The movies "Goodfellas" and "Apocalypse Now" came after the Godfather movies -- well, one and two at any rate. What I was thinking was this: as a young Francis Ford Coppola sat down and pondered making the movie based on the Mario Puzo book, what films from the past did he draw on -- intentionally or sub-consciously -- that ended up influencing the look and feel of The Godfather?
I think it's safe to say that The Godfather movies were enormously influential on subsequent directors. Like music, movie making is really a series of developments built upon what had come before it.
I've not read much about Coppola's inspiration. Probably "Citizen Kane," among others. I was reading on Wikipedia that Paramount Pictures was uncertain of the viability of the film, so they set a low budget, forcing Coppola to use natural lighting rather than studio lighting, which, Wikipedia says, lent a feeling of reality to the movie. If so, then what a happy accident.
No comments:
Post a Comment