Category: Uncategorized

A pivotal scene in the Godfather 2 is when Michael shows up at Frank’s house unannounced after the incident in his house. He has come to make a game plan with Frank about how he is going to take his revenge. An ongoing theme in this movie is the cluelessness of the women to everything that is going on behind closed doors (literally). This is a small detail but I think is adds to characteristics of the men. When the men are discussing business there generally pretty low light that gives a grim tone to the scene. The producers did a really great job of making Michael look scary and intimidating. Although he keeps his calm for the most part you can see the rage in his eyes. The lighting seems to come from above and creates a shadow under his eyes. The darkness of his eyes is almost haunting.

Another important part of this scene is Michael’s tangent about his father and the lesson he learned from him. This kind of connects the flashbacks that have been consistent throughout the film to the present action. Frank lives in the house that Michael grew up in. The references that he makes to his childhood provides a break in the conversation. Literally seconds before Michael was planning out his evil plan and then he starts talking about his childhood. Michael plans is to get Roth very comfortable so that he can strike when he least expects it. Michael’s posture as he sits in the chair is notable as well. He has both arms on the armrests and his legs crossed. He sits there with a pretty stoic face as Frank talks. It is clear that Michael is deep in thought. As the scene progresses the camera slowly gets closer to their faces so as to increase the suspense.

The scene between Michael Corleone and Frank Pentangeli after the initial assassination attempt on Michael’s life uses wide-angle shots as well as slow shot-reverse shot technique to exemplify the gravity of the situation between Michael and Frank. Director Francis Ford Coppola intentionally has the primary shots set up at a far angle to encompass the setting at which the conversation is taking place in. The fact that Frank’s house used to be Michael’s father’s old house adds emphasis on the family aspect of the Italian crime business as well as how betrayed Michael feels when someone in his family tried to have him killed. Additionally, the landscape set-up of the shots literally give Michael space to add emphasis to the moments in which he yells that someone tried to kill him and his family. In this case, the delivery of the line acts to fill the entire room since the scene is shot at such a wide angle.

 

Moreover, when Michael is first introduced in the scene, he is in the far left corner of the shot while Frank enters the room from the far right corner, thus using the classic rule of thirds methods to draw equal parts attention to the actors on the screen, in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to the audience. This separation in distance also adds to the foreshadowing of what’s to come as Coppola is now building Michael to not just be a passive crime leader but one who is hell-bent on exacting revenge on those who tried to hurt his family. Michael starts in the shadows, by the curtains of the window, almost as if he was lurking in the shadows the whole time which adds an element of lethality to him.

 

One other important thing to note in the scene is the where the light sources are located in the room. For the entirety of the scene, the actors are dimly lit, mostly covered in shadows. This once again draws attention to the ominous nature of what the two men are involved in and exemplifies that feeling of death that comes with them. The light comes above the characters’ head, which casts the actors in an uneven shade of light and dark. The use of chiaroscuro in this scene helps the audience understand just how serious the matters being discussed are. This concept of light and dark also recurs in the film constantly, as scenes with death and murder are shot in almost pitch black conditions while light is only used to draw emphasis to characters’ faces or settings of celebration.

In the beginning half of The Godfather: Part II, Michael Corleone is being shot at through his bedroom window. The camera focuses on him entering his bedroom where you can see the layout of the furniture and miscellaneous items. It isn’t until from his perspective approaching the bed that we see his wife falling asleep, with a blanket over her that has their monogram stitched into it. Where Michael sleeps is a picture of a car with him in it, being chauffeured around. The camera zooms in on the question “Do you like it?” written in crayon at the top of page. His son, the artist of the picture, also sketched two check boxes for ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ A still shot is taken of him as he walks to the dresser to presumably choose his answer, he asked by his wife why the drapes were open. The camera moves away from her in the middle of her question, allowing for off-camera dialogue to transpire. Based on this, the audience begins to focus back in on Michael, standing blankly with a half-smirk. He begins to gaze outside until his eyes widen instantaneously and he drops to the ground. The camera shots start to become more scattered as they follow the bullets damage to the bed, the wall, and the other furniture. In a cloud of debris, Michael becomes the focus. In a still shot, he is shown crawling along the floor and within a few seconds, his body is guarding his wife. The firing ends and the two of them lie on the ground. Seconds past as the viewers begin to question if either of them are hurt, but Michael answers this by clarifying he’s fine and asking his wife if she is too. It doesn’t take long before Michael is outside ordering his men to not let his shooter escape, and the scene comes to a close when Michael paces in his living room with his children, wife, and mother all around him. His wife and him exchange a look, but all we can infer from this scene is her anger from allowing things to come this far.

The scene between Michael and Fredo Corleone in The Godfather Part II, where Michael rejects Fredo as a brother, utilizes pointed shot-reverse shots and the occasional wide shot to emphasize the nature of the brothers’ relationship. The scene opens with a wide angled shot where both brothers are visible and seated directly opposite each other, indicative of their hostile relationship. Their conversation, however, is conveyed in shot-reverse shots and is even more telling based on the lighting behind each character closed on in the frame. When Fredo is speaking, in his laid back chaise, light is lacking and the little that comes through is almost amber. While Michael is speaking, standing I might add, the natural, bright light from the window only serves to underscore the coldness toward his brother. Although a low angle shot is not employed here, Michael’s position standing is also indicative of the power he has over his brother. This is even further accentuated at the end of the scene where the camera resumes the wide shot initially employed and Michael walks out of the frame—as opposed to the camera moving. Michael has complete control, not only over Fredo but, the entire situation. Camera techniques are effectively engaged to display the juxtaposition between the brothers, which eventually leads to Michael’s disentanglement with Fredo.

The scene that I would like to draw attention to occurs in the latter half of the movie when Frank Pentangelli is being released from prison and Tom Hagen visits him to talk. The two men smoke cigars while discussing Frank’s future.

The scene begins with a medium shot, partially obstructed by a blurry pole and fence. We see the two characters in profile with the camera never focusing on either of their faces. It should be noted that while this is an intimate conversation, there is no shot and reverse shot technique being used. The camera never switches angles, or point of view. The entire scene is filmed from one camera. When the characters move along the fence, the camera maintains a tracking shot, never letting the two men out of its focus. The tracking shot starts when Tom Hagen starts leading Frank Pentangelli along the fence, similar to how Tom is leading Frank to the conclusion that he should commit suicide for the good of his family.

Additionally, the camera placement is interesting. The camera is located outside of the compound, looking in. Because the camera is focused on the characters on the other side of the fence, the links in the fence make the focus blurry. This adds to the ominous mood of the scene. That, combined with the cigar smoke, the chirping of the birds, low tone of the voices, the fact that we never see either character’s face directly, and the very subtle violin music that begins halfway through the scene unsettle the viewer and prepare him or her for the next scene. While it is never out rightly stated that Frank would kill himself to protect his family, the viewer understands that it is the only option he has.

The scene can be viewed by clicking here (it begins about 20 seconds into the video).

The ending scene of Godfather Part II uses still camera shots, panning, and flashback scenes to capture Michael’s regrets in taking over the family business. The scene opens with Sonny’s entrance to the dining room on Vito Corleone’s birthday, before the events of Godfather Part I. As the family discusses America’s entrance to World War II, tensions rise. This rising tension is accompanied by a change in camera angle from a side view of the table to shots of faces. The camera shifts back to this angle when Michael emphasizes that he “has [his] own plans for [his] future.” Again, close up shots are used to underscore the important historical and familial messages of the film.

As Fredo, Sonny and Tom rise to greet Vito on his birthday, the camera returns to the distant view of the family. However, as we wait to see Michael leave the room and the camera follow to Vito’s entrance, the camera stays on Michael, who remains seated. This choice explains that despite the attention given to Vito Corleone’s history, the film’s true focus is Michael. A three-second transition of Michael waving on the train intercalates Vito’s birthday scene and Michael’s brooding over the past. Michael lost Sonny, Fredo, and his father to the crime business he now leads-something we are reminded he never wanted a part of in the first place. The imagery of this transition accentuates the innocence Michael had failed to preserve, and his inevitable fall to the family business that cost him just that-his family.