Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Staci Frederick Blistering performances.
Wuchak Released in 2009 and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, "Tetro" is drama about two American brothers in Buenos Aires, Argintina. The younger one, Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich), idolizes the older, Tetro (Vincent Gallo), and hasn't seen him in a dozen years because he mysteriously cut all ties with the family and moved to Argentina, where he lives with his girlfriend, Miranda (Maribel Verdú). Bennie discovers his brother's near-finished play and is obsessed with completing it without his permission, perhaps because he senses it holds the answers he seeks. Klaus Maria Brandauer plays the arrogant conductor father while cutie Sofía Gala is on hand as a young Argentinan girl that fancies Bennie. The movie is primarily in B&W, but with color flashbacks."Tetro" is an artful and somewhat hypnotic adult-oriented drama by the master filmmaker, the very opposite of conventional Hollywood blockbusters. Ehrenreich is reminiscent of Leonardo DiCaprio when he was young while Gallo is broodingly charismatic as the eponymous protagonist. Coppola has always had a good eye for female cast and "Tetro" delivers the goods with Verdú and Gala, although I wish the latter had more screen time. There's a revelation at the end that I failed to anticipate, but should have because everything in the story points to it.Francis said at the Cannes film festival that "nothing in (the movie) happened, but it's all true." In other words, the film's autobiographical in some ways. The challenge is to perceive the parallels. Two are obvious seeing as how Coppola's father was a famous conductor. The other is when South America's most honored critic asks Tetro if her opinion matters to him anymore and he honestly says it doesn't; sticking her nose in the air, she silently walks away. Like Tetro, Coppola no longer cares what critics think of his works. It's akin to Kurtz' disposition toward the pathetic brass in "Apocalypse Now." The critic's name in the film is fittingly "Alone," played by Carmen Maura. Then there's the fact that Francis has a brother he's been known to have a love/hate relationship with, not to mention how his nephew, Nicolas Cage, is a little reminiscent of the titular character. But none of this speculation really matters; all that matter is that "Tetro" is a creative, operatic, entertaining drama. But stay away if you need constant 'exciting' things going on, like explosions, absurd action scenes and the corresponding CGI (not that there's anything wrong with that, lol).The film runs 127 minutes and was shot in Buenos Aires & the Andes, Argentina with studio work done in Spain.GRADE: B
kuciak If Alden Errenreich does not become a future star, it will be a big surprise to me. Watch him in Tetro made me think of a young Leonardo De Caprio. Not that De Caprio is an aging actor, but he is not 21 years of age anymore. I do not know if I have his name spelled correctly, but it will be motion pictures loss if he is not a future star, that is what I see.Instead of going into plot as many might do, I will just suggest that this is Coppola looking back at his life, and perhaps the lives of others. watching Klaus Maria Brandauer, I could not but help think of Marlon Brando, a genius of an actor, but not in life. The relationship of this maestro with his brother, also played by Brandauer, the brother reminded me of Alfredo from The two Godfather classics. Certainly, also watching this film, one cannot help but Coppola's Rumble Fish, which I do think was a little better than Tetro. His love for The Red Shoes and Tales of Hoffman is also evident, (I think Francis thinks Tales is the best film ever made).A highlight of the film, and who knows, the more people see this film, the more people will want to go to Argentina during their winter time to go to Patagonia, breath taking black and white photography. Also the awards banquet is certainly a dig at such award shows, and he also may be giving a critical jibe to a famous American female talk show host who in the past, when she would tout a book would almost immediately become a best seller.Tetro is not Coppolas best film by a long shot. It lags at times, sometimes I was a little bored, but it is interesting most of the time, and worth ones while to watch.
Lee Eisenberg After a career that has consisted of the "Godfather" movies, "Apocalypse Now", "The Outsiders", Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and "Youth without Youth" - to name just a few - where would Francis Ford Coppola go next? He directed "Tetro", about the secret history of an Italian-Argentinian family.Benjamin Tetrocini (Alden Ehrenreich) arrives in Buenos Aires and goes to visit his brother Angelo (Vincent Gallo). The embittered Angelo is now going by the name Tetro. As the movie progresses, a series of important topics about the family gets revealed, and how it has always affected the relationship between the two brothers.Coppola uses one of the most unusual devices to tell the story. The present is filmed in stark black-and-white, while the past is shown in a slightly grainy color. It's as if the past was supposedly apparent - to show that the characters thought that they knew everything that was going on - while the present is supposedly unclear (to show that there are things to be discovered). I read that the movie pays homage to "The Tales of Hoffman", but I don't know that one, so I have to take the movie at face value. And what I saw certainly impressed me. I definitely recommend this movie.Also starring Maribel Verdú, Carmen Maura, Klaus Maria Brandauer, and Rodrigo de la Serna (who co-starred in "The Motorcycle Diaries" and is a relative of Che Guevara).
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU This film cannot in any way be summarized without destroying all possible pleasure in the spectator or viewer. It is a film that is full of various keys and enigmas, each one about what follows or what precedes, anaphora and cataphora melting into catatonia. Let's say that Coppola deals here with the eternal theme of the relation between the father and the son but he multiplies the relation like with a mirror and ends up with the impossibility to know who the father is and who the son is, who the fathers are and who their sons are. He then multiplies the rivalries and desires of all type, sexual, emotional, professional or whatever among and around these men. We don't know who made who and who is made by whom, and when these binary relations turn ternary, the trios are absolutely undecipherable. The father makes the son and the son makes the father, for sure, but in what order and in what direction. This brings us to a far more interesting aspect of the film. The creative act itself, the act of procreation sublimated into a work of literature or drama, into writing, front side back and back side front and maybe some other possibilities too. Then this act is at once surrounded by the ambition, the jealousy and the greed of all those who could in a way or another put their grubby hands onto the work of art and especially the royalties that could be generated by success. And we come to the idea that it takes far more than one father to produce a work of art and the work of art is the son of far more than one father. And anyway this work of art is nothing but a lie and a confused disguise for the real reality that the main concerned people do not want to let out. Better keep a ghost in your cupboard than face the people who produced that ghost with their selfish insignificance. If you like strongly emotional films that do not fall into sentimentalese verbiage and if you do not like too much gore in your tragic films, that's the film you must not miss. So go out and watch it anywhere you can.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
