The Godfather Trilogy: Coppola Restoration

[solaris72]

Why Don't They Make A Second 'Godfather' Movie?

[Schkura]

As above, anyone getting this new restoration set? Available in DVD and Blu-ray

I have the Blu Ray, but thanks to the recent sale I also have about 20 others. I should get to it by the end of the month.

Umm... Dog Day Afternoon looked sharp.

[Antoine Doinel]

An excerpt from the Godfather Family Album in which Mario Puzo talks about his inspiration behind the novel.

[Antoine Doinel]

Vanity Fair has an in depth piece on the making of The Godfather.

[colinr0380]

Jonathan Rosenbaum revisits The Godfather.

[kinjitsu]

Paramount Pictures Sues Puzo Estate Over ‘Godfather’ Sequels:

Paramount, which says it bought the copyright to Puzo’s novel in 1969, is trying “protect the integrity and reputation of The Godfather trilogy,” according to a complaint filed Feb. 17 in federal court in Manhattan.

[Tom Hagen]

Catch the theatrical re-release. Today.

[kinjitsu]

The showtime dates are for today and the 22nd. I guess the writer didn't bother to thoroughly check that link.

[Stefan Andersson]

Restored Godfather III, plus Coppola´s new re-edit "Mario Puzo’s THE GODFATHER, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone", announced:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... ne.368780/

[Stefan Andersson]

For the record --

Colorist Jan Yarbrough on restoring The Godfather:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... ne.368780/

Relevant links about various versions of the trilogy, in English or German:
http://godfathermuseum.blogspot.com/201 ... chive.html
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=35402
https://www.schnittberichte.com/schnitt ... s=%20-%200 (this page has links to 11 other relevant pages)
https://www.schnittberichte.com/schnitt ... php?ID=610

Schnittberichte.de is the German-language version of Movie-censorship.com.

[TMDaines]

Restored Godfather III, plus Coppola´s new re-edit "Mario Puzo’s THE GODFATHER, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone", announced:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... ne.368780/

Given I am always forced to watch Part III by a certain someone after wanting to rewatch Part I and Part II, I am hoping this will only be an improvement. Gonna be hard to cut Sofia Coppola's performance out entirely though...

[CSM126]

Andy Garcia is so ungodly terrible in this movie but everyone picks on Sofia Coppola… who’s perfectly fine and not a bad actor. I never got the misplaced hatred here.

[hearthesilence]

I thought the third part was fine, but I didn't get how terrible it could look until I watched it right after the first two. (This wasn't marathon viewing, it was one part per day over three days.) I'll keep an open mind, but one wonders how many more films he's going to recut. Apocalypse Now (mainly for restoring the context of Western colonialism) and especially The Cotton Club made sense, but how many more Coppola films are in need of such restorations?

[beamish14]

Andy Garcia is so ungodly terrible in this movie but everyone picks on Sofia Coppola… who’s perfectly fine and not a bad actor. I never got the misplaced hatred here.

With the exception of Eli Wallach, the whole cast is uniformly awful. Pacino looks disinterested/on quaaludes and Keaton has nothing to do.
Garcia getting an Oscar nomination was mystifying (but so was the damn film getting a Best Picture nom).

I agree with heartthesilence about how seeing the first two relatively soon before it will amplify your perceptions of the film's worst attributes.
My girlfriend had enjoyed seeing the them in 35mm a few months before we sat down to watch this (I had kept imploring her to not get
upset with me if it failed to live up to those standards!) and she was just aghast at what she saw. The goddamn helicopter, the papal vote,
the opera intercutting...it's just a farce.

[beamish14]

but how many more Coppola films are in need of such restorations?

It's not exactly "his" film in the strictest sense, but Wim Wenders' Hammet deserves a fresh coat.

That press release mentions Paramount/Zoetrope saving practically every rush from Godfather III, but they probably couldn't keep
a single interpositive of what Wenders delivered in 1981?

[Big Ben]

Well surely the new version can't be worse right? I struggle to remember much of anything about the film besides the final shot which says a lot considering the other two entries in the trilogy are uniformly excellent.

[hearthesilence]

One detail I remember was hearing Elvis Costello's "Miracle Man" from My Aim Is True. Presumably Mary is playing it when she's with Vincent, but it felt like an early hint of the post-punk and New Wave music Sofia Coppola would use for her own films.

[beamish14]

I am particularly curious about what the new bookends in the film will be. Pacino doing fresh narration (he recorded some decades later for Hugh Hudson's
revised cut of Revolution)? Coppola sitting in his own vineyard and reflecting upon the experience? Or he could go the Andrzej Zulawski/On the
Silver Globe route and have himself wandering the streets of Rome, frantically telling us what he and Puzo had intended to do.

[Calvin]

I thought the third part was fine, but I didn't get how terrible it could look until I watched it right after the first two. (This wasn't marathon viewing, it was one part per day over three days.) I'll keep an open mind, but one wonders how many more films he's going to recut. Apocalypse Now (mainly for restoring the context of Western colonialism) and especially The Cotton Club made sense, but how many more Coppola films are in need of such restorations?

I wouldn't be surprised if Coppola takes the opportunity with any anniversary restoration that he's asked to oversee. We're coming up to One from the Heart's 40th, so he might revisit that one again

[tenia]

Dementia 13's 4k restoration credits also mentioned it as a Director's Cut.

[knives]

I’ll be the guy to quietly say I think the third is about as good as the second and that I personally think it’s the one I’ll watch more often.

[TMDaines]

There's always one. Just be quiet at the back and don't make a scene.

[willoneill]

The only thing that bothers me about this is the new title: "Mario Puzo’s THE GODFATHER, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone". Just keep it as either The Godfather Part III, or the title he originally wanted, The Death of Michael Corleone. But that, that is too much.

[aox]

I’ll be the guy to quietly say I think the third is about as good as the second and that I personally think it’s the one I’ll watch more often.

While I recognize the tremendous and glaring faults at times (e.g. Sofia Coppola, lack of Duvall, etc...) throughout the clunky first two hours, and don't think as a whole it is as good as the first two, I'm a big fan of the film and especially the ending. I feel the last hour at the opera is almost as well made and staged as the first two films, and seems to be where the film finally finds its grounding nearing masterful. I love the closing shot of Michael alone.

::ducks:: 8-[

[therewillbeblus]

The third installment is one of the few glaring omissions in my populist viewings. I even had all three films in those brown double-VHS sets lined up together on my shelf all throughout childhood and never took the time to watch it, instead just recycling through the other two. Guess I'll give it a go this weekend and finally close that chapter.