Tetro

Tetro

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Tetro, the latest film from Francis Ford Coppola, is a magnificent head-scratcher. Operatic in scope, huge in ambition, technically stunning, it's also occasionally inert, slow moving, and confusing.

The story isn't totally fresh. 17 year old Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) has landed at the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina. His ship has been a victim of a technical mishap, and the week at port will give him a chance to reconnect with his long lost brother Angelo (Vincent Gallo, somewhat restrained compared to his usual work). Angelo left the family for undisclosed reason, though they stem partially from the disconnect between him and their world famous composer father Carlo Tetrocini. Angelo, now known as Tetro, seems to do little else than mop around the apartment he shares with his beautiful Spanish wife Miranda (Maribel Verdu, whose wonderful performance helps anchor the film and gives a humanity missing in other areas), work lights at a local theatre, and avoids talking about his life and his previous aspirations as a writer. The arrival of Benny into Tetro's life causes problems he can't foresee. When Benny starts to snoop around Tetro's writing, the movie's conflicts begin to come to life...

At one point in his career, Francis Ford Coppola's ambition was unmatched in American film making. The exemplification of this ambition, Apocalypse Now, is cited by many as the last time an auteur film was made by an American. In the tradition of cinematic greats like Kurosawa, Fellini, and Bertolucci, Coppola's technical prowess is only matched by his desire to fill his work with as much emotion and energy as possible.
However, as time progressed Coppola worked less and less. He began to focus on smaller stories and more crowd pleasers. Films like Jack, Dracula, and The Rainmaker were mostly unsuccessful and unimpressive.

Like 2007's Youth Without Youth, Tetro seems to be an attempt for the once legendary Coppola to return to his roots. The film feels like something that should have been made by a 28 year old director fresh out of film school. The present day narrative is shot in pristine digital black and white 2.35:1, while the flashbacks are in color 1.85:1. In addition, there are dance and theatre sequences used to illustrate the stories of Benny and Tetro, some of which are computer graphically enhanced. It's arrestingly beautiful, and should certainly be shortlisted for awards at the end of the year.

Likewise, Coppola explores the conflicts between family in an honest yet highly operatic, further illustrating his desire to make a film which feels closer to his old sensibility. Sequences in the film bring to mind the now classic baptism at the end of The Godfather, and kudos to Coppola for not being afraid to continue to push these boundaries. It's so operatic and theatrical that the film almost feels like it could implode under all that style.

Occasionally, it does. The film feels a bit stagnant at moments, and Gallo's performance never achieves the kind of pathos the film should be reaching for. Also, the structure of the screenplay seems a bit unclear at times. The final few moments feel a bit lost in emotion, and the film never exactly comes back down to Earth.

But these are a small price to play for a film of such beauty and ambition. Coppola's financial Independence puts him in the unique position of making films that couldn't necessarily get produced anywhere else. Let's hope he follows his current obsessions and interests.

4/5

-Liam Billingham