Tonight's cinema trip was a very special one. The 50th anniversary screening of a film I've adored since I was 10 years old when my mother let me watch it on a trip to my uncle's house. I remember it vividly. That special feeling of being let watch something you knew was for grownups. That feeling that maybe you were starting to be a bit grownup yourself. A lot of it went over my head at the time but I fell for it anyway.
Then 32 years later getting to see it on the big screen despite the fact that you've seen it dozens of times in the interim and have owned it on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. Knowing every line, every scene, every character. Getting to watch it with 100 other people there, not to talk, not to look at their phone, but to see an all time great looking better than it ever has before. All that detail, magnified on the big screen. That glorious sun drenched Sicilian landscape, the wrinkles spreading across Don Vito's face as old age catches up with him, the oranges rolling across the road during his failed assassination attempt, the crimson cloud around Sollozzo's head when Michael takes a son's revenge. Seeing it with an appreciative crowd reminds you of other things too, like it's humour - Sonny's dinner table pissiness with Carlo, Clemenza mocking Michael for being embarrassed to tell Kay her loves her, Luca Brasi practicing his speech. You'd remember just how well put together it all is too. 2 hrs and 55 minutes fly by. No one around you is restless, no one is checking the time, everyone is just lost in what's in front of them.
The moment that got me in the throat though was Michael's lightning courtship with Appolonia. The two walking through the countryside outside of Corleone, under the watchful eye of her family and his bodyguards, strolling through beautiful hazy evening sun while Nina Rota's glorious main theme serenades the loving couple. It was just perfect. Won't lie, there was nearly a tear.
God I love films.
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