January Film Festival

The Godfather (Paramount, 1972) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall and Marlon Brando as the Godfather. A different director, yet another masterpiece. This is one of the great American films, and the script, the direction, the performances, the music, the casting and the cinematography are all unforgettable. It's homerun, and Coppola savvily cast noir veterans Sterling Hayden and Richard Conte to further contextualize the Godfather in the crime flick genre. Everyone is so familiar with this movie there's not much I can add, except to say, that in Hollywood, people say that when there's trouble on the set, the movies in trouble. The great exception to that rule is the Godfather. It was a nightmare to get produced, especially for FFC who was reportedly either fired or was quitting every couple of weeks. We are incredibly lucky he stayed on and saw it through.

Just a note: do to scheduling, the January Film Festival, will be continuing into February.