A Look at Music & Sound, And The Use Of Opera in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather...

            Welcome back gangster films lovers to Gangster’s Paradise! We are dedicating this post to music and scores, and The Godfather. As you read, click right here for some relaxing reading music.

            The music that is used in films might be the most underestimated and important component in the production of the film as a whole. The music score of a film plays a largeer role than just complimenting what is happening on screen. In some way, it seems that the combination of images and sounds connects with our inner perception. In this installment of Gangster’s Paradise we are going to look at the role of sound and music in films, then we will discuss Francis Ford Coppola and his use of Opera in The Godfather Trilogy (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010).

            Again, sound and music in film is an important underestimated element within film. Sound and music, when coupled with visual images, can influence how we understand those images and provide us with cues so we anticipate plot events, such as a creaky floor or door in a scary movie. Furthermore, it can also command our attention to a specific element on the screen. For example, if the Mitch Ryder song “Devil With a Blue Dress” came on a hypothetical film characters radio, while simultaneously a beautiful women in a blue dress was crossing the street, you are going to be inclined to follow her as she leaves the frame (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010).

            Within The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, according to Helen Roulston (1998), Italian composer Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola (Francis’s Father) wrote the scores for The Godfather from the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. Furthermore, she also states that there is no gangster film other than The Godfather that opera has such a prominent presence. To illustrate how he uses the opera in the films, during the wedding scene of Connie Corleone, Coppola used a famous aria (a solo vocal piece with instrumental accompaniment) from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro), the lyrics of which foreshadows (I no longer know what I am, what I do/ Now I’m all fire, now all ice /every woman makes my heart beat faster) the caviler attitude towards women that Santino “Sonny” Corleone, the godfather’s son and underboss, and Connie’s newly wed husband will soon adopt. Coppola exceptionally and creatively employs the use of opera in the films through out the trilogy. A creative way that Coppola integrated the opera into these films is in The Godfather III, when Michael Corleone’s son Anthony does not want to be involved in the family business. He studies and performs opera instead (Roulston, 1998, p. 99-111).

            As we close, the sound and music of a film plays a larger role than just complimenting what is happening on screen because, it evokes emotions that are reinforced by the visual images in the films. This is translated into The Godfather trilogy because of the sense of familiarity and nostalgia that the opera evokes along with the overall “old world” visual feel of the three films.

Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2010). Sound in the Cinema. Film art: an introduction(9th ed., pp. 269). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Roulston, H. (1998). Opera in Gangster Movies: From Capone at Coppola. Journal of Popular Culture, 32(1), 99-111. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from the Academic Search Premier database.