Every Family Has a Secret
Fresh faced and naive, 17-year-old Bennie arrives in Buenos Aires to search for his older brother who has been missing for more than a decade. The family had emigrated from Italy to Argentina, but with the great musical success of their father Carlo, an acclaimed symphony conductor, the family moved from Argentina to New York. When Bennie finds his brother, the volatile and melancholy poet Tetro, he is not at all what he expected. In the course of staying with Tetro and his girlfriend Miranda, the two brothers grapple with the haunting experiences of their shared past.
Genre(s): Drama, Mystery
Runtime: 127 minutes
Rating: 7.8/10 (710 votes)
Release Date: 14 May 2009
Country: USA, Italy, Spain, Argentina
Languages: English, Spanish
Company: American Zoetrope
Sound: Dolby
MPAA: Rated R for language, some sexuality and nudity.
Director(s): Francis Ford Coppola
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Producer(s):
Francis Ford Coppola - producer
Anahid Nazarian - executive producer
Fred Roos - executive producer
Masa Tsuyuki - associate producer
Writer(s):
Francis Ford Coppola - written by
Cast:
Vincent Gallo - Tetro
Maribel Verdú - Miranda
Alden Ehrenreich - Bennie
Klaus Maria Brandauer - Carlo
Carmen Maura - Alone
Rodrigo De la Serna - Jose
Leticia Brédice - Josefina
Mike Amigorena - Abelardo
Sofía Castiglione - Maria Luisa
Francesca De Sapio - Amalia
Music: Osvaldo Golijov
Francis Ford Coppola - producer
Anahid Nazarian - executive producer
Fred Roos - executive producer
Masa Tsuyuki - associate producer
Writer(s):
Francis Ford Coppola - written by
Cast:
Vincent Gallo - Tetro
Maribel Verdú - Miranda
Alden Ehrenreich - Bennie
Klaus Maria Brandauer - Carlo
Carmen Maura - Alone
Rodrigo De la Serna - Jose
Leticia Brédice - Josefina
Mike Amigorena - Abelardo
Sofía Castiglione - Maria Luisa
Francesca De Sapio - Amalia
Music: Osvaldo Golijov
Posted on: June 14, 2009
June 22nd, 2009
Tetro may be the "best" film Francis Ford Coppola has made intwenty-five years. Whether this speaks more to the quality of hispresent state of direction as an artist or on the relative hits andmisses of his career in the dregs of Hollywood (be it aiming high andjust missing the mark with Godfather 3 and Dracula to stuff that wentover people's heads like Youth Without Youth to even crap like Jack) isa combination. He's someone who attained financial success at a time,but then lost nearly all of it and along with it, arguably, some of hisartistic merit. But after years of laying low and making wine, andmaking a whacked-out experiment that people either dug as an abstractpiece or hated to hell ('Youth'), he comes out with Tetro like a pornstar with a five-foot erection. He's got something to prove, if not tohis audience then himself, and he proves it with a story that ispersonal and a film-making technique that recalls other masters butnever too directly.
Tetro is about family, a subject Coppola is, of course, well-versed inbeing it the notorious kind (of course, the Godfather) and the morelow-level and oddly intimate (Rumble Fish). It's a story, as withRumble Fish, told in crisp black and white widescreen with flashes ofcolor for flashbacks which may or may not be real, and as homage tooperas like The Tales of Hoffmann. The title character, wonderfully andintensely portrayed by Vincent Gallo, is in a creative exile in BuenosAires, a once promising writer living with his doctor-wife (MaribelVerdu, great as always) who is paid a visit one day by a young man, hisbrother Bennie (baby-faced newcomer Alden Ehrenreich) who hasn't seenhim in years. There's secrets withheld by Tetro, not least of whichabout their parents, and soon an unfinished, longhand written play byTetro (real name Angelo) is discovered by Bennie in a suitcase. He'llfinish his brother's play, but at what cost?
The damaged, almost bi-polar writer, the insistent and impressionablebrother, the strong but uncertain woman, these characters are fullyrealized by Coppola, and then on top of this comes a sort of terrificpuzzle that is constructed through Tetro's unfinished play: what abouttheir father, a famous composer (Klaus Maria Brandeur) who split themapart, possibly, or possibly not? What about their mother, who died ina car accident? What about the bond between Tetro and his formermentor, "Alone", the dubbed "most important critic in South America"who has created a pretentious empire around herself? Questions arise,and Coppola rises to the challenge of giving the audience answers butnot spoon-fed. It's first and foremost a story of family, of brotherswho love but have to find ways to contend with their damagedselves(inspiration being Rocco and His Brothers mayhap), and it's herethat it's just about classic, on par with Rumble Fish if not evendeeper and wiser about the effect of parents, or lack thereof, in livesspent and possibly wasted.
The writing is immensely interesting, always, even when Coppola mayfall into over-indulging in his fantastic self-indulgence as an artist,such as with the operatic flourishes towards the end (this may not makesense, but compared to the WAY over indulgence of the hard-to-defendY.W.Y it will). If anything the little imperfections, those brushstrokes that go so high with the colors and shadows and impressionisticlighting that he and DP Mihai Malaimaire Jr engage in (one whohopefully will be getting more work following such spectacular work ona mix of 35mm and HD) along with Walter Murch's dependable editing,make it an even stronger work. It should feel a little messy here andthere, because its subject matter is about finding a sense of purpose,in each other and in one's art. One feels Coppola working through ahistory of close but torn family ties, of losing loved ones (i.e. hisown son), and at the same time a love of them all and of cinema peekingthrough in nearly every scene, even the ones where it doesn't look likemuch is going on.
Tetro is the antidote, basically, for this month's Transformers sequel.If you need to find the polar opposite of a picture based practicallyon just making money and reeling in the crowds with its dumb giantrobot battles and preposterous and shallow theatrics, look no furtherthan a picture which cares about its characters, its multi-facetedstory and themes, and about projecting a technique that hearkens backto cinema of the 50s and 60s while sticking to an originality by itsfilmmaker. This will likely stay with me for a while, which is whatCoppola's most profound works have done.
June 22nd, 2009
Thousand of miles away from Hollywood, the great Francis Coppolaconfronts something personal as a human being as well as a filmmaker.The story a young man looking for his older brother under the cripplingshadow of a famous father. Hummm. Compelling, absorbing, mesmerizing attimes. The younger brother is played with real magic by newcomer AldenEhrenreich but for some inexplicable reason the older brother and titlerole is played by Vincent Gallo. He's an interesting guy but not at allthe pivot that, clearly, the part required. I needed to feel thingsthat Gallo didn't provide. He's just weird and even in the enormousemotional scenes (like the final one) he's not really there. I wonderwhy Coppola made this bizarre casting decision. The rest of the cast isfabulous and Buenos Aires breaths a life of its own even if, it didn'tfeel like Buenos Aires – I know that city pretty well – it looked attimes like a border town in Mexico. Buenos Aires has an old fashion,seductive kind of elegance nowhere to be found here. I'm sure there isreason for it and I hope to discover it in my next viewing because thisis a film I know I'll see many, many times. Another thing the cheerabout, a strange and haunting score (it reminded me of "Apartment Zero"in more ways than one) and a sensational black and white Cinemascopescreen. To be seen!
June 30th, 2009
I am not a film major. Hell I've never even been to college. Through myhorrible grammar and misspellings, you will take note of how I evenbarely got through high school.
There are films out there that have puzzled me (anything by DavidLynch), films that have made me laugh (Dumb and Dumber was my favorite)and foreign films that I once considered to be the way films should bemade (Let the Right One In, Ichi the Killer). I've seen films that havebored me (Gummo, Brown Bunny) and have had my guiltypleasure(unfortunately, Transformers 2.
But never, NEVER in my life have I seen a film that has engrossed melike this has. I have never walked out of a theatre in absolute awe.Never have I truly been able to say that a film made me laugh, made mecry, made me FEEL true emotions for a character. Such beautifulcinematography, such bold yet unobtrusive dialog… no one character"steals the show".
I sat in that theatre for 143 minutes and not once was I bored. Notonce was I annoyed by a character, or a one-liner. Not once was my jawnot dropped.
This film is what a film should be… what films were meant to be.There are movies out there for entertainment but every once in a while,there is a film that comes along that changes the way you feel aboutentering a theatre all together.
I viewed this film with 10 other people in a small college theatre thatwill only play this film for one week. And the only reason I came towatch it was because my girlfriend absolutely adores Vincent Gallo(which he is amazing in) and no other reasons than that.
I don't know what else I could say about this film that could praise itany more that I have. I love this film. It's the greatest movie I'veever seen. That may not seem like much to you since you all havepossibly seen similar movies in film class, or through word of mouth.But for the average joe such as myself, this film is a masterpiece.
Bravo, Copolla. Bravo.
June 30th, 2009
This movie is pure, utter Almodovar. Mr. Coppola's themes and some ofhis visual touches are recognizable, but he has chosen to take acompletely unorthodox road to depict the most unusual of his Italianfamily sagas. The result is a camp, over the top, compelling, visuallystunning movie, which I am sure I will want to watch soon again.
Yes, the first 20 minutes drag a bit too much and are filled withcliché's, yes some dialogs may seem a bit flat and insincere, but thenthe drama picks up, the relationships evolve and the story becomes sobaroque, melodramatic and enjoyable. You will never believe thatVincent Gallo actually speaks or understand a word of Spanish: he hasthe worst accent ever heard north of the border. Still, he is prettygood for this part. Maribel Verdu (Miranda) is perfect. AldenEhrenreich (Bennie) is a discovery: he photographs like a young MarlonBrando and under an exceptional direction makes miracles in his role.