Francis Ford Coppola talks about a 50th-anniversary version of his masterpiece that seeks to be as colorful — and eerie — as it was during 1972.
Francis Ford Coppola hasn’t completed “The Godfather” despite 50 years, and the film hasn’t been done with him.
That criminal epic, which recently won Award Nominations, notably best cinematography, produced incalculable millions of dollars for Paramount Pictures and altered a half-century of cinema in the meantime, was Coppola’s bread and butter.
However, the world has changed. It’s not how it used to be. Despite this, “The Godfather” seems to mature like a contented don relaxing in his yard. In an attempt to retain “The Godfather” for subsequent generations, Paramount, Coppola, and his American Zoetrope collaborators were involved in completing on mended and revived editions of the picture, dubbed “The Coppola Preservation,” as lately as 15 years earlier.
Coppola and these companies have created a fresh restoration for the anniversary celebration of “The Godfather,” which premiered in York City on March 15, 1972. Higher-quality movie primary sources, improved online techniques, and 4,000 hours spent correcting stains, rips, and other faults went into this current version. (It opens in cinemas on Friday and will also be available on video cassettes in late March 22.)
“The entire point is trying to make it to appear as it appeared at the initial showing of ‘The Godfather,’ while it seemed just two weeks old, not 20 years old or 50 years old,” Coppola started last week.
Coppola, now 82, said that he had never got tired of seeing the movie. But, of course, every longer he stays thinking about “The Godfather” conjures up a slew of feelings and experiences — the agony of its tumultuous creation and the honor of its astronomical triumph.
Coppola addressed the new tasks on the movie “The Godfather,” the action sequences he preferred to continue gloomy as well as the sceneries that would almost be got ripped — and sometimes even continued to work inside a plug for his latest film in development, “Megalopolis” — in a taped interview with James Mockoski, the film curator and regeneration project manager for American Zoetrope. This is a condensed version of the exchange.
Why was it essential to undertake such a rehabilitation project?
COPPOLA, FRANCIS FORD The movie industry, which was brilliant at so many things, had always lacked in the preservation department. “The Godfather” was an unquestionably profitable film at the period. However, Paramount was completely poorly prepared for such a huge triumph. Since there was a tremendous need for it, it must have been abruptly shown in five cinemas in New York and subsequently in other cities throughout the globe. Rather than suggesting, “Let’s protect the actual negative because it will be a precious treasure,” they practically wore it out since they made so many prints with it. The pictures began to appear so different from what the film should have looked like in the first place.