This week, "The Godfather--The Coppola Restoration", a DVD and Blu-ray set consisting of newly remastered editions of the three "Godfather" films directed by Francis Ford Coppola, hits the stores. To honor the release of the home video set, That Guy!, the Screengrab's sporadic celebration of B-listers, character actors, and the working famous, is devoting itself this week to the backup chorus of these remarkable films.

LEE STRASBERG: Co-founder of the Group Theatre and a director of the Actors Studio, Strasberg was a legendary acting teacher and Method guru but had barely had an acting career of his own when his former studio Al Pacino suggested that, at 72, he might be the right man to incarnate Hyman Roth, the ancient Mafia rainmaker who is said to have earned Vito Corleone's respect but never his trust. There may have been a bit of sly mischief mixed in with Pacino's worship when he put the actor and the character together; Strasberg had inspired a fair amount of gossip over the years about his manipulation of those under his sway--particularly Marilyn Monroe, who left him the bulk of her estate in her will--and there are moments when it's easy to see in Roth an old actor who's used to playing up both his accumulated wisdom and his infirmities to get attention, and also to gull those around him into thinking that he's as harmless as he seems. Yet Strasberg, handed this unexpected opportunity to show what he could do with rich material after many years of talking the talk, really dove in and acted the hell out of the role.

Read More...

Over the years, whenever one of the long lulls between seasons of The Sopranos would finally draw to a close, creator David Chase would emerge from the back room of the Bada Bing and entertain a few questions about the upcoming episodes. After jotting down a few of his substance-free replies, one enterprising reporter or another would ask whether or not this was the end of The Sopranos, for real this time. At which point Chase would make it perfectly clear that what he really wanted to do was direct. Direct movies.

This comment was usually accompanied by some remarks about the base nature of the television medium, how impossible it was to do good work in it, and how movies were really where it was at. Remarks which left us fans of the series dumbfounded. Had Chase no inkling that The Sopranos was head and shoulders above 99% of what was released to theaters while it was on the air? Did he truly think there were more than five people on the planet who had more creative freedom than he enjoyed in his years with HBO? Did he never hear the phrase - on his own television show, even - "Be careful what you wish for"?

Well, now Chase is getting what he wished for.

Read More...