Ep 3.5 // The Godfather Part II

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06/02/22 • 90 min

It’s Mia’s 3rd pick: The Godfather Part II, the 1974 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather Part II both continues the story begun in the first film and also deepens it by depicting what came before. We watch as Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone continues in the family business, building his empire while trying to hold on to his family, both actual and figurative. This is crosscut with a portrayal of his father Vito’s rise from an unfortunate child in Sicily to a respected man in New York, as deftly played by Robert DeNiro. We watch as the older man builds his empire in order to, as he seems to view it, strengthen his family, just as the younger man causes his family to weaken as he extends his father’s empire.

Mario Puzo, the author of the novel on which the first movie and the overall saga were based, began working on the script for Part II before the first movie was even released. And, at least according to Coppola, the production of this followup was much smoother than that of the first film, as that installment’s success afforded him greater opportunity for control and independence from the studio, Paramount Pictures. It was released in December of 1974 and, though the critical reception was mixed at first -- with the film’s structure drawing the most consternation -- reassessments began sooner than often happens.

In addition to being the big winner at the Academy Awards that year, the film was also the 6th highest grossing film of 1974 in North America. The Godfather Part II was included in AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies list in 1998, ranked at #32... and it stayed in the same spot when that list was updated in 2007.

For our purposes, it gets a little messy -- the film ranked #9 on Sight and Sound Magazine’s survey of directors in 1992... But when it was paired with Part 1 for the the survey in 2002, the 2 films collectively came it at #4 on the critics poll and at #2 on the directors poll.

Produced by Stereoactive Media

It’s Mia’s 3rd pick: The Godfather Part II, the 1974 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Produced by Stereoactive Media

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Ep 3.4 // 8 ½

It’s Jeremiah’s 3rd pick: 8 1⁄2, the 1963 film directed by Federico Fellini.

8 1⁄2 was Fellini’s feature film follow-up to 1960s La Dolce Vita – with a segment for an anthology film produced in the interim. La Dolce Vita had been something of an international sensation when it came out, so perhaps the pressure of following that up led him to produce a film about the pressure on a director to make his next movie.

It was released in February 1963 to much acclaim, especially from European critics, drawing comparisons to James Joyce’s Ulysses and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane along the way. It then opened in the United States in June of that year, where it also earned mostly praise, but for a few critics (Pauline Kael among the detractors). And it ended up winning two Academy Awards, for Best Foreign Film and Best Costume Design (Black and White), while it was also nominated for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Art Direction.

As for our purposes, 8 1⁄2 was first on the Sight & Sound critics survey in 1972, ranked as the 4th greatest film of all time. It Was then at number 5 in 1982, fell off the list in 1992, reentered at #9 in 2002 and ended up at #10 in 2012. Meanwhile, it’s been on the directors survey each time they’ve had one so far, at #2 in 1992, at #3 in 2002, and then at #4 in 2012.

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Ep 3.6 // Singin’ in the Rain

Singin’ in the Rain was a product of MGM’s so-called “Freed Unit,” named for the person who headed it -- Arthur Freed.

Before this film, Freed worked on many of the best known musicals, both historically and of their respective days: The Wizard of Oz, Babes in Arms, Meet Me in St. Louis, Ziegfeld Follies, Easter Parade, On the Town, Annie Get Your Gun, Show Boat, and An American In Paris.

It was after working on An American in Paris -- which featured music by George Gershwin, and went on to win 7 Academy Awards (including Best Picture) while becoming one of the top 10 highest grossing films of 1951 -- that Freed decided to put together another musical featuring pre-existing music by a specific songwriter... namely, himself, along with collaborator Nacio Herb Brown.

The resulting film features tunes the duo wrote for previous MGM musicals.

Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green worked on the initial draft of the screenplay with Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen jumping in to collaborate on adjustments to the story once they were done with American In Paris.

Debbie Reynolds, who was not a dancer before the movie began production, had a particularly rough time making the picture -- with Kelly being rough on her throughout and one extremely long day of shooting a number resulting in bloody feet. In 2003, she told the Saturday Evening Post that "Singin' in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life."

And the famed “Make ‘Em Laugh” sequence reportedly left heavy smoking Donald O’Connor recovering in a hospital bed for several days.

The film was considered only a modest hit at the time it was released, though it did receive strong reviews from many of the major critics of the day and it did rank as the 10th highest grossing film of 1952.

It was nominated for 2 Oscars -- Best Supporting Actress (Jean Hagen) and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture -- but won neither.

The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture that year went to Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth -- and that film was also the highest grossing of 1952.

Over the nearly 70 years since its release, Singin’ in the Rain has arguably become one of the best loved movies of all time, especially as far as Hollywood movies go.

It wa among the first batch of 25 films considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" that the Library of Congress recognized in 1989 for its National Film Registry.

And it was included in AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies list in 1998, ranked at #10... then rose to the #5 spot when that list was updated in 2007. AFI also listed it as the #1 greatest movie musical of all time in 2006, beating out West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, and Cabaret... in that order.

For our purposes, the film first ranked in the top 10 of Sight and Sound Magazine’s critics’ survey of the best films of all time in 1982.. At #3. It was then a runner up in 1992 and at #10 in 2002. And though it didn’t make the top 10 in 2012, it was included on the full list at #20, right behind Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror and just ahead of Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura -- both of which we’ve discussed in previous episodes of this podcast...

Ben Gibson, Director of the London Film School, put it on his list, saying:

“Through the faked-up DIY of Singin’ in the Rain, seemingly a mad throwing together of stuff that somehow just gels, we’re allowed to feel the joy of creativity and to glimpse the very human face of genius. It’s the least improvised film providing the most thrillingly spontaneous feeling to be had in a cinema.”

Singin’ in the Rain also came in at #67 on the 2012 directors’ poll. Among the directors who voted for it were Francis Ford Coppola and Marc Webb.