Watching movies again. They’re showing “The Godfather” and, I don’t care how many times I’ve seen it, I’m still picking out scenes here and there to watch again.

Today it was the restaurant scene, which is very long and very complex. This is the one where Michael whacks Sollozzo and Sterling Hayden’s police captain.

The best part, to me, is the sound. Coppola omits music. As Michael enters the restroom to find the revolver and then exits, I think what you hear on the soundtrack is the noise of the El, the elevated subway, and it’s perfect for what must’ve been the mounting fear in Michael’s mind.

He’s still struggling with it when he returns to the table, and then watching Pacino’s face, as he looks for his moment, is incredible.

It’s incredible movie-making, I think.

Other things I love:

–The deep mahogany that colors much of the film, especially when it’s contrasted with the bright sunlight of Michael’s exile to Italy. The quality of light in Italy is magical–everything’s in sharp and immediate focus–so it’s no wonder the Renaissance began here.

–The cars. They’re big, and cool.

–Michael recruits Enzo the baker to stand guard in front of the hospital where the Don lies, vulnerable to assassination.

–“Leave the gun. Take the canoli.”

–The scene when Sonny beats up Carlo; it’s so evocative of a New York neighborhood on a hot summer day, down to the open fire hydrant.

–Sonny’s tactical debates with Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen.

–Brando’s interview with Michael, when he admits that he likes wine more than he used to. Michael’s devotion to his father is palpable in this scene, as it is in others, especially the hospital scene where he moves his father to another room.

–Tessio teaches Michael how to make spaghetti sauce.

–Any scene with poor Fredo.

–The christening/assassination sequence. Do you renounce Satan?

I can, of course, do without the horse head, a shocker in Puzo’s novel, too, and with Diane Keaton’s dreadful hairdos/wigs, none of which bear the faintest resemblance to the 1940s. Other than those, I guess I’ll watch this film a few hundred more times.