The godfather turns 50 | Often imitated, never equaled

On Tuesday, March 14, 1972, as the rain fell on Manhattan, many American personalities thronged the doors of Loew’s State Theater at 1540 Broadway to attend the premiere of the film The Godfather, by Francis Ford Coppola. The rest is history.

Andre Duchesne
The Press

Early 1970. Paramount, struggling to find an established director, contacted Francis Ford Coppola. Reluctantly, but with bills to pay, the latter agrees to direct the film.

The producers did not want the young Al Pacino. They also didn’t want the unpredictable and out of control Marlon Brando. Coppola had to insist.

Paralyzed, tense, anticipating amalgams and prejudices, the Italian-American community has obtained that the expressions “mafia” and “cosa nostra” are never pronounced.

On the film set, tension reigns between Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis.

And yet…

And yet, the film is made. Better, the magic happens. Against all odds, at the end of the winter of 1972, the feature film The Godfather create the event. Critics cry genius. The crowd is pressing. Millions flow into the coffers.

A great family saga gathered around Vito and Michael Corleone and set in the criminal world, The Godfather made an epoch by standing out in all respects. Whether with the words of the screenplay co-written by Coppola and Mario Puzzo, author of the eponymous novel. With unforgettable lines like ” I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse “. With famous passages like the scene of the horse’s head. With the game, immense, of Brando, Pacino, Diane Keaton, James Caan, Robert Duvall and so many others. With unforgettable music by composer Nino Rota.

“All the detective and criminal cinema released after The Godfather owes a debt to this film, that’s obvious,” said Helen Faradji, a film columnist at Radio-Canada, who devoted a chapter to the trilogy in her book, in an interview. American cinema (North). “For the epic side, the family fresco side. Many have wanted to imitate him, but very few have been able to equal him. »

This feature film set another milestone in the fairly recent corpus of New Hollywood works, an American cinematographic movement born at the end of the 1960s which broke with the previous period, marked by deficient creativity and declining revenues.

The day after the New York premiere, The Godfather (The Godfather) is released on the big screen in New York, then in Los Angeles (March 22) and throughout North America (March 24) before setting off to conquer the planet.

Fifty years later, no one doubts its place in the history of cinema. Unsurprisingly, Paramount announced at the start of the year the (limited) return of the film to theaters at the end of February and in 4K Ultra HD version on March 22. And on the heels of the celebrations, Coppola saw a street named in his honor.

Greek tragedy

“The Roots of Godfatheris Greek tragedy, says Helen Faradji. And so, it does not age, in the same way as the great plays of Greek tragedy. » Two other specialists consulted by The Press borrow a similar vocabulary to talk about this work.

“ The Godfather is conceived as an opera, says Bruno Dequen, editor-in-chief of the journal 24 pictures. It is a great classic story written and staged in an operatic way. It didn’t really exist before or after The Godfather. »

Film professor at Cégep Marianopolis and Concordia University, Matthew Hays sees in the film “a reference to the Shakespearean tragedy”. He also detects in it an “allegory of the Kennedy family” which was a political dynasty whose patriarch (Joseph Kennedy Sr.) aspired to place one of his sons as president of the country.

Amused because he has the same surname (“but nothing in common”, he says), Matthew Hays recalls how the directors of New Hollywood, the Spielbergs, Scorsese, De Palma, Altman and others marked the period in “breaking the chains of the very strict Hays code” of the cinema under which violence and sexuality were severely marked out. With The GodfatherFrancis Ford Coppola is also part of this list.

Concussion at the Oscars

A year later, in 1973, the 45^and Oscar ceremony. The Godfather is a finalist in 11 categories and won 3 prizes: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando) and Best Film. But that’s not what made the event during the evening.

Rather, it’s Brando’s refusal to accept his trophy.

Under the somewhat flabbergasted gaze of presenters Roger Moore and Liv Ullmann, Sacheen Littlefeather, a young actress and activist of Apache origin, takes the stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles to read a note from Brando. The actor announces that he refuses the prize in protest against the fate reserved for the First Nations in cinema and television and in everyday life.

The actor also wants to make Americans aware of the occupation of Wounded Knee (South Dakota), where Aboriginal people denounce the actions of a corrupt leader and the failure of the American government to respect treaties with the First Nations.

Ubiquitous movie

The people interviewed for this article all say they have seen the film several times. Some have been inspired by it in the context of their work. Matthew Hays taught it in his classes on the history of American cinema.

For his part, André Cédilot, who co-wrote with André Noël the book mafia inc. in addition to being an adviser to the screenplay (signed Sylvain Guy) of the film of the same name by Podz, affirms that the scene with the pig’s head in a butcher’s shop is a nod to that of the horse’s head in The Godfather.

Bruno Dequen and Helen Faradji both recall how much the series The Sopranos is indebted to Godfather.

M^me Faradji continues to see the film every year or two. “It allows you to enter the film in an even richer way. We focus on elements: the music, the staging, the acting. I have the impression that it is an almost inexhaustible film. There is always something that comes out of the viewings that I do and that I always find extraordinary. »

At the Library of Congress

In 1989, the United States Library of Congress created a National Film Registry in which 25 cinematographic works of all genres are inducted once a year. This designation is accompanied by the preservation “in perpetuity” of the titles selected and considered worthy of the heritage of American cinema. Released in 1972, The Godfather was inducted into this register in 1990. He made his debut the same year asAll About Eve (1950), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), How Green Was My Valley (1941), raging bull (1980), A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and others. Released in 1974, The Godfather II was listed in the register in 1993. The Godfather III has yet to receive this honor.

Meanwhile, in Quebec

What was on movie screens in Montreal and Quebec in March 1972 when The Godfather released anywhere in North America? A brief search in the newspapers of the time indicates that Quebec cinema leads the way. A child like the others, a film by Denis Héroux dedicated to René Simard and his family, has the crowds racing. “119,039 people in 13 days”, proclaims an advertisement published in The Press. The appearance, a film by Roger Cardinal with René Angélil and Pierre Labelle, two members of the Baronets, will be released in mid-March. On April 20, the premiere of the film takes place The smattes by Jean-Claude Labrecque. Sign that the films held the poster for a long time, we notice, still in mid-March, that Love Story is in its fourth month in theaters. Released at Christmas 1971, dirty harrywhich stars Clint Eastwood, is still running.