“Every family has a secret” is the tagline of Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming mostly black and white family drama, “Tetro” starring Vincent Gallo.
What might be the biggest secret, or at least surprise, of the film itself is how unlikely the picture’s tone is.
Given Coppola’s last film, the metaphysical quandry “Youth Without Youth” (don’t believe the hype, it’s not a terrible film, that is unless you’re popcorn muncher who needs everything fed to them), and the moody and sullen B&W images of Vincent Gallo we’ve seen so far, we were expecting a pretty heavy drama.
But one look at the trailer that arrived this weekend, and you’re almost flung for a loop at the whimsical nature therein; perhaps part Italian famila comedia, with near slapstick elements, and part Fellini, replete with colorful dreamy segments. We would never have guessed in a million years that Coppola would deliver something that appears to be so jovial. Not that his work is dreary or downcast, but it just read and looked like something entirely different (and perhaps even deadpan shades of “Stranger Than Fiction”?).
We’re big fans of the poster too which gives a nod to the color flourishes (in the “dream” sequences? or at least what looks like dream sequences…) in a mostly black and white movie.
Osvaldo Golijov, who scored ‘Youth,’ is also scoring “Tetro,” and the great Walter Murch (a longtime Coppola associate) is editing.
The film features the relative newcomer Alden Ehrenreich as he goes on a journey to Buenos Aires to find his estranged younger brother (Gallo) – an exiled poet trying to distance himself from his family. Once the siblings find each other and reconcile, they reflect on their troubled past with composer father Carlo (Klaus Maria Brandauer). The film also stars Maribel Verdu, and Carmen Maura, and after watching the trailer it’s shot up the charts as a must-see at Cannes for us.
“Tetro” opens June 11, 2009.