The wife & I were watching GFIII on AMC last night when she asked the question of how Michael controlled Immobiliare. In his discussion with the Archbishop, is Michael asking for only 25% control of Immobiliare? In other words, did he already own the other 75% and the Catholic Church was the final piece of the puzzle who held the remainder?

My confusion comes from the statement made by Harrison: "The Corleone’s are prepared to deposit 500 million dollars in the Vatican bank at such time as Mr. Corleone receives majority control of Immobiliare."

Please share your thoughts.

I always thought that he didn't necessarily own the most shares, but controlled it nevertheless. He bought "100 million newly issued Class A voting shares" at the meeting, and he didn't have to own all the shares of Immobiliare because the other major shareholder (the Church) was in his pocket or else face a scandal. That's why he agreed to bail out Gilday; to get his cooperation so Michael would be able to basically run Immobiliare (shown in the scene where Keinzig asks Gilday, and Gilday says that "International Immobiliare will be safe in Mr. Corleone's hands")

Generally, a 25% share might be enough to control any business--if there are a lot of other shareholders and none of them has more than 25% share. I also inferred that Michael would get the support of the Church in his running of Immobiliare, which I also inferred would count most.

I've always been a little confused about this, please forgive me-what, exactly IS imobiliarre? What is it's purpose? Grazie.

You, me, and a lot of people here are confused about Immobiliare. Apparently it's a giant real estate holding company. Why it's so important to Michael, the Vatican and Don Lucchese is one of the mysteries (and weaknesses, IMO) of GFIII.

I haven't watched GFIII in quite some time, but I believe that Immobiliare was a Vatican Bank with huge real estate holdings. We all know how much money the Vatican has, and it probably owns quite a bit of real estate. I also believe that Immobiliare was based on a real life Bank/Real estate holding company in Rome. This was written into the GFIII script based on this real company, and the Pope situation ( for those of you who are old enough to remember ) was also based on fact. Back in the late seventies or early eighties the Pope died. A Cardinal was named the new Pope and about a week or two later the new Pope died. While it was reported that he died of peunominia, there was quite a bit of speculation that there was foul play involved. Of course this theory was immedeatly put to rest by the powers of the Vatican. GFIII took this real life event and wove it into it's storyline along with the Vatican Bank scandal that took place back then and just added the Corleone's into the mix.


Don Cardi

I understand why Immobiliare is so important to Michael, the Vatican and Don Lucchese. The reason is a religious related business in countries with strong religious beliefs has always been a good cover for corruption. Vito and Michael as is shown are trying to legitimize their business by getting into politicians. Sollozzo is not vulnerable because he has a NY head police officer protecting him. The fact is maybe a corrupted politician or a police officer in NY who is connected to drug deals can be disarmed by newspapers and public opinion and face a law suit but in other countries that have strong religious atmosphere since these people are being protected by i.e. Pope etc. who are anointed from God, they are not vulnerable. Newspapers who dare to say a thing will be closed and people are being silenced because that's God's order. The goal of Mafia in any cover is to find a place in government yet better in religion. I like this third part specially because it speaks for so many people who are suffering from this situation.

During my Easter holidays I went on a school trip to Italy and I noticed several signs saying Immobiliare at different places around the country, including Rome and Sorrento.

I recently "googled" it and it is indeed an Italian real estate company, founded in 1969. It even has a website in English : www.immobiliaremb.com

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