Francis Ford Coppola was done with The Godfather. He felt he had told the Michael Corleone saga from beginning to end with both The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. Paramount Pictures was not done with The Godfather. They felt there was more money to squeeze out and went about trying to develop a third chapter as early as 1978. Many writers and directors and even producers later, they were still nowhere. Fortunately for them, neither was Francis Ford Coppola, in need of a profitable hit as a director and writer after the one-two punch of One from the Heart and The Cotton Club. His sister Talia Shire talked him into hearing Paramount out (hey, can't blame a broad for trying: after all, she was nominated for The Godfather: Part II). Reuniting with most of the original cast and Mario Puzo, Coppola began work on the film in 1988.
The movie finally hit theaters Christmas Day 1990. Like Awakenings and Dances with Wolves, it was never #1 at the box office, but it wasn't a flop, either. In its first day, it made $6 million, the highest-ever for a Christmas Day release until 1997's Titanic. And because they were relatively frugal in their budget, they were able to actually make a profit by the end of its run, grossing over $136 million. Critics were mixed-to-positive in their reviews, while the usual awards season gong-throwers - the Hollywood Foreign Press, the Directors Guild, the Academy - welcomed back their old friends with open arms. The Godfather: Part III wound up tying with Dick Tracy for the second-most nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Andy Garcia), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography (the only time Gordon Willis received such a nomination for his work on the series, if you can believe it), Best Editing, and, surprise surprise!, Best Original Song ("Promise Me You'll Remember"). The film was a hit and it was getting awards: everyone's Christmas wishes were coming true.
There is only one more Christmas Day release to discuss but, too, I've an oversight to correct: a movie that came out earlier in the year that I forgot to place in its proper month. Fortunately, it has Santa right in the title:
Santa Sangre
release: March 30
dir: Alejandro Jodorowsky
pr: Claudio Argento
scr: Alejandro Jodorowsky & Roberto Leoni & Claudio Argento
cin: Daniele Nannuzzi
A traumatized circus performer reconnects with his trapeze artist mother - and a string of murders follow. That's a boilerplate description but those familiar with Jodorowsky already know there's a lot more going on. This one has all the hallmarks of great cinema: musical numbers, brutal murders, gender and sexual fluidity, religious mania, and carnies; it reminded me of a modern Lon Chaney/Tod Browning film. Come for the serial killer plot, stay for ruminations on sexual guilt and jealousy mutating into homicidal rage. One of those films threatened with an X, released unrated, eventually re-rated NC-17.
Alice
release: Christmas Day
nominations: Best Original Screenplay
dir/scr: Woody Allen
pr: Robert Greenhut
cin: Carlo Di Palma
A troubled housewife begins taking herbal remedies with supernatural effects...and side effects. Saw this once in college and thought it was lesser Allen; watched it this time around and now I think it's one of his best, certainly among his best collaborations with Mia Farrow. The gags around invisibility and love potions are, OK, not altogether unexpected, but Farrow and the cast and editor pull it all off wonderfully. She's funny, relatable, frustrating, sexy; Keye Luke is blunt and barely accented, both playing up and sending up the stereotype of the "ancient Chinese medicine man," with this one full of old magic but a New Yorker through and through. The sets in this one are especially impressive.
And now I've reviewed all 75 films I viewed for this project! Well, almost. Tomorrow: I've gone into their box office, their awards success, their productions - now I'll actually be rating the five Best Picture nominees of 1990 and voting for my favorite!
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