The Making of "Goodfellas"

Here are the people who wrote and made Goodfellas telling you how they did it—Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese, Irwin Winkler, Paul Sorvino, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Robert De Niro, Henry Hill, Thelma Schoonmaker, Joe Pesci, Michael Ballhaus, Frank Vincent, Barbara DeFina. This is not to be missed by anyone interested in screenwriting or filmmaking.


First posted: 23 May 2014

Plagiarism?

Plagiarism: don't you love it! Every year there is a cry of rage from someone—typically a relative unknown—who sees echoes of their own work in the work of another—typically famous—filmmaker. Today's offering comes from Stefania Rossella Grassi, an Italian filmmaker, who was horrified to find that Robert De Niro had appeared in a short film (Ellis, 2015) which closely mirrors one she had made (L’Uomo in Frac, i.e., The Man in Tails, 2014). Not only that, but she had submitted her script to De Niro and requested that he take part in her film the year before.
 
Here is the trailer for De Niro's film:

Here is a comparison of the two films, showing the lines of voice over which Grassi sees as hers.
 

The text below is provided by Grassi to assist us in following the points of similarity in the voice overs. She has kept the script in order, but numbered the lines to link the commonalities.

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COMPARAZIONE MONOLOGHI VOCE OFF A CONFRONTO

1) I REMEMBER THE SOUND OF THE WIND AS I WAS FALLING ASLEEP--THE TREE BRANCHES SCRAPING THE ROOF--LIKE PEOPLE WHISPERING.
2) I HAD ONLY ONE THING IN MIND, ONLY ONE PLACE TO BE---
3) LIKE YOU CAN FLY IF YOU HAD THE WINGS
4) THERE WERE ALL THOSE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO COME TO HERE AND I SEE THEM ALL--PEOPLE OF EVERY COLOR, SHAPE AND SIZE---AND I THINK ABOUT TO ALL THOSE THAT MADE IT---THEY MADE IT IN SOME DISTANT SHORE, WHEN THEY COME UP THE BEACH, ALL OVER A BRIDGE, AROUND TO A ROAD--
5) AND THEY START TO WALK, THEY START WALKING FASTER AND FASTER--AND THEY'RE RUNNING---THEY MADE IT---THEY WERE LAST HOME.

L'UOMO IN FRAC
WHAT WAS THAT? NEITHER DO I KNOW TO DEFINE, IF A LIGHTLESS TRIP ON A CROWDED HIGHWAY, I JUST DON'T KNOW. MYRIADS OF VOICES,
5) CAUSE THEY'VE BEEN A LOT OF VOICES, VOICES ON THE RUN. ALL TOGETHER ASKING ME ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE, BARE OF ANY ILLUSION. AND I WAS REFLECTING THINKING ABOUT MY SEA, AT HOW THE WAVES BREAK ON THE BEACH--
3) AS IF I COULD FLY WITHOUT HAVING WINGS--
1) AND I REMEMBER THE SOUND OF THE WIND, AS I WERE CONSTANTLY FALLING ASLEEP, AND THE TREE BRANCHES AGAINST THE WINDOW--PEOPLE WHO WERE TRYING TO GET IN, CLIMBING MY SOUL TO THE HART.
4) PEOPLE OF THOUSAND OF FACES, SHAPE AND SIZE--
2) AND I HAD ONLY ONE THING IN MY MIND, MUTE, EMPTY, TASTELESS AND SORE, ONLY ONE PLACE TO BE---AND I WAS WONDERING: IF THAT GOD EXISTS, WHY HE MADE ME TOUCH THE ETERNAL LOVE AND THEN TEAR IT SO? WHY HE GAVE ME A VOICE IF HE HAD TO SHUT ME DOWN THAT WAY? AND I KEPT THINKING ABOUT THE AIM AND THE MEANING OF WHY WE'RE BORN AND DIE.


Under my responsibility I declare the following: in June 2014 the first script of my work entitled "L’Uomo in Frac" was sent to Mr. De Niro. In the following months my lawyer has made contact with CAA, Tribeca, the Canal Production and the lawyer of Mr. De Niro, and my lawyer sent him the script of 05/12/2014, from which the actor, who wrote, who produced and who directed "The Ghost Of Ellis Island" has drawn: characterization of the character, literally "excerpts "of monologue and the total staging of my creative effort lasted almost three years.
To you the comparison. 

Sorry for my english, i'm Italian.
Stefania Rossella Grassi

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The Guardian has the story, Robert De Niro denies plagiarising Italian director for short film about immigration.
 

The Making of "Goodfellas"

Here are the people who wrote and made Goodfellas telling you how they did it—Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese, Irwin Winkler, Paul Sorvino, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Robert De Niro, Henry Hill, Thelma Schoonmaker, Joe Pesci, Michael Ballhaus, Frank Vincent, Barbara DeFina. This is not to be missed by anyone interested in screenwriting or filmmaking.

Symbolism, oranges, and "The Godfather"

Oranges are golden in colour and sometimes represent gold, wealth, and by extension, greed.

The Godfather, part 1, employs oranges as a symbol of greed and impending judgment. Consider these shots. 

At the start, at the wedding, Tessio the caporegime is seen holding and contemplating an orange.

If it's not too fanciful, Tessio is already contemplating his rise in the family. Before this story is over, he will betray Michael Corleone, and try to lead him into a trap where he will be killed. Instead, it will be Tessio who dies.

Jack Woltz, the nasty studio head, boasts of being a pedophile and threatens to destroy Johnny Fontane's career, while sitting in front of a pile of oranges. In the next scene, he wakes to find his favourite horses' head in his bed. 

Immediately before he is shot, Vito Corleone buys some oranges. 

The orange card in the b.g., between the greengrocer and the Don, advertises a Jake LaMotta fight at Madison Square Garden. LaMotta's life story was told in the film Raging Bull, which starred Robert De Niro, who also played Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Part II. LaMotta admitted to a US Senate sub-committee in 1960 that he had thrown a fight on the orders of the Mafia, in exchange for $20,000 and a crack at the world title.

The real-lfe LaMotta appears as a barman in the 1961 movie The Hustler. Paul Newman starred in that movie. By a curious twist, Newman – one of the greatest movie actors ever – won his only Academy Award for the follow-up film, The Color of Money, directed by Martin Scorsese in 1986. But that's a digression.

When Vito Corleone is shot, oranges are shown scattered over the roadside behind the gunmen.

At the meeting of the heads of the Mafia families, Barzini is shown with a bowl of fruit in front of him, including a prominent orange. It is at this meeting that Vito first realises that Barzini was the guy behind all the trouble from the start. Barzini is killed at the end of the movie. 

The final orange on view is one Vito Corleone uses to make some fake scary teeth for himself. At the end of his life, the Godfather is an old man who frightens a child. 

Yeah, I know it was a playful moment, but under that playfulness lies the truth about his character. This is the first time someone in the movie places part of an orange in his mouth. Moments later Vito Corleone dies of a heart attack.