On the concluding night of the Tribeca Film Festival, the cast of the two significant and influential films ever made, The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, took the stage after the iconic films were shown to the audience.
With the director Francis Ford Coppola, the stars of the franchise Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Talia Shire looked back on the films which shaped some of their career.
Francis Ford Coppola opened up talking about how chaotic much of the production was. Coppola remembered first learning about Mario Puzo’s original book, hearing from the men who would go on to be the film’s producers, and receiving a call from Marlon Brando all on the same day. At that time, Brando was turning down Coppola’s another master work The Conversation.
Al Pacino delivered a lively retelling of his casting process which was quite gruelling, as the film star recalled. After a dozen or so screen tests, Pacino got the part, but his first few weeks on set were troubled. Pacino recalled hearing people on set giggling at his performance, and when Coppola showed him some of the takes from those early days, he understood.
Diane Keaton told the story of re-watching The Godfather recently for the first time in a while on a laptop, “I was just in awe. I couldn’t get over it. It was so astonishing. Every choice [Coppola] made was so authentically perfect.”
As the night went on, the group exchanged stories, some of which had been forgotten by other cast members.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
