Last Film You Watched? VI

All non-Nolan related film, tv, and streaming discussions.
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m4st4 wrote:
May 24th, 2020, 4:06 pm
The Godfather: Part II, still the GOAT.
It doesn't have the amazing pacing of the first one because the plot gets too messy here and there, but there are so many incredible moments. And the structure works so well. I love how every flash-back begins with Michael thinking about his family. Until it eventually climaxes in that last flashback that Coppola wrote the night before they shot it, when Brando couldn't show up. Like the first, it deserved like 5 Academy awards for best supporting part. De Niro got it, but it's a crime that Cazale wasn't nominated.

I also love how the present mostly has simple camera movement, whilst for the flash-back, there's an orgy of travelling.

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the line i always use is that Godfather I is the better and more entertaining movie, Godfather II is the better work of art.


-Vader

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Honey Boy

Very good and lovely screenplay and performance (his best) from Shia.

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Vader182 wrote:
May 24th, 2020, 7:25 pm
the line i always use is that Godfather I is the better and more entertaining movie, Godfather II is the better work of art.


-Vader
This is where I stand.

I was alone in the app and (still) clapped at the end.

Al Pacino, with his magnetic shark eyes, it's basically a grandiose mafia saga with vampiric undertones, that's how otherworldly he is.
Demoph wrote:
May 24th, 2020, 4:48 pm
m4st4 wrote:
May 24th, 2020, 4:06 pm
The Godfather: Part II, still the GOAT.
It doesn't have the amazing pacing of the first one because the plot gets too messy here and there, but there are so many incredible moments. And the structure works so well. I love how every flash-back begins with Michael thinking about his family. Until it eventually climaxes in that last flashback that Coppola wrote the night before they shot it, when Brando couldn't show up. Like the first, it deserved like 5 Academy awards for best supporting part. De Niro got it, but it's a crime that Cazale wasn't nominated.

I also love how the present mostly has simple camera movement, whilst for the flash-back, there's an orgy of travelling.
Assassination sequence, with DeNiro on rooftops during the parade, was just magnificent. I always start thinking about the immense logistics necessary to pull off such a scene.

Now, the question: should I revisit Part III? Because I'm really not in the mood after such a strong finale (in my eyes). Part III always felt like such an unecessary let's-get-it-over-with. Punchline after Part II already made one.

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Part 3 is weaker, obviously, but it still has some moments of grace. I think Pacino showing Keaton Sicily is one of the greatest scene I've seen. Suddenly, from all sides of the frame elements from each movies enter the shot, and it feels like seventy years slowly condensed in one shot. The last twenty minutes are also really good.
I was afraid the first time I watched it, because I had heard it was not really good. But after thirty minutes, I thought, it's written and directed by Coppola, shot by Gordon Willis, Pacino is in it, and they put Rota's score here and there: of course it's at least very good.

Maybe wait a few weeks before watching it, to appreciate Part II fully, and not come in comparing the quality of both too much. After all, people had to wait sixteen years to see it.

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Demoph wrote:
May 25th, 2020, 5:44 am
Part 3 is weaker, obviously, but it still has some moments of grace. I think Pacino showing Keaton Sicily is one of the greatest scene I've seen. Suddenly, from all sides of the frame elements from each movies enter the shot, and it feels like seventy years slowly condensed in one shot. The last twenty minutes are also really good.
I was afraid the first time I watched it, because I had heard it was not really good. But after thirty minutes, I thought, it's written and directed by Coppola, shot by Gordon Willis, Pacino is in it, and they put Rota's score here and there: of course it's at least very good.

Maybe wait a few weeks before watching it, to appreciate Part II fully, and not come in comparing the quality of both too much. After all, people had to wait sixteen years to see it.
That sounds like a healthy mindset going into it, thanks man.

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Part III was the first one I saw and loved it. Kind of an interesting experience to get into the series in that way. You don't come in with expectations of cosmic proprtions and your mind hasn't presupposed some narratives of where Micheal should be in his old age. Instead, you just accept what direction the man who's telling the story is taking, and you go along with it.

To this date, other than Sofia Coppola, I don't have any major problem with it.

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I wonder if Godfather Part III might have been an influence on TDKR. Both are action films that are yet quite contemplative, and whose tone is dominated by the pain of their main character. They don't insist too much on the events of the previous film, but at their heart are about the emotional consequences of the journey of their main character in previous films. Of course, Wayne and Corleone are very different, and will end their journey differently but they both start broken by their journey, in almost complete loneliness.

As for inspiration for The Godfather Part III, the second half reminds me a lot of The Leopard: a man, in the very cinematographic landscape of Sicily who tries desperately to protect his legacy. There are long sequences in Godfather III where you completely forget it's a mafia movie, and it's just a contemplative and personal film, like Italian cinema offered in its best years.

I could write for hours about the Godfather films. They were a key moment in my discovery of cinema. This is when I started reading reviews, story about the shooting, interviews, making-of, watching film with commentary by the director. Next big step was watching Ophuls' film, with all their travellings. Afterwards, I rewatched all the films I loved to pay attention to how the camera moved. Since then, I'm a sucker for graceful travellings.

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North by Northwest
My favorite non-Bond Bond movie ever

A Hidden Life
Devastatingly beautiful in every sense.
"Better to suffer injustice than to do it"

Ex Machina
Garland is the man. I prefer Annihilation best but this was wonderful too

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