Tetro

Last Friday night I was invited by my dear friend Carol Tingle to see Coppola's new film "Tetro" and see him speak after the screening. The film is a marvelous study of love, fame and its impact on family. Shot in gorgeous black and white and set in Buenos Aires it harkens to the masters of neo-realism and classic cinema while weaving in brief surrealist moments punctuated by sudden intense color. It seemed to me that the choice of color wasn't just that Coppola loves the purism of black and white. By filming the contemporary story in black and white, while flash backs and theatrical elements were shot in color, there was a subconscious statement that the characters' lives were deeply impacted by their pasts, and that the past had more presence and therefore was in color, while their current lives were caught as if dream-like in the web of their memories.

Coppola stated that he was exploring the impact of creative success in families. His thesis centered on the need for love to surmount the need for fame. The back story centers on two brothers: one a famous maestro, the other the one who taught him but was left behind forgotten and treated like an embarrassment. Coppola portrays the impact of the relationship on the succeeding generations as ties become distorted. The film plays out as a reunion forces unbidden memories and hidden truths to come to light.

It is an art film, thank God in this world of manufactured screenplays and their offspring. It is beautiful to see a film where structure, imaging and storytelling transform into a greater gestalt. The performers are brilliant and the casting of Vincent Gallo with his angular face and luminescent eyes is a stroke of genius. Maribel Verdu is a marvel and is the heart of the story with a performance that is at once warm, strong and with an inner life that is breathtaking.

Bravo Coppola!

for more info about the film visit: www.tetro.com