Vito, on the rooftops, grabs a gun hidden behind a chimney. From the roof, he enters a building-the same building that we see Don Fanucci walk into. Vito unscrews a lightbulb in the stairwell, and after Don Fanucci fiddles with it to make it works, he turns to see Vito clutching something wrapped in towels. It's a gun, and Vito shoots him three times as fireworks go off at the festa. The towel catches fire and Vito snuffs it out.īack on the rooftops, Vito quickly moves to dispose of the gun. He splits it into many pieces and drops those pieces down the chimneys of several different apartments. He walks down to the street, fireworks going off in every direction, showing him in light for the first time in this entire sequence. Vito joins his wife and small children on the stoop of their brownstone to enjoy the festa happenings. The young Fredo and Connie play with American flags while Vito tells the infant Michael that he loves him very much. We flash forward to Michael returning to the Nevada compound in the heart of winter. It's quiet and dark, and from the dirty dishes on the table it has the air of having been suddenly abandoned. Michael finds Kay sitting at a sewing machine, but they don't even acknowledge each other. The way that Michael glances down, the way his shoulders slightly sag, the frustration in his eyes when his Italian fails him-Pacino creates a subtly physical performance that brilliantly captures the character’s state without giving anything away to the other characters.Michael finds his mother and asks if by Vito being strong for the family he ran the risk of losing it-clearly asking his mother if he himself will lose his family. Pacino has to pull off a very difficult feat here-he must convey to the audience his nervousness and doubt while simultaneously conveying to the characters in the scene that nothing is out of the ordinary. Because the dialogue is in a foreign language and therefore “unimportant,” we can focus our full attention on Pacino’s amazing performance. What’s important is Michael’s emotional and psychological state. The audience also already knows what this meeting is about-Michael and Sollozzo are trying to reach a truce. It doesn't really matter what Sollozo says, Michael is bound and determined to kill him (and McCluskey).it all plays out in Pacino's expression and eyes.so, ultimately, the dialogue isn't relevant. This is the pivotal point where Michael makes his bones and sets off on the path of becoming the Godfather. The whole restaurant scene has very little to do the the negotiations but rather the killing of Sollozzo and McCluskey. Secondly, although the scene is important, what Sollozzo is saying actually isn't. You’re listening to the sound of the language, not the meaning.” As a result you’re paying much more attention to how things are said and the body language being used, and you’re perceiving things in a very different way. “It is very bold, even today, to have an extended scene between two main characters in an English-language film speaking another language with no translation. Walter Murch (Film & Sound Editor on The Godfather) explained why Coppola made this choice. Is there an explanation from filmmakers on why there were no English subtitles provided for this particular scene?įirstly, Coppola states somewhere in the DVD commentary that the actors spoke too quickly for the subtitles to be read properly and that was a distraction for the audience, so he let the scene play out visually instead. This scene appeared to be an important plot to the film. My question is, Why wasn't there English subtitles provided for this scene? The film is an American film with English dialogue. This answer provides the English translation for the conversation between Sollozzo and Michael. (Perhaps there is some non-English dialogue while Michael courts Apollonia, but I cannot remember) The Godfather is an American film and the dialogue is in English with the exception of this dialogue between Sollozzo and Michael. Then MICHAEL, havingĭifficulty expressing himself in Italian, accidentally lapses into The WAITER occasionally brings food and they MICHAEL listening carefullyĪnd nodding every so often. There is dialogue spoken in Sicilian (according to the script) that does not have English subtitles. In The Godfather, there is an important scene in an Italian Restaurant with dialogue between Michael Corleone and Virgil Sollozzo.
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