The Godfather Part III is Luca Guadagnino’s go-to movie for Christmas viewing

The Godfather Part III, the final chapter in Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Godfather trilogy, was given a wide theatrical release on December 25, 1990 – and as far as director Luca Guadagnino is concerned, that release date was the perfect choice for the film, as it happens to be his go-to choice for Christmas viewing.

When IndieWire asked Guadagnino what he likes to watch over the holidays, he replied, “[The Godfather Part III] is the best of the three for me. Part II is too perfect and The Godfather is too legendary. But Part III has the ambition of a man who did everything and the fragility of the man who is going toward this older part of his work and his life. And it’s full of this longing melancholy. The scene where Diane Keaton listens to her son sing at the party in the villa, where she wanders in her mind and the movie cuts back to the past because it’s connecting both her and Pacino to their lost love, it’s so incredible. And it has parallels with one of the great movies I love, John Huston’s The Dead. It’s a wonderful movie. … I come back to The Godfather Part III at that time of year because usually my Christmas is quite silent: we don’t have a big family, we are not a lot of people. It’s beautiful to have the silence of the winter and immerse yourself into that movie. I have time. No more phone calls, no work. It’s a long movie [two hours, 42 minutes] and I want to dedicate myself to that. But do not watch the version that Coppola re-edited — watch the original 1990 version. It’s a masterpiece.“

After naming The Godfather Part III as the best of Godfather trilogy because it’s not too legendary or too perfect, Guadagnino mentioned some of his other favorite Francis Ford Coppola movies… and no, the likes of Apocalypse Now or The Conversation did not come up. Guadagnino said, “Coppola’s films that I love are [The Godfather Part III] and Peggy Sue Got Married. And Jack is one of his masterpieces. For me, a great director invisibly masters everything he does. In Jack, you feel the way in which he’s taking this kind of conventional story but bringing humanity, and the way in which the world is created. It’s so beautiful.“

Directed by Coppola from a screenplay he crafted with Mario Puzo, The Godfather Part III told the following story: Now in his 60s, Michael Corleone is dominated by two passions: freeing his family from crime and finding a suitable successor. That successor could be fiery Vincent… but he may also be the spark that turns Michael’s hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, Bridget Fonda, George Hamilton, and Sofia Coppola.

Released in 1986, Peggy Sue Got Married was directed by Coppola from a script by Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner. The set-up: A middle-aged divorcee attending her 25th high school reunion regrets all her life’s decisions. After fainting at the event, she wakes up and finds herself in her past. Kathleen Turner stars alongside Nicolas Cage, Barry Miller, Catherine Hicks, Joan Allen, Kevin J. O’Connor, Jim Carrey, John Carradine, Helen Hunt, and Sofia Coppola.

James DeMonaco and Gary Nadeau wrote the 1996 film Jack, which starred Robin Williams as a 10-year-old boy who suffers from a condition that makes him look much older than he really is. This leads to him facing a lot of difficulties in school but he soon wins over his classmates. The cast Coppola built around Williams includes Diane Lane, Jennifer Lopez, Brian Kerwin, Fran Drescher, Bill Cosby, and Michael McKean.

What do you think of The Godfather Part III as a go-to pick for Christmas viewing? Do you agree with Luca Guadagnino that the third Godfather and Jack are masterpieces? Let us know by leaving a comment below.