The Restaurant Scene- The Godfather

Probably the most effective part of the scene is illustrated in how there are no subtitles when the two men are speaking Italian. Coppola intentionally keeps the mystery, because he feels that the audience should pay more attention to the body language and hand gestures the two men make. It leaves the audience's imaginations to do the work, and they have to infer what is being said in this important meeting. After watching the scene the second time, I picked up on a few words that helped me get the basic idea of the conversation; however, I could not understand the whole thing. At this point my imagination was left to the translation. We also realize that Michael is not very comfortable speaking Italian. This shows the audience how, up until now, he has not been involved in the family "business". This scene in the restaurant is his first real hit, and it is also his sort of "induction" into the family. In this scene, Michael goes from being the little brother in the family to a respected, valuable member.