What is your favourite De Niro moment from Part II?

Mine has to be the moment just before Vito kills Ciccio.

As Tommasino is explaining to the Don who Vito is..Vito can be seen in the background just looking on with one of the best examples of concealed rage I have ever seen, the man ahead of him killed his Mother, Father and Brother...but he must remain calm until the right moment, but the way he is looking on...You'll never see the wise and reasonable Don Corleone ever look so mad...yet calm. Wonderful acting

I think mine is when he kills Finucci - in fact young Vito's interaction with Finucci is his definining moment - and the effort and even style he puts into killing Finucci - watching him stock the don on the rooftops of NY, it was almost an artform.

(I was thiking of that scene when i saw Vincent kill Joey Zaza in Part 3. A death is still a death, but Vincent kills Joey with brute force, while Vito kills Finucci with style. Does that make sense?)

Well, it does make sense...but I actually thought the way Vincent killed Zasa was VERY stylish.

Vito's murder of Fanucci is just wonderful. I especially love the ruthless blowing off of Fanucci's head via the bullet in the mouth, and then the way he dumps parts of the gun down those pipes...then walks back down little Italy with the fireworks going off...just amazing camerawork...then minutes after commiting foul bloody murder, Vito holds up his baby son and tells him he loves him...a very macabre effect. BUT Ciccio's murder for me still gets it

I like when he feeds little Michael the olives.

Very cute moment.

Also the scenes where he batters the two bodyguards in Sicily. Should have been in the main cut that.

I can see the macabre effect - the juxtoposition of vito killing Fanucci and then telling Michael how much he loves him, but i always looked at that last bit as a reference to the scene near the end of Part 1 between old Vito and Michael, were Vito (who had to know he was near the end of his life) told Michael that he wanted to much more for him. Vito is all about family, and the newly born Michael is who he is doing all of this for - so Michael can have a wonderful life.

I know that they made the young Vito appear to have Mike as his favourite from very early on. But I still think he had all four children in mind for a good life at that point

Best scene for me is when the young Vito is watching Carmella and the other woman tend to a very sick baby Fredo. Vito is so distraught, so helpless.

Yes, for great acting. Its all in the face. Just like that scene in Goodfella's where just in the face we can see him decide to kill morrie...then change his mind again later

On the stairs, arm outstretched, the towel over the gun, on fire. The intensity of those eyes.

It's my favourite shot of the whole trilogy.

The revenge hit in Sicily on ciccio for me his is best moment

I gotta go with the Ciccio killing. I love how he even gives Ciccio a little push after he slices his belly wide open.

I think all the ones that have been mentioned are great. But I also love the scene with Signor Roberto, where DeNiro just waits silently for the landlord to change the monthly rent, THEN offers his hand. Or when he plays dumb with Clemenza, first when he swears that he didn't look inside the "package" that Clemenza threw him, and again when he pretends not to know that they're stealing the rug.

Absolutely.

Brilliant. He does that push about 3 times. And the look on his face. Fantastic.

I'm with you 100 percent on that scene, SB! It's a masterful piece of subtle acting--the waiting, the patient look, then the quick rise to shake hands. It's also a critical scene: it really shows young Vito being Don-like for the first time.
It's too bad that the scene that immediately followed it--young Clemenza introducing young Hyman Roth--was cut out. In that scene, Clemenza, who had been the bossy one before and had been ordering Vito around--now doffs his hat in the presence of Don Corleone and insists that Roth show the boss the proper respect.

Mine is at the dinner table in Sicily, where Santino was punching some guy. The man tells him to quit, and Vito looks like he doesn't really know what to do. Perhaps he was already with the Ciccio murder in his head...

Likewise

Interesting remark. That moment is just awesome, showing Sonny's potential violent streak from a very early age. The Don always knew that 'Santino would have to go through all this' So I guess he just let it be

...a harbinger of things to come.

There is no 'best' DeNiro moment.

Every second he's onscreen is superb, whether having dinner with the wife in his little tenement, killing some Don, or touring an olive oil factory in Sicily.

Unlike Pacino who is excellent, riveting, but lets face it somewhat depressing in his role as Michael...DeNiro as young Vito brings a vibrancy to the early segments that is unequaled in either of the films.

There's no 'best' DeNiro moment.



Apple

You guys nailed a lot of the great moments. I love the whole Fanucci murder, hiding of the gun, etc., and the Don Ciccio murder.

When Vito's with Clemenza stole the carpet. Clemenza acts like he knows the guy, checks under the mat for a key, etc. Vito's onto him and suspiciously looks around. I love the music as they walk down the street. It just seemed appropriate.


When Vito brings Carmela the pear..short and sweet scene.

And I agree the Signor Roberto scene is priceless. Vito had a certain calm about him that Sonny for sure didn't have, and Michael maybe in the form of "quietness" , but not the "cool" that Vito had.

TIS

My favorite is the sequence when Vito and Clemenza and Tessio are eating at Vito's apartment and his conversation with them about Finnuci.

Also when Genco's father has to lay him of from the store and seems truly anguished and Vito comforts Genco's father.

My favourite Robert DeNiro moment is when young Fredo Corleone is lying sick on the table, as Carmela and another woman (probably a nurse) light a candle and place it on his stomach with a glass on top of it. Young Vito Corleone's face looks so helpless. A man so powerful, who was so powerless at that moment.

Actually. Thats a fair point. I guess I should have called it 'Favourite De Niro moment' because everyone probably a personal favourite out of all his scenes, as have been evidenced in this topic

Yes, I agree also. Probably my favorite DeNiro part in GFII. DeNiro really doesn't say a word in that scene and just his facial expressions, and the way that he shifts his eyes between Roberto and Genco, while putting the cigar in his mouth, is, in my opinion, just a brilliant piece of acting.


Don Cardi

If I had to choose one, this would be my favorite as well. Just watching the power shift from Vito being dismissed at the beginning of the conversation to becoming the leader by the end.

I think it's a perfect parallel to the scene in GF1 when Michael offers to kill Solozzo and McCluskey.

Yet, it WASN'T stylish (which gives it an eerie style of its own) as the the towel caught fire. It was done as a reflection of Vito himself, as perfect and precise as humanly possible and matter-of-factly.

I actually have a tie for first place.

1) The scene where a neighbor, who we later find out is Clemenza, tosses a sack across the alley to Vito and asks him to watch it for him; and Vito takes the sack to the bathtub and opens it to find that it's a stash of guns. That look where he pauses and hides his mouth with his hand was priceless; a combination of "WTF???", "sonofaBITCH!" and "OK, I'm doomed..."

2) "You've got balls, young man" scene in the cafe; De Niro's eerie coolness still resonates after a million viewings; add to it a great performance in this scene by Gaston Moschin. Then the little touch after Fanucci pinches Vito's cheek and Vito almost disgustedly wipes at his cheek.

Just Vito's total contempt of Fanucci is a joy, he can't understand why everyone else fears him

There are several scenes which demonstrate what kind of man the Don was....

1) The scenes with the landlord. When the landlord refuses to let the lady back in, Corleone suggests that he ask around the neighborhood to find our "how I return a favor," juxtaposed by the sheer joy he gets out of extorting him later on once he has checked the Don out.

2) After he kills Fanucci and someone gives him a free piece of fruit and he thanks the vendor and says "anthing I can do for you let me know.

3) The great scene when Genco's father offers him groceries and he turns them down.

4) The killing of Don Ciccion as someone above has already eloquently posted.