Francis Ford Coppola’s second installment in his operatic mafia trilogy was an ambitious prequel/sequel without equal, featuring towering performances from Al Pacino as crime boss Michael Corleone consolidating his power in the present and an Oscar®-winning Robert De Niro (at his most hauntingly beautiful) in the past as a young Vito grows from a brash immigrant kid into the fearsome Don Corleone.

1917 Sicily. Following the murder of his family by a local Mafia chieftain, nine-year-old Vito flees his homeland for the streets of Hell’s Kitchen New York. In time, through involvement in criminal activity, he will eventually be known throughout the community as a man to be respected and feared; showing instinctive grasp of how to combine strategic violence with operatic displays of sentimentality and generosity that in time will mark his tenure as the head of one of Americas most powerful organised crime families. Flash forward 40 years and Vito’s son Michael, newly instated as the head of the family must contend with a failing marriage, unhappy siblings, and ‘business problems’ that threaten both his interests and his life..

Dazzling in its depth and complexity, the film is an embarrassment of riches from a cast and crew at their creative peaks, and remains as gripping as ever.

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