Goodfellas

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese,1990) is narrated by his protagonist, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) who grews up in a very similar environment that the boy of A Bronx Tale (Robert De Niro, 1993) did and finds being part of the mafia as the best thing he could have.

This narration show a very personal point of view. With the freeze-frames, we realize the narration is taking place time later, and the narrator and protagonist is thinking and reflecting about his story. Later in the film it is Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco) who narrates her new life. She also does it through photo-montages, we are almost sitting in her living room, having a look at her albums.

In this video you can see some Scorsese's editing techniques with some examples of Goodfellas. 


I really liked the film, I found it interesting and very similar in some ways to A Bronx's tale: the narrator, the protagonist story told since he was a child,or Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983) : drugs, the fall. And, in both of them, the figure of the divine woman who once got, is not so interesting as it was.

Everybody's fine

The thing I liked the most about Everybody's fine (Kirk Jones, 2009) is the personal point-of-view. The story is about a a recently widowed Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) who decides to visit his 4 children in Christmas, since they can not (Or that is what they say) go to visit him. He begins his trip, and each first time he sees one of them, they appear in the screen as a 7 year-old child. I loved this device. It means that he still sees them as if they were children, and in my opinion, that is a very sweet way to let us know that Frank really loves and cares  about his children, even if he may seem cold.

This point-of-view really surprised me, since I am only 19 and I have never really thought about how parents feelabout their children. 

Nevertheless, I do not think the film is a very good one and I found it takes pleasure in the melancholic scenes. The scenes in the train, when Frank is totally alone and disappointed, for example.

A Bronx tale

A Bronx Tale (Robert De Niro, 1993) is a film about gangsters. You expect Robert De Niro acting as the respectable mob moss, but instead of this you see him as Lorenzo, a devoted father.

 

One of the things I liked of this movie was the figure of Calogero (Francis Capra (9), Lillo Brancato (17)) as narrator.

The film deals with Calogero's indecision. One the one hand, his father. An honest hard-working Italian man. The boy loves his father, and he understands what he tryies to teach him. But he sees him as a worker who is never going to make any progress. One the other hand, Sonny (Chazz Palminteri) a ganster who Calogero has admire all his life. He wears elegant suits and he is respected by all the men in the neightbourd. 

This can be seen, for example, in their customs.

I think this film is clearly influenced by Scorsese's cinema. For example, the street scenes have certain paralellism with Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) or Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980).

 

Also, I loved the scene when Colagero meets Jane (Taral Hicks). Editing plays an important role there, since we know what's going to happen sooner or later. 

Thanks to V, an authentic De Niro's fan.