Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film is another intimate indie picture called, “Tetro,” which stars Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich, Maribel Verdu, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Carmen Maura.
The film features the relative newcomer Ehenreich as he goes on a journey to Buenos Aires to find his estranged younger brother (Gallo) – an exiled poet. Once the siblings find each other and reconcile, they reflect on their troubled past with composer father Carlo (Klaus Maria Brandauer).
Coppola’s father was the composer Carmine Coppola who wrote the score to many of his son’s films including the eerie and almost electronic-synth score for “Apocalypse Now” (one of our favorites, it’s so odd and original for a war film), so obviously there’s at least some autobiographical elements to it. It’s also the first original screenplay Coppola has written since “The Conversation” in 1974.
Coppola recently went into further detail via Empire. “This is not an epic about immigrants in 1905, like ‘The Godfather’ or anything. This is a real, specific drama, albeit poetic drama. I think ‘Tetro’ is the most beautiful film I’ve ever done in terms of how it was made. I don’t know what people will make of the picture, but just the filmmaking part of it, I’ve learnt to put it together beautifully.”
“Tetro” opens June 11, 2009.