Flickers in Time

The Godfather
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Written by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo from Puzo’s novel
1972/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Peter Clemenza: Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

There are a precious few movies in cinema history when the careers of all the personnel peak at the same time and achieve movie perfection that resonates through the decades. One of those movies is The Godfather.

The story begins at the wedding reception of Don Vito Corleone’s (Marlon Brando) daughter Connie (Talia Shire).  We get a snapshot of Sicilian culture, Mafia culture, and family dynamics in one brilliant sequences that shows the exposition rather than telling it. A Sicilian “godfather” (family patriarch) cannot refuse a favor on his daughter’s wedding day so we see all the people lined up to be potential recepients.  Don Vito is treated with reverence bordering on terror.  Don Corleone calls in a bunch of “thank yous” in the form of generous cash wedding gifts.  Some of these are government officials.

All of Don Vito’s sons – Sonny (James Caan); Fredo (John Cazale); Michael (Al Pacino); and adopted son Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), the family lawyer – do not share their father’s sense of tradition, respect, and caution.  Other Mafia families, headed by Barzini (Richard Conte) are pressing for the Don Vito to share his political access and get into the narcotics business.  When the Don refuses, he is almost killed in an assassination attempt.

Michael, as the youngest son, had been groomed for an honest career.  He has told his girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton) so a thousand times.  But when the family comes under threat he leaps into action.  His new found ruthlessness gets him in trouble.  Will it eventually earn him fear and respect?  With a simply outstanding cast of supporting actors.

Cinematographer Gordon Willis and Francis Ford Coppola during filming

I have seen this many times including, on original release, at the drive-in.  There are so many iconic moments to savor on each re-watch!  The movie works both as a crime story and as a critique of the American Establishment.  It also has something to say about masculinity, culture clash, and especially family.  Then the whole thing is topped off by Gordon Willis’s fabulous warm lighting and Nino Rota’s instantly evocative score.  The film’s sheer epic scale, with seemingly thousands of moving parts, is also pretty amazing. You’ve probably seen it.  It is well worth revisiting.

The Godfather won Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Caan, Duvall, and Pacino); Best Director; Best Costume Design; Best Sound; Best Film Editing; and Best Original Dramatic Score (nomination later withdrawn on grounds Rota stole from his own score for another movie). Pacino boycotted the ceremony because he thought he should have been nominated in the leading category and Brando refused his own award.

The Heartbreak Kid
Directed by Elaine May
Written by Neil Simon from a story by Bruce Jay Friedman
1972/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

Mr. Corcoran: You don’t know what determination is. I eat determination for breakfast.

This riff on The Graduate (1967) pales in comparison.  Viewed on its own I thought it was pretty funny, if mean-spirited.

Lenny Cantrell (Charles Grodin) is a sporting goods salesman in New York City.  We will learn during the course of the movie that he is awkward and clueless but at the same time arrogant and driven.  He has a conventional Jewish courtship with Lila Kalodny (Jeannie Berlin – May’s daughter IRL) and a modest wedding.  They honeymoon in Miami.  They have saved sex for the wedding night.  Lenny instantly learns that some of Lila’s quirks get on his last nerve.   When Lenny and Lila visit the beach, she gets a terrible sunburn.

He goes to the beach alone the next day.  There he meets hot, seductive, wealthy and gorgeous young Kelly Corcoran (Cibyll Shepherd), who is visiting from Minnesota with her family.  Although he has been married but three days and is with his wife on his honeymoon, he begins an all out blitz to win Kelly’s hand.  Kelly’s father (Eddie Albert) is not keen on of his daughter dating a newlywed and learns to hate Lenny with a vengence.

The first hurdle we must overcome in watching this movie is accepting the idea that someone like Cybill Shepherd could possibly be attracted to the looks, behavior, or conversation of someone like Grodin’s character. He’s not even smart.  And, it’s true, this is a lot of behaving badly with no one to root for.  On the other hand, every scene with Berlin or Albert is a priceless gem to me.  Despite the listing of this in The Book, I think May’s A New Leaf (1971) is a better example of her work.

Jeannie Berlin and Eddie Albert were nominated for Oscars in the Supporting categories.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes)
Directed by Werner Herzog
Written by Werner Herzog
1972/West Germany
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime (free for members)
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[on the dangers of filming Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972) on location] You know, I’ve filmed in Black Africa, and during the shoot I was jailed five times in a row, I had malaria, we almost died – nothing scares me anymore, neither a jungle nor a Klaus Kinski, nor costumes, nor being with hundreds of Indians. There were in fact extraordinary difficulties, financial problems too. When you see the film, it looks as though it must have cost $2 million to make. But it cost maybe a tenth of that. — Werner Herzog, 1973

Who needs a budget when the dream, the vision, the obsession, and the scenery come free?

The year is 1560 and the setting is Peru.  Hundreds of Indians and Spaniards descend the Andes.  A rag tag team of explorers is deputized by conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro to make a voyage down the Amazon in search of the fabulous rumored treasures of El Dorado. Pizarro chooses Don Pedro de Ursua to command the expedition and Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) as his second-in-command.  The team is told it will be presumed lost if it does not return within a week.  For some reason Ursua elects to travel with his wife and Aguirre takes his 15-year-old daughter.  Within perhaps a day it becomes obvious that this particular stretch of the Peruvian Amazon is not survivable.  Ursua wants to return to Pizarro but the insane Aguirre insists on pressing forward.

So Aguirre stages a mutiny and proclaims the fat, lazy, aristocrat Don de Guzman as the Emperor of El Dorado.  Ursua is wounded and the entire troupe floats down the river, suffering the onslaught of hostile Indians, tropical heat, rapids, and disease toward glory or death.

From the opening scene of hundreds of Indians and Spaniards descending the Andes, this film is one indelible, incredible image after another.  It is is an epic emotional, visual, and sonic experience.  When man battles nature in Herzog’s universe, nature always wins.  And nature is a cruel mistress.  I think this movie is a masterpiece even if I cannot explain why.  A must-see in a year of must-sees.

I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to make this film living on rafts on the edge of insanity.

Cabaret
Directed by Bob Fosse
Written by Jay Presson Allen from stories by Christopher Isherwood and the play by John Van Druten and musical book by Joe Masteroff
1972/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing, Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Sally: Does it really matter so long as you’re having fun?

Bob Fosse took a pretty good Broadway musical and elevated it to art that withstands the test of time.  Fifty years from now I bet this will still look interesting as well as be entertaining.

Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is a cabaret singer in 1931 Weimar Berlin at a time when Hitler’s Nazi Party was positioning itself to take over the Government.  Sally, an American expat, thinks she is “divinely decadent” and maintains that persona but she is oblivious to what is going on around her and terribly naive when it comes to real decadence.

The Kit Kat Klub where Sally sings is a cesspool of real decadence.  Its girlie show is  vulgar and its Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey) is positively devilish, growing increasingly crude and anti-Semitic as time goes on.  Into this milieu comes Brian Roberts (Michael York) who hopes to support himself by teaching English while he completes his German studies.  He is immediately befriended by Sally who makes it her mission to shock him at all times.  She says she doesn’t mind that he’s not attracted to women but they end up sleeping together any way.  Concurrently, Sally picks up a German playboy who ends up romancing both of them.

One of Michael’s students is wealthy and beautiful Jewess Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson).  There is a fairly extensive subplot about her extremely complicated courtship by Michael’s friend Fritz Wendel.

The various numbers in the cabaret show parallel the growing Nazification of Germany.  Sally and Michael are kind of innocents in hell.  Will they have the savvy to get out?

I’ve seen the Broadway musical on stage a couple of times over the years and its soundtrack was on rotation at my house for several years.  It’s good but the extensive rewrite and a brillliant production makes the film achieve a kind of perfection.  And that perfection is attributable to the genius of Bob Fosse and the excellence of the film’s cast. I can’t argue with any of the many Oscars it won.  Most highly recommended.

Cabaret won Oscars for Best Actress (Minnelli);  Best Supporting Actor (Grey); Best Director; Best Cinematography; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Sound; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.  The film lost in those categories to The Godfather (1972). I’m looking forward to see how I feel about the Academy’s choices!.