Francis Ford Coppolla’s operatic autobiography

Nothing in it happened but it’s all true

By Mildred Pierce

MUN Cinema Series

Is there anyone who doesn’t pay attention to a new Francis Ford Coppola film? The Italian maestro and Californian godfather of cinema and wine has happily given us another gift from his large talent pool. Tetro is one of his finest experiments in story-telling in a long while. Coppola always delivers, but not always flawlessly. Tetro comes close to perfect, and so Mildred invites you to settle in for a savage and dramatic ride. Tetro stars the controversial actor Vincent Gallo (2004’s The Brown Bunny) as one of two sons of a famous conductor (the imposing Klaus Maria Brandauer). It becomes clear very early that Coppola is working in his usual operatic way, with a grand, majestic narrative of family discord. Gallo plays the titular Tetro, who is long estranged from his handsome younger brother Bennie, played magnificently by Alden Ehrenreich. Bennie tracks Tetro down in Argentina, full of good intentions and a need to connect blood to blood. But this is a Coppola film and if you know your cinematic history, you know that male family rivalry is a basic principle of his narrative operations. Complicating this tension is an undercurrent of artistic angst and ambition. Tetro is in many ways a failed writer, the son of a harshly demanding perfectionist who achieved great things on the concert stage. By comparison, the sons are bound to be weaker, or at least vexed by such high demands. Everything depends on how a man reacts to such a situation and, indeed, Tetro and Bennie are two very different peas from the same pod, at least at first. The film intensifies its tale of struggle, love, and betrayal as the brothers are compelled to confront one another and their own personal histories. Notable is Coppola’s return to the cinematic experiments of some of his Rumble Fish (1983) days where he ran the streets with a young Matt Dillon and a promising Mickey Rourke. Here he is choosing to alternate between glorious widescreen colour images to black and white, reflecting different experiences of reality and dream states. Ever the existentialist filmmaker, he is all the wiser at 70, and this film bears the weight of his crown. Critics have naturally made much of inevitable comparisons between Tetro’s dramatic arc and Coppola’s own personal history as one of the greatest American directors of all time. The audience is certainly teased into noting parallels, as so we should. Coppola has always been open with his passions and preoccupations, and no film of his has really escaped an auteur-like autobiographical emphasis. Tetro is the work of a man who has lived large and well, although not always comfortably, in his own skin. They really don’t make movies like this anymore, but while Coppola remains alive and kicking, we will all still have something to live for.

Tetro plays Thursday, November 12 at Empire Theatres Studio 12 in the Avalon Mall. Tickets go on sale at 6:00 pm and show time is 7:00 pm.

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