These Amazing Shadows Page #6

are entertainment

and that's all they're meant to be

and I think there's a, an...

unfortunate sense people have that

all films are just films.

Well, I think the shining example

of something that

is a folk fantasy and commercial

and art is probably Godfather.

I used to live in Bayside, Queens,

and there's

a local theater there, R.K.O. Keith's,

which was an old,

kind of ornate theater,

that had the skylights

and the stars and had the balcony...

and that's where I had first seen

The Godfather played in that theater.

And it played great,

it sounded great, it looked great.

Eh... now you come to me and you say,

"Don Corleone, give me justice."

But you don't ask with respect.

You don't offer friendship.

You don't even think

to call me Godfather.

Somehow, with the performances of

all the actors, especially Brando,

hit that neural cord that we all have

and there was a visceral reaction

from almost anyone who saw it.

The cinematographer

on The Godfather, Gordon Willis,

one of the great

cinematographers of our time,

did a very, very daring thing

when he photographed those pictures.

Gordon decided...

that he didn't want people

messing about with his image

and he shot it in a way

that you couldn't print it

in any other way

than the way that he shot it.

You can get the color wrong,

you can make skin green if you want to,

but it's gotta be printed dark.

I'm glad you came, Mike.

I hope we can straighten everything out.

The original negatives of Godfather I

and Godfather II were not in good condition,

were not capable of making new copies,

and they really needed a restoration.

The negative of that film was in tatters.

And this is The Godfather,

this is... this is The Godfather.

This is a film, you know,

I think people consider...

if not maybe the greatest film of all time,

one of them.

A lot of prints were made

from that original negative,

more so than

probably should have been made.

The negative sustained some injury,

as any negative that gets overused will.

The more popular the film,

the worse condition

the original negative is going to be in.

It's been loved to death.

It's not until the past 15,

maybe as far as 20 years,

that the studios have realized

what they have stacked away in their vaults.

They really didn't realize

that these golden treasures that

they had in their vaults and hence,

they weren't looked after very well.

The beauty of this job is that

once you start working on these films

and you start getting to explore them

scene by scene, shot by shot, frame by frame,

you get to see little things,

little nuances, little pieces of the puzzle...

and your appreciation for the film

just explodes.

We're not creating anything.

What we're doing is to try

and take what people made

and just preserve it and make it look like

what it was supposed to look like.

The trick is not to change it.

Don Corleone.

The thing about movies,

it's about storytelling.

And the story that it tells

still today stands up very strong.

At first, you think, "Oh, God,

this is gonna be the same 20 movies.

We're gonna have on here Casablanca,

we're gonna have the obvious ones, right'?"

You do have them.

But then you have some that are surprising.

I said...

"Relax and don't say anything,

I just want to talk about a film

which I'm sure has never been

brought up at the board."

How do you do-ah?

See you've met my

faithful handyman...

People are gonna say,

"You must be, you must be crazy.

The film's lacking in taste,

it's this, it's that."

But at the same time,

here's a film that's played at midnight

in theaters across the country for 30 years.

There's a reason why The Rocky Horror Show

is a popular film.

Well, if it's that popular,

it must be speaking somehow to this country.

There must be something woven

into what makes that film work.

...one hell of a lover

I'm just a sweet transvestite

from...

And I have to sympathize with Dr. Billington

because he has to go...

to the halls of Congress

and tell everyone one...

"one of the 25 films

is The Rocky Horror Show.

It's this great film!

It's about transvestites

and men from Mars

and dancing hunchbacks."

I don't know how he does it.

Well, it...

It certainly widened my horizon.

With your hands on your hips

Bring your knees in tight...

Honestly, when you're dealing

with a wide variety,

you have to be open to a wide variety.

Rocky Horror Picture Show is the...

the most successful midnight movie ever,

way more than Pink Flamingos ever was.

Let's do the time warp

again.

I'll tell you a story about it.

A woman came up to me

and she said, "I saw you sitting here,

and I just had to tell you

that Spinal Tap...

saved my life."

Coming live, direct from hell, Spinal Tap!

You're hot, you take all we've got

Not a dry seat in the house...

No, I'm not gonna tell that story.

No, it was The Princess Bride

that saved her life, so...

Spinal Tap didn't save her life at all.

It was Princess Bride

that saved her life

and I don't think that's on the registry,

but it should be.

...on our way, but tonight

we're gonna rock ya

Tonight I'm gonna rock...

When we first showed it

in a preview in Dallas,

the people came up to me and said,

"Why would you make a movie about a band

that nobody's heard of

and a band that's so bad?

Why don't you make a movie

about the Rolling Stones?"

So it took a while for people

to catch up to it, but once they did,

it became this kind of...

iconic representation

of the world of rock and roll.

What we do is if we need that

extra push over the cliff,

you know what we do?

- Put it up to 11.

- 11, exactly.

I love This Is Spinal Tap.

It takes the things that are...

naturally humorous about that lifestyle

and exaggerates them.

- One louder.

- Why don't you just make 10 louder,

and make 10 be the top...

number and make that a little louder?

These go to 11.

Oh, Ma

Oh,...

I never would have heard of this...

a very early sound film demonstration

which is a quacking duck.

Oh, Ma!

One can look at Gus Visser

and you can think...

"What is the aesthetic value?

That might be hard to justify."

It's there because it demonstrates

an important breakthrough...

in the technology of the history

of motion pictures.

It was brought to our attention

and we watched it and said...

"We have to have this,

it's a sound film demonstration.

And it's hysterical."

It's a film you can't really describe...

How he makes the duck quack.

He's kissing me.

I will say that

when I was looking at the movies

that are on the National Film Registry,

I was pleasantly surprised

that Blazing Saddles was on there.

Blazing Saddles

was basically nominated by a reporter

who has done a lot of articles

on the Registry and preservation.

Blazing Saddles

has a special place in my heart.

I love the myth of the American West.

I like cowboys, I like cowboy stories,

I like cowboy poetry.

I like Roy Rogers,

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