Huffington Post recently interviewed actor Ray Liotta and brought up the classic tracking shot into the Copacabana. In the long shot director Martin Scorsese followed Liotta (playing Henry Hill) and actress Lorraine Bracco (playing Karen Friedman) as they enter and go through the nightclub to their seats.
In the interview by Ricky Camilleri, Liotta talks about how smoothly everything went and his memories of making Goodfellas. [2024 Update: Unfortunately, the video of the interview is no longer available.]
Liotta, of course, is giving the actor’s perspective, so of course he did not see all of the work that went into making everything so perfect. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus has recounted how it took many days to set up the lighting, more days to shoot it, and more days to put together the edit.
If you want to see the scene again. check it out below. As “Then He Kissed Me” by the Crystals plays in the background, the long shot reveals Hill opening up a new world to his girlfriend Friedman. It remains one of the great scenes in cinema history.
For more of the Liotta interview head over to HuffPost Live. What is your favorite part of the famous Copa scene from Goodfellas? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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