In the Godfather Christening of Carlo and Connie's Baby
A film is written thrice — in pre-production through screenwriting, in production through shooting, and in post-product through editing. Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather was written (and re-written) in the editing room by a total of half dozen editors, simply two of whom, William Reynolds and Peter Zinner, were credited. Coppola's biggest struggle, edit-wise, was to reduce the film to a length that Paramount Studios could stomach.
Co-ordinate to Harlan Lebo in The Godfather Legacy, "By the fourth dimension principal photography was completed, Coppola had shot 500,000 anxiety of potentially usable footage, or more than 90 hours of material." Coppola repeatedly removed and replaced scenes, often to "appease the studio," resulting in the edit becoming a "maze," with multiple scenes sliced and abandoned on the cut room floor. (Lebo 188) The work was an epic exercise in reduction that won Reynolds and Zinner a nomination for the 1973 Academy Award in Editing.
The essence of cinema is editing. Information technology's the combination of what can exist extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a full general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.
— Francis Ford Coppola
Completing their labyrinthine edit, Coppola and his team managed to create contrasting rhythms that amplified violent scenes. Through its varying rhythmic tools—from continuous activity to hard cuts and cross dissolves—The Godfather lulls the audition into submission in order to intensify the impact of violent action when it arrives. The rhythm of the film'due south editing thereby mirrors the rhythm of the Corleone family, which strives to maintain an equilibrium simply often resorts to violence in lodge to reach information technology.
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Rather than employ a non-linear editing manner where time is out of order (every bit famously done in Orson Welles's Citizen Kane and Quentin Tarantino'due south Pulp Fiction), The Godfather is edited in continuous activity, with scenes passing in chronological order from start to finish. Coppola'southward apply of continuous action helps create his lulling ambiance. Equally we sit in scenes for long periods of fourth dimension—scenes in which no violence occurs—we fall into the balance of the Corleone family carrying out business. Rhythmically, the majority of the moving-picture show exhibits this deadening, brooding pace.
Within said rhythm, one editing tool that Reynolds and Zinner employ is the transitional cross deliquesce. A cross dissolve is the overlapping of two images in either two different scenes or the aforementioned scene. In contrast to hard cuts, where at that place is no visual overlap, cross dissolves are a style to slow downwards activeness, creating a gradual and therefore comforting effect.
This lulling and brooding ambiance causes the dispersed moments of violence to experience increasingly terrifying. When those moments of violence ascend, both the film and viewer are bombarded by a rush of adrenaline. In the gruesome scene of Woltz finding his prized horse's severed head at the foot of his bed, for instance, we open with multiple cross dissolves over exterior shots of his home, sprinkled with the sound of morning crickets. This establishes an idyllic morning before the horror. Similar to other parts of the motion-picture show, it is a calm earlier a storm.
Afterwards the idyllic California cross-deliquesce setup, the horse's caput is revealed through a long take. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis has suggested, famously, that "[1000]usic is the space between the notes. Information technology's not the notes you play; it'southward the notes you don't play," and a similar principle applies to the language of flick. A lack of cuts is often more powerful than endless dramatic splices. Had Reynolds and Zinner employed quick cuts here, the horrific reveal of Woltz's severed equus caballus'due south head would read equally a modern-twenty-four hour period slasher motion-picture show, which Coppola specifically aimed to avoid and then that The Godfather would non fall "[t]oo much into the Corman Horror picture show tradition." (Coppola,The Godfather Notebook)
The long have of Woltz waking up, discovering claret, and finding the horse'southward head, all within the same shot, creates a sickening feeling that the audition tin can't escape. We are forced to experience hurting in real-time with Woltz. There are a couple of rhythmic beats resting on the caput, making it all that much more terrifying and visceral. The shot holds on the equus caballus'south caput for the outset two beats of Woltz'southward scream, exacerbating the visceral nature of the horse'due south killing. Nosotros do not cutting until later two screams.
While Woltz screams, nosotros visually cut farther and farther back to static shots, amplifying his sense of loss and powerlessness in this predicament. In contrast to the idyllic cross dissolves of exterior shots at the opening of this scene, these hard cuts at the scene'south finish intensify the sense of discomfort.
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2 scenes that further underscore the potential of a long take without edit are Bonasera'southward opening monologue and Connie'due south confrontation with her hubby Carlo. In the opening monologue, we fade in and there is no difficult cut, or any cut for that matter, for four minutes. The first hard cut of the film is when Marlon Brando'due south graphic symbol of Vito is revealed. Because this is The Godfather'southward primary cut, it signifies his prominence as a character.
The scene in which Connie struggles to confront Carlo also showcases the power of allowing a long take to play without editing. We follow her from the kitchen, to the dining room, to the parlor, back to the kitchen and into the hallway with the pocketknife—and all without any cut. There is no edit until subsequently she is belongings the knife; at that moment we cut to her going in the bedroom. But equally when we experienced Woltz finding his horse'due south head, we are stuck in real time with Connie, vicariously trapped in her hurting. This scarcity of edits likewise allows the actors to fully concretize their performance, further intensifying the audience'due south feel.
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No scene in The Godfather is more famous, editing-wise, than the baptism scene—the moving picture's bravura climax. This scene utilizes the editing technique known as cross-cutting, or parallel editing. In parallel editing, two or more scenes are woven together. These two scenes may be occurring simultaneously or happening at various times, in a montage mode. While information technology is probable that the baptism and murders occur within a similar fourth dimension frame, the sense that the film may exist breaking, for the first time, from its continuous activeness underlines this scene's importance.
The use of parallel editing allows for stark juxtapositions—abrupt contrasts in tone, and often in concept. Michael is becoming a godfather in two senses—to his niece, and to his mafia family. We open in the church, far away and cutting closer and closer in to Connie'due south infant (played by Coppola'south at present director-daughter Sofia). The first cut nosotros run into dramatizing this contrast takes u.s. from the hands of Michael and Kay, holding Connie'due south baby, to the hands of some other adult, holding a gun. This is the offset juxtaposition where the audition tin can depict parallels between the 2 worlds in which Michael vows himself to live. Had Reynolds and Zinner edited these as separate scenes, not dorsum-and-forth, the audience would non have the same thematic guide from the filmmakers.
We cutting from the gun'southward preparation to Michael, whose composure illusrtates how he ruminates, coldly, on the imminent deaths. The infant meanwhile has gone from crying to a country of calmness; there'due south a deadening in the editing and a intermission—another calm earlier the tempest. As the organ builds, Michael says "I do" to renouncing Satan, his sins, and becoming godfather, of baby and mafia. The parallel pre-killing cuts quickly together and the babe is again wailing, furthering the emotional impact. Equally seen beneath, the showtime parallel cutting where he renounces Satan is followed by a murder.
Nosotros then cut back to Michael, who says "I practise renounce him." Afterwards, we are pulled into another murder. Forth with the organ soundtrack, this cross-cut creates a rhythm that punctuates each murderous beat. Between each of the following murders, there is at least one cut back to Michael, suggesting his responsibleness for the action carried out in his family's name.
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In their maze of an edit, Coppola, Reynolds, and Zinner crafted a movie of varying rhythmic qualities, allowing information technology to return to an equilibrium after moments of high tension and violence. The film's lulling rhythm is cogitating of the balance that Michael Corleone struggles to reach for his family. In his mafia world, these moments of violence are inevitable—and he often succumbs. Rather than editing these scenes into ones that glorify horror, Reynolds and Zinner made them denoting and visceral. The Corleone family, we sense, is stuck in a labyrinth of their own making, perpetually attempting to restore stability and without an get out in sight.
Sarah Rivka (Cal '19) is a junior majoring in Linguistics with a small in Creative Writing. She recently returned to school subsequently traveling and working as a freelance video editor. Outside of class, she spends time at UC Berkeley'southward radio station DJing soul, jazz, rocksteady, highlife, poems, pop, and more nether the moniker Experience Practiced Weird.
Works Cited
Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Notebook(New York: Regan Arts, 2016).
Harlan Lebo, The Godfather Legacy(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997).
Source: https://theseventies.berkeley.edu/godfather/tag/baptism-scene/
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