The Murder of Don Fanucci, from "The Godfather, Part II" (1974), directed by Francis Ford Coppola

I think the recreation of 1917 New York (shot over weeks in Little Italy) is the single greatest evocation of a historical setting that I've seen in cinema. In my favorite film review ever (see link below), Pauline Kael describes the period as "recreated in a way that makes movies once again seem a miraculous medium." She also notes: "There must be more brilliant strokes of casting [in Godfather II], and more first-rate acting in small parts, than in any other American movie." Don Fanucci is played by Gastone Moschin, an Italian actor of stage and film who died in 2017, aged 88. There's a smoldering tension as Robert De Niro (who won an Oscar for this role) stalks his prey along the rooftops; the collision of the sacred and profane is a regular Coppola motif; and the shift from the festive, light-saturated streets to the hushed stairwell is heart-stopping. Gordon Willis's ochre-tinted cinematography is also a landmark.

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