Ghostly image at funeral

We've all seen it, and thanks to someone on the mailing list who pointed out this link , we know that Roger Ebert has finally seen it, too. Ebert asked Coppola about it, and apparently he never knew about it!

--

'Godfather' still surprising, even to Coppola

December 2, 2001

While watching the new "Godfather" DVD, I noticed a startling image. During Vito's funeral, Tessio comes over to tell Michael about the upcoming meeting. As Michael stands up, in the crook of his left armpit a half picture of a woman's face can be seen. Who is it? How did it get into the frame? My roommate says it's Kay, and since it's over his heart, it's symbolic of their love. That sounds like hogwash to me, but I don't have a better answer.

--Tony Bates, Norman, Okla.

Roger Ebert: Good gravy! I see her, too. I owe an apology to Jeffrey Horowitz of Syosset, N.Y., who wrote earlier with the same sighting. I couldn't find the woman, and told him so. Now your description sent me back for a frame-by-frame creep through the sequence, and there she is, ghostly red against black, fading in and out. Is this a real ghost image, or only an optical illusion, like those Elvises people see on screen doors?

I asked director Francis Ford Coppola, who replies: "Gee, I know nothing about this. Will look, I guess. The funeral scene was shot really quickly, and I was disgruntled that they removed one day from its schedule. So nothing elaborate was done: we shot it as fast as we could."

I tried many times but still can's see it on my copy (I'm still to get the DVD collection).....I guess I won't regret missing it, would I?

Got to admit...in all these years I never once noticed that image & never even heard of it until joining this board. Then I DID see the face while watching last week's Uncut on TNN!!!

Sonny, if it's on the DVD, look for it just as Michael is getting up to go talk to Tessio; on the left (his left, your right) side of his dark suit.


Apple

It's kind of hard to notice. I watched the movie many times before I saw it, and had to actually look for it to see it. It's something that some people catch the first time they see it, and other people don't see it until you point it out to them.

[ December 10, 2001: Message edited by: DonThomas ]

"..what's the 'see' note for (Don Thomas)??? I take that as an insult..." LOL...I had to say it

And THAT I do not forgive...

J/K

JG

You aint missing anything at all. I only noticed it through other people pointing it out on the old board. It's obviously an error in the production and editing. It's no big deal apart from the confusion it causes as to who the woman is that appears as the mystery ghost.

(Alternately applauding and groaning at the same time).

I watched this part last night. The woman is DEFINETLY NOT Kay. I'm not sure who it is.

The person it looks like to me is Mama Corleone, who is to Michael's left.

I'm glad I'm not crazy, and other people see the face as well! The main reason I signed up on this board was to mention the ladies face during the funeral scene. I'm surprised so many people needed to be told about it, im not sure if I saw it the first time I saw the movie, it was too long ago, but I defiantly saw it myself and it scared me abit, lol, like the little boy who appears in the movie "3 men and a baby", but that's a different story...

Had anyone also noted that in GFII, during the new years eve celebrations, one shot has a silhouette of a piece of film over the bottom of the screen, its only quick so get the pause button ready if u haven't already seen it.

This 'image' was the topic of a discussion a while back. May I add an expert opinion.
The woman who appears on Michael's jacket is Mama Corleone, who is sat next to Michael at the funeral. The reason she appears is simply because two reels of film have been joined together at that point, and sections of frame have overlapped. This happens whenever reels are joined, and the editing team will remove it. Looks like this is one that slipped through the net. Can you blame them? It's hard to spot, even when you are looking at it!

i know this is an OLD topic but i think i know who the image is! Its Kay from the deleted scene where she lights a candle in the church for Michael! Creepy....

Jackal

As Yogi would say, it is hard to see it even when you view it. It is a shame that FFC was under such a tight schedule to complete this scene. While it is great in its own respect it could have been better if you can believe that. Maybe, Fredo was not in the scene because he was at another location and couldn't get there in time. That may explain it. Get rid of the band, too.

Thanks for bringing this topic back up!

I just took snapshots from the DVD, and have created a page about it here:

http://www.jgeoff.com/godfather/ghostly_image.html

jg

my dvd looks like Kay, but your shots of it looks sorta like Mama Corleone.

I gotta admitt... Before I came to these forums half a year ago, I never saw the image. But, when I did months ago, you better believe I was showing everyone who watched it with me!

It sounds wierd but look closely at the curvature of the eyebrow, it`s mama corleone.

I've said it before, but I believe it's Eleanor Coppola....she had that sort of hairstyle (short fringe) and it's looks like her cheek/nose structure...I could find any good old close up photos of her but here is one where you can compare the nose/cheek thang:

Good point. Looks like it, a bit... But not as much as you make it out to be.

She looks more like Morgana King. Wasn't she sitting next to Michael and perhaps her reflections from the camera bounced back a Mike.

Hey Sveta, do you know what Elenor or FFC win the Emmys for?

I was about to ask the same question... What did she win for?

I agree with Anthony Vincent Andolini I immediatelly thought that it was mama Corleone

Yeah, these ghostly things in movies circulate from time to time. The other famous one is 'Three Men and a Baby' and the supposed 'ghost in the curtains'. Even though I do believe it was a prank that the producers pulled.

Take a look at it here:

http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/feb01/ghostboy.html

From what i've found out, the image is a reflection of Mama Corleone's face off the lens of the camera and thus recorded over Mike's shoulder.

And were did you find this info from?

I know this has been posted before, but that entire scene contains some of these "screen leaks" where images appear on dark clothing... call it sun spots, reflections, whatever, it happens several times throughout that scene. But no doubt, the full face image is weird...

A magazine I have claims that Coppola has said the phenomenon was caused by a freak reflection in the lens.

I guess many socalled "ghost" photographs have been caused by the same problem!!

Incidentaly, I couldn;t swear to this, but watching the film in a cinema five days ago, I noticed that the face seemed much fainter than on DVD. I couldn't swear to it; I wasn't looking that hard.

I'm pretty sure that it's Mama Corleone (Morgana King). Not only does her sitting directly next to Michael substatiate the overlapping reels/freak reflection idea, but the others are more of a stretch. Much like the "Paul McCartney is dead" rumours of the late 60's, anything can be probable if you can twist it right.

-it could be Kay from the closing (additional scene on the bonus DVD) sequence, but why would those 2 scenes be merged together, unless Coppola desired this effect, which he calls a "freak" reflection or something.

-It could be Talia Shire. It's probable, but imho because of her distance from Michael in that scene it is doubtful.

-It could be Mrs. Coppola, but again, FFC's comment makes that extremely unlikely.


Anyways, on my DVD, the image is retained throughout most of that sequence after it first appears on Michael. If you focus on the right side of the screen, you can see the image faintly appear at various points when looking at the family, and can most blatantly be seen on Tom Hagen (other than on Michael).

BOOOOOOO! the ghost has returned. Today is Easter. I thought this was our holloween thread?

Sorry, I didn't know.

..just kidding. You have the BEST atvair. wish I had one

It would look better if I hadn't reduced the file size so much, but I didn't want to clog up the boards with an 80k avatar.

I used to use the freeware program "Microsoft Animation Shop" which is pretty crappy, but gets you started for more advanced (and more expensive) programs like Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop. Actually, PSP is about $300, and AS comes free with it (which is how I went), but you can pick up Animation Shop for about $35 on their website (I believe it's www.jascsoftware.com)

Double-J

(BTW I'd be happy to make someone an avatar, just PM me about it)

The woman behind Tom is his wife, Theresa, not Sandra. The image reflected on Michael's black suit is Mama Corleone, no doubt about it. The reflection is caused by the lateral lighting (there was no time to try other angles) on the camera's lenses.

I wonder how it got on the film....

Oh, sorry, didn't catch your post in time.

I noticed this on an HBO screening about three weeks ago or so. I'd never seen it before in any other Godfather incarnation. I recently recorded it on DirecTV/TiVo. The image is very clear. However, there are two parts: the first when Michael gets up to chat with Tessio and the second when he sits down after talking to Tessio. When he sits down the woman's face is different looking than the woman's face when he stands up. In addition, there is a strange squiggle that is evident in the upper right hand corner of the screen just as Michael completes standing up. What's the latest on this?

[/QB][/QUOTE]

Hmm i think it looks like either Gene simmons of Kiss or it could be a reflection off the camera lens of Harry houdini's wife.

This happened once before in a made for t.v. movie starring Valeri bertinelli. In the movie The Face of eddie Van Halen shows up for a second pounding a heineken beer!

IM NOT ALONE!!! Every time I watch it on my older VHS version I see it but never thought anything of it. On my copy its there for a couple of seconds.

[QB]



Damn! Now that i look at it. I think it looks like Luca brasi In Drag! Shit!

I don't know enough about movie making to describe what's going on here, but all during this scene you see what I call the "sunshine" on the screen. Numerous times you can see the light playing funny tricks and distorting the light. But of course the "face" is the spooky part... personally I don't think it's any of the characters, Mama Corleone included.

It is Mama Corleone, they said she was sliced in it somehow because she was next to him or something of the sort.

If I recall FFC said it occurred because of the quick editing of that scene accentuated by a reflection from the lens...or something like that. But one thing is for sure, it's mama corleone.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by spaghetti sucker:
[QB] [QB]



""I never Mistreated anyone in my life who never deserved it. You understand me? All I have in this world is my Courage and my name and I'll never compromise them for anyone. Do You understand?" - Ritchie cunningham, Happy Days

yeah i never noticed this until reading about it here, even then it took me a while. but last time i watched it, i saw it through that entire scene... strange

Man! this is really freakin me out...It looks like rosi o'donnald

The first I've heard of it was on the web site. Then I payed attantion to scene and sure enough there it was I don't think it could be Kay. It doesn't look like her.
This is what I love in the web site: you can always learn new stuff plus it makes watching the movies more fun like in this case or detecting oranges

Its Mama...double expose film...I like to trip people out about it when I show it to them....

I find this womens face to be that of vito's widow and this is just an error that was spotted to late to edit if anyone agrees I would like to hear from you but it has been interesting to read all the other suggestions.

All of yeah are late to see that.that is AL PACINO moms.

I always thought it was just a Production error

Bringing this back up because I was reminded that this was NOT fixed during the Restoration. How they didn't notice it is beyond me.

I think, the reflection has become a myth in itself. So it's an inherent part of the movie.

Yeah, it was, IMO, deliberately left in the restoration.

Given the technical opportunities these days, the could have even re-destroy Sonny's windshield digitally

So there is still no real explanation for the "ghostly image"?

i wonder if this is on snopes.com along with the munckin haning it self on set of wizard of 0z, three men and a baby ghost, and mr ed is a zebra myth.