167) TetroDirector: Francis Ford CoppolaYear: 2009Plot Summary: Bennie travels to Buenos Aires to find his long-missing older brother, a once-promising writer who is now a remnant of his former self. Bennie's discovery of his brother's near-finished play might hold the answer to understanding their shared past and renewing their bond.
A deeply personal picture that's overflowing with passion, this is the Godfather of American cinema's best work in over twenty years.
Set in Buenos Aires, Tetro is another Francis Ford Coppola tale of familial discord, following young American Bennie as he tracks down his mysterious older brother who has completely cut his ties with his family and reinvented himself as a writer named Tetro. During Bennie's stay with Tetro and his girlfriend, he begins to piece together what made his brother run away and the two brothers grapple with the haunting experiences of their shared past.
The story and themes here are nothing new, but what elevates Tetro above its familiar subject matter and turns the film into something extraordinary is its remarkable style. The director's compositions, with the chiaroscuro black-and-white cinematography provided by Mihai Malaimare, are inventive and surreal, giving it a gleaming appearance that I've never seen anything like before. Though in his 70s now, it's obvious that this is the work of an artist making a film purely for the sheer love of filmmaking.
His plotting and narrative, moreover, is very operatic drawing influence from the South American plays that appear in the story. That isn't to say it's perfect as there are, after all, sequences that are far too long, completely pretentious and not all of it makes sense. But, nevertheless, Tetro never runs out of interesting things to say about rivalry, family, art or the weight of expectations at any point in its 2 hour running length. Or at least, it never runs out of an interesting way of presenting these themes.
Vincent Gallo, one of the most controversial figures in the cinema industry, turns out a fantastic performance as Tetro seemingly with ease. It's a part that Gallo was born to play blending together the madness, genius, mystery and fascination of the movie's protagonist.
Some will role their eyes at this work of high-art calling it indulgent and pretentious, but there will surely be just as many people who will be left in wonder by it.
3/5
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