Posted by Liz Niland on June 25, 2009
Opening the Director’s Fortnight sidebar at the Cannes festival in May, Francis Ford Coppola’s newest emotion-charged baby, Tetro, has been the catalyst for plenty of critical debate across the globe. Tetro is an intense family drama centred on the tensions between two brothers; young Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) and his older sibling Tetro (Vincent Gallo). There are skeletons aplenty hidden in the characters’ closets, with all secrets tumbling forward into the light by curtain close.
Some critics think Coppola is simply reliving The Godfather, (he’s replaced the gun-toting gangsters with pencil-wielding creative types for this one though) while others think that Tetro is his greatest piece of cinema since his glory days of the 1970s. And given it’s not only Coppola’s first original screenplay since 1974’s The Conversation but was also self-financed by the proceeds from his foray into the wine industry, Tetro seems to bear a heavy load of high expectations.
There’s no Australian release date set in stone as yet, but if you’re currently residing in the Northern Hemisphere, get thee to the theatre and support some independent cinema. Otherwise, sit tight.
tetro, francis ford coppola