Once a year, the New York Philharmonic goes to the movies, or screens movies — and plays the score. This year, they did On the Waterfront and The Godfather. I’ve done a little series of three posts on these nights over at The New Criterion.
The first has to do with Elia Kazan, Communism, and anti-Communism (and some other things, like the presence of politics in art). Long ago, Orwell observed that people said “rabid anti-Communist” but never “rabid anti-Nazi” or “rabid anti-fascist.” Funny how that continues today.
The second post has to do with Leonard Bernstein (the composer of Waterfront’s score), the Oscars, and historical reputation. And the third one has to do with The Godfather— plus Paul Sorvino, who introduced this particular night at the Philharmonic.
Nino Rota’s music for The Godfather has long been a cliché. Wouldn’t you like to have composed music that reached the level of cliché? It’s like inventing the word “okay” or something …
