half a century ago, on March 14, 1972happened in New York what many critics consider a milestone in cinema: the world premiere of “The Godfather”, by Francis Ford Coppolasimultaneously in five theaters in Manhattan, with thousands of spectators lining up under a huge rain.
“Looks like an Italian funeral”commented someone from television before the forest of black umbrellas that covered blocks and blocks, winking about the character of the film, which was only released in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, September 20.
The way films were exhibited was different then, there were no international simultaneous releases nor were there multiplexes, so a logical hierarchy was created: “The Godfather” was not just any film, Thousands of copies of the original book by Mario Puzo were sold and the radios repeated at all hours the main theme composed by Nino Rota, which over the years became a classic.
By then, Coppola was not yet in the leagues of great directorswhich were mostly alive because the cinema was still a young art, and apart from some titles that many talk about and few saw, such as “Dementia 13” (1963), its only commercial history was “The Rainbow Road” (1968), with dancing and singing by Fred Astaire and the then-popular Petula Clark.
The film created or cemented the stardom of figures who were important in the decade –Al Pacino, Robert de Niro (in the first sequel), James Caan, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, John Cazale (then partner of Meryl Streep, died prematurely), Talia Shire, Morgana King.
The tone of the film, which some critics at the time described as “bombastic” or “operatic”, did nothing but transfer to the screen the spirit of the great Italian opera, full of excesses, violent crimes, passions and unbridled loyalties that those who had no knowledge of that peninsular vein could not understand.
On the other hand, the reappearance as a great star of Marlon Brandoan actor who was a gale of virile sensuality in “A streetcar named Desire” (1951) “Long live Zapata!” (1952) and “Rat’s Nest” (1954)all of Elijah Kazanand then he chose minor commitments while the press focused on his marital sleeplessness with the Bengali-British actress Anna Kashfi, with the Mexican Movita Castaneda and then with Tarita Teriipaia, whom he met in Polynesia when he went to film “Mutiny on board” (1962).
His first film appearance, however, was in “You will live your life” (1950), in which he played a war cripple trying to live a normal life and even have sex with his wife (Theresa Wright), but made life impossible for the director fred zinnemann because, following the guidelines of the Actors Studio, he spent a month in a hospital for war cripples. Thus marked a conduct that influenced other colleagues who became famous.
Since he was beautiful and desired by the crowds, Brando gave in to the big show with “Desirée, Napoleon’s mistress” (1954), comedies like “Them and them” (1955), from Joseph L. Mankiewiczand the sweetened ones “August Moon Teahouse” (1956), from Daniel Mann, “Sayonara” (1957), from Joshua Loganamong others, but his works were dozens.
In “The Godfather”, despite a makeup that added years to him, Brando once again demonstrated that he was one of the greats, provided a patriarchal presence and invented a way of speaking that was the synthesis of English with italic intonations that he had heard since childhood. , when he used to imitate people who caught his eye.
There was Don Vito Corleone, head of a mafia family in New York in the first half of the 20th century, and the film opens with his daughter’s wedding party, in which the Technicolor of the 50s enhances the clothes and the garden where it is made and what will raise the bar from then on how the epochs should be painted on the screen.
Past decades are photographed –for Gordon Willis– through a pastel texture, in which the colors are usually invaded by sepia and which provided certain nebulous filters, as if everything were filmed from memory.
As for Corleone, who from a young age had to annihilate other mafia gangs that disputed the market, not necessarily by his own hand, he was an affable and container man under his own roof who brought out his mechanisms of death and destruction in the jungle of asphalt.
According to foreign notes, During the filming of the film, the real mobsters still swarmed there, although many lived outside of Manhattan and some members of the “cosa nostra” worked on the set, including the one who plays Corleone’s bodyguard.
Most of the “Little Italy” neighborhood was rebuilt in study. Not even the Fifth Avenue that you see is the original. And for many Italian-Americans, seeing the film was nostalgic for a New York they never got to know.
The preparation of the film was not easy: the Italian “families” who did have some contact with the illegal organizations did not agree to talk about them: there were telephone threats to the producers, Puzo and Coppola and There was even talk of mysterious shootings during the night in front of the offices of Gulf & Western, a subsidiary of the Paramount company.
Just in case, joseph colombothe powerful kingpin of one of the five families that controlled New York City, created the “Italian American Civil Rights League” to “protest against the persecution of Italians and the stigma of mafia stereotypes.”
Thus, at the beginning of 1971, the producer Albert S. Ruddy met with Colombo and his son Anthony and did something unusual: he gave them the 155-page script and assured them that the film would not entrench stereotypes and that under no circumstances would the expressions “mafia” or “cosa nostra” be heard. .
“The Godfather” created a genre and had innumerable repercussions: there were imitations, parodies and even the television series, “The Sopranos” (1999-2007) that invested intelligence, humor and sagacity surrounding that founding story.
