Godfather Cast and Director Reunion

Posted on May 4, 2017 at 8:00 am

The cast and director of “The Godfather” got together to talk about the making of the film in honor of its 45th anniversary on the last night of the Tribeca Film Festival, founded by “Godfather 2” star Robert de Niro.

The Guardian reports:

According to Coppola, he ran into roadblocks at every turn, as studio Paramount looked simply to cash in with a quickie movie based on Mario Puzo’s runaway bestselling novel.

“Without Francis, where would I be?” said Pacino, remembering how Paramount fought to cast someone else as the infamous Michael Corleone, a career-defining role for which Pacino would eventually collect two Oscar nominations.

“Once I called after he had tested six times,” Coppola remembered. “His girlfriend came on the phone and I said, ‘I just need Al to come in one more time’ and she said, ‘What are you doing to him? You’re torturing him!’ She yelled at me and berated me.”

When Pacino got the part, he considered it at length. “I used to live 90th and Broadway and used to walk to the Village and back everyday and I did it thinking about this role,” he said. “I was trying to figure out where I could go with it.”

Even casting Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, the Godfather himself, was a headache. Executives were adamant that casting Brando wouldn’t be “commercially beneficial”, at one point even forbidding Coppola from even bringing up Brando’s name….Despite the incredible success of the two films – academy awards, status as one of the highest grossing movies in Hollywood history, a lasting cultural impact – Coppola issued a warning.

“Today it wouldn’t get a go-ahead,” he said. “The first Godfather cost $6.5m and the second cost about $11m or $12m. If you convert that, it would take a major studio (to make it), but it would never get through the process of getting an OK.

“Nothing can get a green light unless it’s a movie that they can have a whole series of, or a Marvel comic.”

Politics and Popcorn at Landmark Theater in Washington DC

Posted on May 2, 2017 at 11:36 pm

LANDMARK THEATRES’ E STREET CINEMA PRESENTS
“POPCORN AND POLITICS”

Two-Part Political Film Series features DC Premiere of Laura Poitras’ Julian Assange documentary, “RISK”

Washington, DC – April 26, 2017 – Landmark Theatres’ E Street Cinema is proud to present the spring 2017 “Popcorn and Politics” film series. For two consecutive nights starting on Wednesday, May 3rd, patrons are invited to experience classic and current political films on the big screen and engage in discussions with special guests including film subjects and filmmakers.

The “Popcorn and Politics” Film Series Schedule Includes:

“ARGO”
Wednesday, May 3rd at 7:00 p.m.
Based on true events, this dramatic 2012 thriller and Academy Award “Best Picture” winner chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis—the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. The film’s subject and retired CIA officer Tony Mendez along with his wife, retired CIA intelligence officer Jonna Mendez, will be joined by The Washington Post’s Michael Rosenwald for a post-screening Q&A. All proceeds from this event will benefit the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.

DC Premiere Screening: “RISK”
Thursday, May 4th at 7:00 p.m.
Laura Poitras, the critically acclaimed director of Academy Award-winning “CITIZENFOUR”, presents her long-awaited documentary “RISK” about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This DC Premiere will feature a Q&A with the filmmaker immediately following the film. “RISK” will open on Friday, May 5th in Washington, D.C. exclusively at Landmark Theatres’ Atlantic Plumbing and West End Cinemas.

“ARGO” – for tickets and more information

“RISK” – for tickets and more information

ABOUT LANDMARK THEATRES

Landmark Theatres is a recognized leader in the industry for providing its customers consistently diverse and entertaining film products in a sophisticated adult-oriented atmosphere.

Since its founding in 1974, Landmark has grown to 55 theatres, 255 screens in 27 markets. Landmark is known for both its award-winning historic theatres, such as the Tivoli in St. Louis, the Inwood in Dallas and the Oriental in Milwaukee, and its more contemporary theatres, including our flagship theatre, The Landmark in Los Angeles, the Sunshine Cinema in New York City, E Street Cinema in Washington, DC, and The Landmark Theatre Greenwood Village in Denver’s flourishing Tech Center.

Fast and Furious and Movie Car Chases

Posted on April 17, 2017 at 3:35 pm

The release of the eighth “Fast and Furious” movie inspired Business Insider to come up with a list of the all-time greatest movie car chases. Some of my favorites are on the list, including the early Steven Spielberg movie, “Duel,” “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Drive,” “The French Connection,” “Bullitt,” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” but I’d add “Children of Man.” And “Transporter” is still my favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xewS5I4Eho

On the other hand, Matt Singer says that movie car chases have gone, well, downhill.

These days a really good car chase is almost as rare as a Talbot Lago Grand Sport. Even the films that routinely feature car action, like the Fast and Furious series, focus much more on outlandish CGI effects (like cars fighting with tanks or falling from the sky and jumping between skyscrapers) than one car pursuing another.

That’s the biggest reason the car chase has fallen from grace, particularly in Hollywood. The studio franchise economy in 2017 is predicated almost entirely on the supernatural, the superheroic, and the fantastic, all of which are created by computers. Great car chases, in contrast, are created by real people doing real things with real cars. Big Hollywood movies these days aren’t about real people; they’re about aliens and mutants and transforming robots and boss babies and super soldiers and Vin Diesel as an immortal warlock with earthquake powers.

He gives a bad example: “From Paris With Love.” (I agree — awful movie.) He says:

It’s nonstop cutaways to multiple close-ups, multiple angles of cars spinning, cameras spinning, and the shots are all fractions of a second. Modern taste for chaotic, hyperkinetic editing does not jive with car chases. Even if there was impressive driving going on here, you can’t tell. If you can’t tell what’s going on, it’s hard to care about what’s going on….The imperfections in The French Connection remind us that what Popeye Doyle’s doing in that chase is incredibly difficult. His car is bound by the rules of physics, which will only bend so far. Superhero and fantasy movies are about effortlessly breaking those same rules. And if you can break the rules effortlessly, why bother doing it the hard way?

For more on the cars in “Fate of the Furious,” including the Lamborghini with no snow tires being chased by a submarine over the ice, check out this article from the Florida Times-Union and IndieWire’s piece on the crazy self-driving car pile-up in New York City.

Where You’ve Seen Them Before: Cast of “Going in Style”

Posted on April 4, 2017 at 3:37 pm

The remake of “Going in Style,” like the original, is about a trio of retired men who rob a bank, with all three characters played by acting legends. This version stars Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin, all Oscar-winners with decades of brilliant performances. And the co-star is one of my all-time favorites, Ann-Margret.

Morgan Freeman: Best remembered as Red in “The Shawshank Redemption,” Hoke in “Driving Miss Daisy,” and God in the “Bruce Almighty” and “Evan Almighty,” and the deep, rich-voiced narrator of films like “March of the Penguins,” Freeman won an Oscar for “Million Dollar Baby.”

Michael Caine: His breakthrough role was in 1966 as the ladies’ man title character in “Alfie,” and he has delivered iconic performances in everything from period drama (“The Man Who Would be King”) to literary adaptations (an Oscar-winning performance in “The Cider House Rules”) to Alfred in the Batman movies. His distinctive voice and Cockney accent have inspired many imitators.

Alan Arkin: He won an Oscar for playing a raunchy, drug-addicted grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine,” and his other great performances include a confused Soviet submarine captain in “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!,” an isolated deaf man in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” and a cynical Hollywood executive in “Argo.”

Ann-Margret: Her most iconic roles showcased her fiery hair, creamy skin, flashing turquoise eyes, gorgeous figure, seductive purr, and the unmatched energy and flair of her dancing, but she showed her ability with dramatic roles in “Carnal Knowledge” and the television film “Who Will Love My Children?”

New on Netflix: Five Came Back

Posted on March 31, 2017 at 12:00 pm

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War, is a book by Mark Harris about five of the greatest directors of all time who joined the war effort to document it and to promote morale at home. It is also about how the experienced changed them and inspired them to come home after the war and create richer, more complex, and more powerful films than they had before. George Stevens, Frank Capra, William Wyler, John Ford, and John Huston created films during and after the war that helped shape our views on the war but also on America and what kind of world we would create when the war was over.

The book is now a series on Netflix, narrated by Meryl Streep and featuring commentary from today’s top directors, including Guillermo del Toro, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg, as well as clips from films we know by heart like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Best Years of Our Lives,” and film that has been rarely seen since the war, including stunning documentary footage.