Thread by @carlquintanilla

A THREAD: on "GoodFellas", which premiered at the #VeniceFilmFestival on this date in 1990.

".. There's not a day that goes by that I don't hear somebody mention" it, Ray Liotta once said. "It's defined who I am, in a sense."

(via @TicoRomao)

2. Among the early casting ideas:

* Tom Cruise as Henry.
* Madonna as Karen.
* John Malkovich as De Niro’s character, Jimmy.

“It’s hard to explain why you end up in ‘Eragon’ instead of ‘GoodFellas’,” Malkovich once told @GQMagazine.

3. "I was told that GoodFellas is the most expensive movie soundtrack in history. Marty used like thirty seconds of a Rolling Stones song; he had to have it." - @Illeanarama

(It's at the end of this clip, via @Sergiofordy)

4. The Copacabana/Steadicam shot. Seven takes. In half a day.

Assistant director Joseph Reidy: "It's probably the hardest orchestrated single shot I've ever been involved in."

5. "Marty said it would be funny to try to do it one minute longer than De Palma's [Untouchables shot]. The world perceives this as 'Oh, the Copacabana scene!' But what it really is, is directors behind the scenes having fun fucking with each other." - @Illeanarama

6. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus: “When De Niro kicks this guy, he’s really into it. It was amazing how much hate he had for this guy. We filmed the shot from below to show the emotion in their faces.”

7. Stuntman Peter Bucossi: “De Niro was kicking the hell out of me that night. I had pads on, but I recall being quite bruised a few days later.”

8. There’s an actual recipe on how to make Paulie’s prison feast. 💯

shortlist.com/food-drink/how…

9. Liotta: "There was a lot of improv. .. they're talking about the guy [with the dogs] in the painting. Joe says, 'One dog goes one way, and the other dog goes the other way. .. I don't know where the fuck that came from."

10. Pesci also improvised much of the "Funny how?" sequence.

Screenwriter Nick Pileggi: I've won awards "because of that unbelievable scene that I, quote, 'wrote.' I never wrote that scene! I had no idea about that scene!"

11. De Niro once said, “One of the hard scenes for me was when I heard that Joe’s character was killed. .. I tried my best.”

DP Ballhaus: “I think we shot that scene only once. He was so much into it that you couldn’t do it again.”

12. On Scorsese’s casting of real wiseguys, Pileggi once said Warner Bros. had to put them on the payroll and wanted their Social Security numbers.

They said, “1, 2, 6, uh, 6, 7, 8...” “Nobody ever figured out where that money went.”

13. Pileggi: the studio had an early screening "in Southern California for an audience of Orange County, white, conservative people .. and about 70 people walked out. The Warner Bros bosses were sitting there, they said, "Holy shit. .. We've got problems."

14. But as Scorsese told @GQMagazine in 2010: "You think you're doing something at the time, and that gets you through it. And maybe it changes over the years. A picture takes on a life of its own."

15. For true fans, I highly recommend @GQMagazine's oral history on the film ..

cinephiliabeyond.org/martin-scorses…

.. as well as this treasure trove from @LaFamiliaFilm:

cinephiliabeyond.org/martin-scorses…

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