIA CHIEFTAIN – Interview by Shana Alexander
04/02/2018
Marlon Brando enjoys being mysterious. The grandfather of all cool actors becomes the Godfather. Interview by Shana Alexander
THE GODFATHER: THE RESURRECTION OF DON BRANDO – Review by Richard Schickel
03/02/2018
There’s nothing fun or funny to be found here. It offers us only the absorption of good acting and good storytelling combined with a plausible anthropology of a strange, terribly relevant culture. What more could we possibly want from a movie? How often, these days, do we get anything like all that?
The Godfather: How Brando Brought Don Corleone to Life – by Joseph Gelmis
03/02/2018
And then there was Marlon Brando, against all the odds, cast in one of filmdom’s juiciest roles, as mob chief Don Vito Corleone. He was eased in, despite stiff opposition from the studio brass, because of the advocacy of a thirtyish fan, Francis Ford Coppola, an Italian-American who happened to be the director of The Godfather. Once he got the part, Brando in turn helped Coppola maintain camaraderie during the frenzied three-month shooting by kibitzing with the cast and establishing a fatherly relationship.
THE GODFATHER PLAYS ON OUR SECRET ADMIRATION FOR MEN WHO GET WHAT THEY WANT – by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. [Vogue]
02/02/2018
Inflation does not always assure survival. My guess is that three years from now we will still remember scenes from Raoul Walsh’s The Roaring Twenties (1939) while The Godfather will have become a vague memory.
THE GODFATHER: KEEPING UP WITH THE CORLEONES – Review by William S. Pechter [Commentary]
02/02/2018
The Godfather is, furthermore, and by critical consensus, a stunning confirmation of my claims for Coppola’s talents: vividly seen, richly detailed, throbbing with incident and a profusion of strikingly drawn characters
THE GODFATHER: ALCHEMY – Review by Pauline Kael
30/12/2017
A wide, startlingly vivid view of a Mafia dynasty, in which organized crime becomes an obscene nightmare image of American free enterprise. The movie is a popular melodrama with its roots in the gangster films of the 30s, but it expresses a new tragic realism, and it’s altogether extraordinary.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA INTERVIEW (1974) – by Marjorie Rosen [Film Comment]
20/12/2017
by Marjorie Rosen In Hollywood circles the adage, “You’re as good as your last picture,” holds more truth than is comfortable or healthy. It could
THE GODFATHER (1972) – Review by Andrew Sarris
22/11/2017
I am convinced that The Godfather could have been a more profound film if Coppola had shown more interest (and perhaps more courage) in those sections of the book which treated crime as an extension of capitalism and as the sine qua non of showbiz.
THE GODFATHER WARS – by Mark Seal
17/09/2017
Mark Seal recalls how the clash of Hollywood sharks, Mafia kingpins, and cinematic geniuses shaped the Hollywood masterpiece ‘The Godfather’
THE GODFATHER (1972): MARIO PUZO’S LETTER TO MARLON BRANDO
17/09/2017
Transcript of Mario Puzo’s 1970 letter to Marlon Brando telling him he was the only actor who could play Don Corleone
THE GODFATHER (1972) – Review by Janet Maslin [Boston After Dark]
17/09/2017
Janet Maslin reviews Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’. Published in Boston After Dark, 1972 March 28
IL PADRINO: NEPPURE UNA VOLTA LA PAROLA ‘MAFIA’!
01/08/2017
Giacomo R. Carioti incontra a Roma il giovane produttore del ‘Padrino’, Albert S. Ruddy, con cui ricostruisce la storia del film
THE GODFATHER – Review by Vincent Canby [The New York Times]
02/05/2017
Taking a best-selling novel of more drive than genius (Mario Puzo’s The Godfather), about a subject of something less than common experience (the Mafia), involving an isolated portion of one very particular ethnic group (first-generation and second-generation Italian-Americans), Francis Ford Coppola has made one of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: PLAYBOY INTERVIEW (1975)
27/01/2017
American director Francis Ford Coppola interviewed by William Murray for Playboy magazine, July 1975 issue