this is bbc news, the headlines: officials in somalia say the security services have ended a siege at a hotel in the capital, mogadishu. the claim has not been independently verified. at least 20 people are believed to have been killed after the hotel was stormed by members of the islamist militant group, al—shabaab. the russian occupiers of crimea say they've again had to activate air defence systems in the city of sevastopol. it has been the target of drone strikes for several nights running. the city is the base of russia's black sea fleet. it's also become a holiday destination for russian tourists. more than 30 people have been killed in two traffic accidents in southeast turkey. in the first one, a bus collided with

an ambulance and first responders at an earlier accident site in the province of gaziantep. the second accident happened in mardin, also involving a vehicle hitting first responders. a sight familiar to tourists in paris is that of people selling books along the banks of the river seine. but they disappeared when the pandemic hit. there were fears that covid might put them out of business. but now that tourists are finally flocking back to the city of light, those fears have finally been shelved. wendy urquhart reports. avid readers have been rummaging through the book stalls of the seine since the 16th century. translation: we are a ma'or symbol of paris in the eyes h of the whole world. we have millions of people visiting us every year. the number of people who consider us as important as the eiffel tower or notre dame is phenomenal.

so we really take pride in doing this work. after a two—year hiatus because of covid, the book—sellers are back in business, but you can't just turn up in paris and set up shop. each slot is allocated by the city council and only a few are approved each year. they don't have to pay rent, but there are rules. every so—called bookanista that gets one of the much—coveted five—year contracts must be open on at least four days a week all year round. and it's notjust the tourists that love to browse. it's one of the most wonderful things about paris. you can walk by and there are all these posters, you know, these old vintage nudie mags, and philosophy books and whatever other treasures you can stumble on. it's only in paris where you get these stalls, with wonderful books. we just saw something, a magazine, the time magazine from when we were born. so somebody kept this

for 60 years, my goodness! wonderful. there are now 230 book—sellers on the river bank, including 18 new ones that have just been approved, and tourists and locals are clearly thrilled to have them back. wendy urquhart, bbc news. now on bbc news — on the 50th anniversary of the godfather — often proclaimed the greatest film ever made — talking movies celebrates this landmark classic. # the first time... 50 years ago, a roberta flack song topped the record charts... # ever i saw yourface... we are today seeing

the progress of modern china. ..president nixon made a historic visit to china, and in britain, there was a 47—day miners strike. and in the cinema world, there was a momentous event. what many claim is the greatest movie ever made was launched — a portrait of an italian—american crime family in new york in the 1940s and �*50s. it was, for a time, the highest—grossing film ever made, a blockbuster that was also a work of great art. it was the godfather. i'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. hello from new york, i'm tom brook and welcome to our talking movies godfather anniversary special. half a century on, we celebrate and reassess the landmark classic, directed by francis ford coppola, starring movie greats marlon brando, al pacino, robert duvall, james caan and diane keaton. forjustice, we must go to don corleone.

the opening scene in the godfather takes place in the office of crime boss don vito corleone, played by marlon brando, on the wedding day of his daughter. they beat her like an animal. an undertaker, bonasera, is pleading with corleone to use extralegal means to punish men who attacked and disfigured his daughter. they're going to suffer, then, as she suffers. it is a scene that signals what is to come — what this iconic film is really all about. some day — and that day may never come — i'll call upon you to do a service for me. the opening scene is very sombre... i until that day... ..it's also very deliberate. ..accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day. but also, that scene is really important. i i mean, what's the — what are the first. words in the film? i believe in america. i mean, the whole movie's . about the american dream... america has made my fortune. ..and about the corruption of the american dream. i now, she will never be beautiful again. so, right there, that opening scene, in so many ways, - encapsulates everything about the film. - who should i give this job to?

this grand three—hour opus was the product of many different talents. robert duvall appeared in the movie as the corleone family lawyer and advisor tom hagen. i have a special practice. i handle one client. today, at the age of 91, he firmly believes the epic bears the handiwork and stamp of one individual in particular. coppola. francis ford coppola. he's the — he's the beginning of the end of it all. although in the beginning, they were trying to fire him during the first couple of weeks of work. and i was aware, and i guess others were — and i'd gained a lot of respect for him. it was his vision from a to z and they tried to have a standby director, to fire him, in case they fired him, then this guy would take over. but it was coppola's vision and his film—making and his casting that made it all work, i mean, for me — for everybody. the inspiration for

the godfather came partly from the bestseller of the same name by american author mario puzo, published three years before the film's release. in an interview decades ago, coppola, who ultimately worked with puzo on the godfather screenplay, revealed he didn't have much initial enthusiasm for the project. anyone who remembers the original godfather book, it had a lot of sleazy aspects to it that, of course, were cut out for the movie and i didn't like it very much for those reasons and i was very frightened of getting once again co—opted into another project, like, low budget — it was a very inexpensive film and in those days, they wanted young directors because they wanted it cheap, and i did turn it down, actually, once or twice. much of the action in the godfather takes place at this house on longfellow avenue in staten island in new york. it served as the home to the don corleone family. the narrative that unfolds from this house provides audiences with a portrait of an italian—american crime

family in the 1940s and �*50s. but it's more than that. it tells a story of one family member's transformation — that of michael, who loses his soul. don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again. obviously, it's about family, obviously, it's about power but i think it's also, in many ways, a film about the loss of one's self—awareness and the loss of one's identity because, you know, if you look at the character of michael corleone, you know, he starts off the film as the one person in the family who's self—aware, who's really aware of what the family does. that's my family, kay. it's not me. and over the course of the film, he loses that self—awareness. don't tell me you're innocent. because it insults my intelligence. i it makes me very angry. he no longer has the sense that what the family is doing is wrong. i thought you weren't going to

become a man like your father. that's what you told me. my father's no different - than any other powerful man. scoffs any man who's responsible for other people. _ well, i've always felt that the godfather was really less about gangsters than about power and powerful families and the succession of power and the machiavellian way that real power works in the world and, you know, obviously, i was more interested in those themes, but those themes could apply to a shakespeare play or to any piece that deals, you know — greek drama, even, really, — with those bigger themes, and that's more where i had my intention. the godfather is made at the start of the 19705. it's a very dark period for america and i think that darkness is reflected in the film. what do you think this is, the army, where you - shoot 'em a mile away? this is the era of vietnam.

this is the era of political assassinations. you know how naive you sound? why? senators and presidents don't have men killed. i who's being naive, kay? the country's coming out of the '605 and a lot of people are wondering if the american project can really continue. mr corleone is a manl who insists on hearing bad news immediately. the film really reflects the sense that the characters and the country and their family — which, in many ways, is a microcosm of the country — is heading towards a very dark place. look how they massacred my boy. marlon brando was cast in the pivotal role of don corleone. he had a reputation for being difficult and the studio didn't want him, but coppola prevailed and his performance ended up defining the film. i have a sentimental weakness for our children and i spoil them, as you can see. they talk when they should listen. he was 47 years old when shooting began, at a low point of his career.

he did a screen test for the part. he put paper handkerchiefs in his mouth to create the voice he wanted. what is the interest for my family? during filming, he wore this dental plumper, now an exhibit at the museum of the moving image, to make him sound and look different. how did things ever get so far? i don't know. i mean, coppola said he wanted — he'd get for — either for the part either brando or olivier. olivier wouldn't have been good for that part. but brando, he took certain chances with a certain mouthpiece and so forth, but it worked because he could bring an inner sense of intensity and truth from within himself, you know? within quotation marks for the part, you know? although he read his lines! he put up billboards, he put lines here, he'd read 'em, you know? so, he had his own way of working.

when you say he read his lines, he relied on cue cards? was that it? absolutely. not all the time but, like, the scene with, i guess, pacino in the gardens... ..in my lifetime not to be careless. he'd lean back and look up... women and children can be careless but not men. he had his lines written in a tree. 0r down here, you know? so, he claimed it he made it, you know, spontaneous but i don't think he needed to do it that way necessarily. but he worked that way and that's fine, you know? brando was brando, you know? i'm michael corleone. this is my father. the other crucial role to be cast was that of michael, don corleone's youngest son. luca brasi held a revolver against halley�*s head. coppola went for al pacino — a relative unknown at the time. the studio wasn't impressed by his acting at first. it was described as "anaemic". why are all these people bothering your father on a day like this?

oh, that's because they know. what? that no sicilian can refuse any request... but ultimately, pacino's performance was mesmerising and ignited his career. i'm with you now. i'm with you. pacino was amazed he got the role. i thought, "there's no way i'm going to get the part! "you can't" — you know what i mean? they're all these big movie stars out there and i thought "what do they want? "how am i ever going to get that kind of a role?" i don't want it. i'm doing all right. my life's ok. imean, simple. i play the piano sometimes, i go do theatre, i read, i have — you know, i'm in new york. new york, you get everything. new york feeds you, you know? you don't need anything else. from sequences shot at this house on staten island and elsewhere in new york, and in fact as far away as sicily, the godfather comes together extremely smoothly as a masterful movie. but behind the scenes it was anything but smooth. there was a lot of friction

between the director, francis ford coppola, and studio executives on a number of matters. there were fights over budget, location, setting. at one point there was even an insurrection about among coppola's own crew, that they wanted him replaced as director. so it was just a fight around everything. some of the other families won't sit still for all—out war! then they hand me sollozzo! my father wouldn't want to hear this, this is business not personal. but robert duvall remembers that in the midst of all the mayhem, coppola managed to remain a steady hand, working well with the actors. the thing that was good about coppola, he didn't say you had to do it, like certain old—time directors. he wanted to see what you brought to the table. and what you brought to the table, he would watch and then... he would go with it if he thought it was valid. so, you know, he had respect for actors without, you know, being totally arbitrary.

they shot sonny on the causeway, he's dead. when i had to reveal the news of sonny's death, that's a thing i do remember. coppola said, "do you want to do another take?" i said yeah, and then i think he got what he wanted. he's not one of the directors that does 25 takes. you know, if he gets it in the beginning, that's it with coppola. he's not one to beat a dying horse, you know. but it was a wonderful experience. one issue facing the creators of the godfather came from the italian—american community which subsequently embraced the film but initially was concerned that this movie would display them all as a bunch of mafia hoodlums. at first the italian—american civil rights league, led byjoe colombo, who was reputedly also the head of one of the five

families of new york, they were trying to stamp out what was perceived as stereotyping of italian americans in popular culture, and the godfather, of course, became at the forefront of that campaign. the league wanted it to be stopped. but al ruddy, the producer, met with the league and joe colombo and it turned out that they, according to ruddy, only wanted one thing and that was no mention of the word mafia in the film. it had only been mentioned at one point in the screenplay. and so al ruddy agreed that that would be taken out. and for that one simple deletion, a world of cooperation opened. and some reputedly connected individuals were allegedly cast in the film. the godfather is memorable for its violence, some of it highly choreographed. what about the violence in the godfather? were there discussions

about that? well, i think it's well choreographed. some of the stuff today, some of the violence is very indulged. but there was a reason for it in the godfather. coppola knew how to handle that well. in fact, the studio reportedly wanted the film to be more violent to make the picture more sellable at the box office rather than just have an artistic sensibility which they feared coppola might deliver. the godfather is in many ways a classic new york movie, and francis ford coppola made ample use of locations around the city, capturing the period detail. much of the shooting was done down here in lower manhattan in different areas of little italy. i think it's a really important

new york film because in some ways it traces the important spots for, certainly in terms of organised crime, but america in the 'iios in new york, where you've got little italy that features prominently there, and you've got staten island where the opening wedding sequence was shot. i'm from staten island and i was always brought up with references to the godfather having been filmed there. staten island is also a prominent location in terms of the history of organised crime and the sort of, the passage of italian—american settlements over time. they don't say if he's dead or alive. new york's landmark radio city music hall is featured in the godfather. michael and kay, played respectively by al pacino and diane keaton, are seen leaving the music hall and learning of the news that don corleone has been shot in little italy. is he all right? we don't know yet. in fact, diane keaton is one of very few women

in any significant role in the godfather, it's a very male story, an incredibly patriarchal crime family. in fact, the movie has been accused of being misogynistic, even holding back the progress of women in the film industry. emma jones has been investigating. hello? daughters, lovers, wives, mothers. what's the matter? i can't hear you. some go without a first name, like mama corleone. in the ultra masculine world of the godfather, what place do its women have? you just told me to make you dinner. apart from in the kitchen or the bedroom. watching it as a woman there is always the sense of, what are the female characters? there are some, but who are they, and are they really as fleshed out as the male characters in the film? and the answer is no. the answer is no. is it true? don't ask me about my business. no...

enough! diane keaton played kay, the american graduate who marries michael corleone. it was keaton�*s breakthrough acting role. kay, for all herfaults in the film, as a character is more progressive, she does ask questions. what was that? that's an accident, . but nobody was hurt. she does challenge the world to some extent. and i think it's interesting because you see the mafia and the world through her eyes. at the beginning we are at the same point of view as her, we are the outsider curious about this world and want to know more about it. my father helped him with his career. he did? how? that is one of the strong points of the film but it's unfortunate, they could have done a lot more with the character. how long have you been back? i think she is often presented as this sort of lovesick, weeping, distressed women who is just in love with michael. what do you want with me, after all this time without even calling or writing. i don't think that she has

to be a main character in this film, if you are going to reboot the godfather that is what you should do, that is what should happen. in the world outside the godfather in 1972, there were waves of feminist protests seeking equality. a year later, roe v wade granted abortion rights to women in the us. times have changed. in the godfather, set in 1945, it is a rigidly patriarchal system. i hate you! don corleone's daughter connie, played by talia shire, is fleshed out as a character by the horrific depiction of domestic abuse she suffers. michael corleone's sicilian first wife apollonia is filmed topless on her wedding night. the actress, simonetta stefanelli, was a teenager at the time. she is topless, you know, he is not. there is no male nudity at all. and, you know, it's like, previously in the film you have seen her basically

being bartered over. she has very few lines, very little opportunity to give any kind of character. i think the actress herself described her role as, "i met him, i married him, idied." that's it. connie is the daughter of a don, she would, she has some power. she would have experienced some power growing up, and yet is quite helpless. what's the matter? it was my fault! she's another character that is squandered in my view. the film was hugely successful so a lot of studio execs would have looked at that film and thought, "fantastic, let's replicate that." and i think the 1970s was the age of the male anti—hero. i saw in your eyes, and i saw in the way you carried yourself, that you're not a happy person. that was a period where you have robert de niro in taxi driver, there

were a lot of misogynistic men whose characters were explored. that's not to say that i don't think the godfather should exist at all, i think it is a great film, ijust want otherfilms, i'm sure feminists at the time felt completely destroyed by the cinema, the popular cinema at the time. perhaps coppola's lens on italian and american women living in 1940s new york, a domestic world where they existed to please, may have been fairly accurate. but the 1940s was also an era of spirited heroines on screen and fleshing these women out into fully dimensional characters was also an opportunity missed. this new york crime family epic has stood the test of time because of its strong story, performances and cinematography. it is brilliant cinema. there wasn't enough time, michael. there wasn't enough time. we'll get there, pop. we'll get there. 50 years after its launch,

it's clear that in many ways the godfather has very much left its mark on popular culture, particularly with the way in which mobsters are portrayed. a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man. whether it be in the popular american crime drama tv series the sopranos... someday soon you're gonna have family of your own. and if you're lucky, you'll remember the little moments. ..or in director martin scorsese's celebrated new york gangster film, goodfellas. i do think the godfather change the way the mafia was portrayed in films. after the godfather, gangsters were seen as almost noble. they were seen as quiet, calculating, certainly intense, but not the kind of cartoonish eye—rolling villains that you would have seen before. so that brings this special godfather anniversary edition

of talking movies to a close. we hope you've enjoyed the show. please remember you can always reach us online at bbc.com/talkingmovies. and you can find us on twitter. from me, tom brook, and the rest of the talking movies team here in new york, it's goodbye as we leave you with a clip from what is perhaps one of the best movies ever made. # this heart i bring you # i have but one heart to share with you # i have but one dream, that i can cling to # you are the one dream i pray comes true. #

hello. a fine end to the day for many of us, but a bit of rain in the forecast too, particularly in the north, but on the whole, this evening and overnight, at least for most of us, it is going to be dry with clear spells. so let's have a look at the forecast, then. here is the big picture, and in the last few hours, we've seen a weather front moving southwards across the country, here it is, and it's been affecting northern parts of the uk, so a little bit of rain here, which is going to fizzle away as we go through the course of the evening. you can see it crossing parts of lancashire, through yorkshire, approaching hull and then there's really not much left of it. apart from a few showers here and there, maybe in western parts of scotland, it is looking dry. now, the temperatures will range from around 10 celsius in aberdeen to 1a in london and about that in liverpool too.

so the forecast for tomorrow — it's actually going to be a sunnier day compared to today in the north of the country, but we are expecting more cloud in the south. and the reason for it is this weather front, which will be approaching us, and a fair amount of cloud ahead of this weather front. so here is the forecast, then, for the morning on sunday. quite a lot of cloud here across south—western parts of the uk, certainly for wales, the south—west of england. some spots of rain moving into mid—wales, north wales, perhaps reaching merseyside by the time we get to the middle of the afternoon, but for many southern, eastern and northern areas, it's going to be a dry day, quite warm there in norwich, 25 degrees, hull will be up to 23, and not far off 20, i think, for newcastle and for aberdeen, where plenty of sunny spells are forecast. now, monday, the weatherfronts are right over the uk — that means a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain, at least early in the day. so this is the morning — notice that it's not raining everywhere, in fact,

many parts of central and northern scotland dry, most of the rain is across england and wales. then come the afternoon, it does look as if that weather front clears away and there will be some sunny spells developing. the temperatures respectable, around the low 20s, maybe the mid 20s for east anglia and the south—east. so, let's summarise the weather for the rest of the week. typical weather for our shores, but quite warm at times. in the south and south—east there, you can see temperatures in london nudging up to around 27 celsius in the middle of the week. bye— bye. you're watching bbc news.

i'm rich preston. our top stories: gunfire. unconfirmed reports from somalia say security forces have ended a 30—hour siege of the hayat hotel in the capital mogadishu. up to 20 people may have been killed. in russian—annexed crimea, sevastapol, the home of russia's black sea fleet, comes under drone attack again. the russian—appointed governor urges people to remain calm. tribal warriors in south africa proclaim a new king of the zulus, after a year—long family feud. and ukraine's heavyweight boxer, oleksandr usyk, retains his four unified world titles with a victory over britian�*s anthonyjoshua, that he dedicated to the ukrainian armed forces.