Mostly it looks Christian, but I didn’t recognise the script, and I’ve never seen a wedding where crowns are held above the head of the bride and groom.
Later on, the music at the reception… sounds uncanily like the theme tune for dangermouse!
I might have more questions… I’m watching the film right now.
I believe the wedding is Russian Orthodox.
Ah that makes sense, because the groom’s mother had a russian accent. Thanks.
Funny thing about this film… with the exception of deniro, walken, and streep, a lot of the faces are vaguelly familiar, but I can’t put names to them.
John Savage (who played Steven} should be a familiar face. He’s been in umpteen things, most recently HBO’s “Carnivàle.”
The name is slightly familiar. I’ve not seen Carnivale.
[goes off to imdb]
Of his filmography I’ve seen one film - Thin Red Line.
But he still has a familiar face to me. So des the heavy-set bearded guy.
it is indeed russian orthodox. one of the very few realistic port.s of an orthodox ceremony.
the russian dances at the reception are very familiar to people who’s relatives came over pre-revolution. the ones who are “just off the boat” now are baffled by them.
It’s been years since I saw that movie so I don’t remember if they ever specified what religion the characters were. The wedding ceremony with crowns is seen in Byzantine Rite Catholic ceremonies as well as Orthodox ceremonies.
When I watched the DVDTV version on American Movie Classics, I’d swear they said Ukrainian Orthodox. But maybe it is Russian.
To help out with one of those most definite familiar faces, John Cazale played Fredo in the Godfather I & II, but died of bone cancer almost immediately after the making of DH so didn’t have the potentially very good career he should have.
I would like to add that I found this movie highly overrated and dull to the point of drawing tears. I started flipping channels after an hour and could hardly bear it by the wedding. But I watched on, because it “was a CLASSIC!” :rolleyes:
They could have wrapped this up in about 15 minutes with good a better , oh, I don’t know what they call it, screen-play, story, plot, whatever.
What a waste of time.
gatoescapado, you just gave me an idea for a seperate thread! About so-called classics.
The wedding scene was filmed at St. Theodosius (Russian) Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio. I grew up in a suburb of that city, and one of the teachers at the elementary school I attended was a member of the St. Theodosius congregation. She appears as an extra in the movie.
I loved John Cazale’s performances in all of the five feature films that he made – each of which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar! That’s a enviable track record for any actor.
Incidentally, the wedding of Jonathan & Mina Harker in Coppola’s Dracula is also Orthodox or maybe Byzantine Rite Catholic. Of course, in the book, he was taken in by Catholic nuns running a hospital & they were married by the chaplain at an Anglican mission. No way those Anglicans would’ve qualified for an Orthodox/Byzantine wedding unless a priest figured “He escaped Castle Dracula- that’s good enough for me!”