There is no shortage of filming anecdotes concerning “The Godfather”. At a time when Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece is celebrating 50 years since its release, Al Pacino rightly remembers one of them, moving and little known.
This month, The Godfather celebrates in majesty the 50th anniversary of its American release. In addition to a fabulous 4k box set of Francis Ford Coppola’s trilogy, this anniversary is accompanied as it should be by wide media coverage of part of the cast and the director, who evoke their memories of filming. And the anecdotes surrounding the creation of this film entered in the history of cinema are not lacking.
The director himself had also told us several, in particular concerning Marlon Brando, that Paramount did not want because he was then considered a poisoner at the Box Office. How the cat that the interested party caresses ended up in the film, and even on a poster of the film; or even the difficulties in imposing Al Pacino in the role of Michael Corleone, while the Executives of the studio were not at all convinced.
Speaking of Al Pacino, besides a very long interview published in the New York Times about the film, the actor evokes a less known anecdote, reported by variety. A moment when Pacino witnessed a scene where, exhausted from the constant tensions with Paramount, Coppola burst into tears after Paramount banned him from doing a second take of a scene; famous by the way.
“They won’t let me do a second take!”
“Do you remember the funeral scene with Marlon? It was late in the day, the sun was setting. So me, naturally, I’m happy because I’m going home to have a few drinks. I was on my way to my filming caravan telling myself that I had been pretty good that day. I had very little dialogue, no obligation, it was good. […] So I return to my caravan. And there I see Francis Ford Coppola, sitting on a tombstone, crying like a baby. He was really crying a lot.”
The scene below…
The actor continues: “I walked up to him, and I said, ‘Francis, what’s going on? What’s going on?” He said, “They won’t let me do a second take!” For Pacino, seeing Coppola cry like this because the studio had forbidden him to do a second take of the funeral scene, was clear proof of the filmmaker’s visceral and passionate attachment to his work.
“I’m deeply honored to have made this film. Really. A work that I had the chance to be part of. But it took me a lifetime to accept it and move forward. It’s not not like I played Superman.”
Pacino was very uncomfortable with the success. His debut in The Godfather, the role that will definitely put him in orbit, was very difficult for him. “I wanted to be replaced; I wondered what I was doing there. I didn’t feel wanted. Acting requires confidence. You have to feel that you are wanted in the role” he will tell. Fortunately, time has since done its work, and Pacino has delivered in this film one of the greatest compositions in the history of American cinema, and of cinema itself.