Godfather cast reunites for 'emotional' 45th anniversary

The surviving cast of The Godfather have gathered in New York for a 45th anniversary reunion.

Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, James Caan, Talia Shire and Robert Duvall watched The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974) with an audience of 6,000 on the closing night of the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday.

Coppola said he had not seen the movies "for years", adding that watching them again had been "a very emotional experience".

"I forgot a lot about the making of it and thought about the story, and the story used a lot of family and my personal stuff."

The two films tell the tale of a Sicilian orphan who formed the Corleone crime family after moving to the US at the turn of the 20th century.

They became movie classics and won nine Oscars but Coppola told the audience that Hollywood studio Paramount had initially wanted to set the movies in the 1970s and make them "cheap and quick".

He added that he had nearly been fired and had to fight hard to be allowed to cast Pacino as Michael Corleone and Marlon Brando, who died in 2004, as the Godfather.

Coppola said the studio had eventually relented on condition that Brando do a screen test and put up a million dollar bond that he would not cause trouble during production, something he had a reputation for doing.

Three weeks into shooting, the studio decided they "hated" Brando, Coppola said.

"They thought he mumbled and they hated the film... It was very dark."

Robert Duvall said the whole cast "had a great time playing Godfather", but that the late Brando had a favourite co-star.

"Brando particularly liked Jimmy Caan, because Jimmy can be pretty funny," he said.

"When Jimmy told a joke it would take Brando like three seconds to get it."

Pacino said he had initially wanted to play the part of Sonny, played by James Caan, and thought that it was "either a dream or a joke" after hearing Coppola wanted him to play Michael.

De Niro, who played a younger Vitto Corleone in the sequel, told of the day he videotaped Brando to learn his moves.

"I remember Gray Frederickson - the producer - and I went to the Gulf and Western Building at Paramount and went to the the screening room and took a tape recorder, you know, the old reel-to-reel and filmed the scenes that Brando was in," he said.

"And I played them over and over again for myself."