Coppola Announces New Film Project
Francis Ford Coppola will follow-up his directorial return "Youth Without Youth" with a vaguely autobiographical film, the director told The Associated Press Monday.
Coppola, who is currently putting the final touches on "Youth Without Youth," his first film in a decade, plans to next produce and direct "Tetro." The film will follow the rivalries born out of creative differences passed down through generations of an artistic Italian immigrant family not unlike Coppola's.
Set in Argentina (not Coppola's native New York), "Tetro" fictionalizes what Coppola calls his "very unusual family," which has been populated by artists since his father's generation.
"I think at this age, I'm more disposed to look at my life in terms of dramatic material," the 67-year-old filmmaker said Tuesday, speaking from his home in Napa Valley, Calif. "Maybe I'm less frightened or more confident about writing something that is fiction even though it has its basis in real things that I've seen and felt. Maybe it won't offend anybody, I hope."
Coppola remembers wasted time spent where family members weren't speaking for years but he happily assures that in his family now, "everybody is talking."
Coppola's announcement perhaps most signified that the director is now clearly embarking on new active period in his career after a dormant decade following 1997's "The Rainmaker" The change was partly sparked by Coppola's abandonment of his long-planned futuristic epic "Megalopolis," which he has shelved in place of smaller, more personal films.
"Youth Without Youth," starring Tim Roth, was filmed in Romania and is due out in the second half of 2007. The experience, Coppola says, reinvigorated him.
"It's a very big change of the type of career that I had before. I always wanted to be a filmmaker who wrote his own original material," he says, recalling his earlier movies "The Conversation" (1974) and "The Rain People" (1969).
Coppola now hopes to write and direct films at the pace of Woody Allen something he can finance partly because of the success of his wine business.
"I view this as the career I always wished I could have," Coppola says. "Now, I'm in a place where I can be my own patron."
"Tetro" will star Matt Dillon, Coppola's third film with the actor, the other two being 1983's back-to-back "The Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish." Production is scheduled to begin in Buenos Aires late this year.
Bardem May Team With Coppola For 'Tetro,' Clears His Throat For 'Nine'
Source: MTV
It's been a tough time for Francis Ford Coppola recently. Even as his eagerly anticipated return to filmmaking, "Youth Without Youth," is set for release, news broke last week that a burglary has put a future Coppola film, "Tetro," in jeopardy.
At least the filmmaking titan can expect one concerned phone call soon. Oscar nominee Javier Bardem told me yesterday, "I should call him today or tomorrow." Bardem has been rumored to play a role in "Tetro," a secretive film rumored to star Matt Dillon and begin shooting in February. Bardem confirmed to me that his teaming with Coppola could happen. "I am associated [with "Tetro." It was a conversation Francis and I had months ago. Since then we haven't talked very much. He didn't know when he was going to make it. Now it's time that we speak and see what's going on."
Bardem called the script "amazing," though he quickly added that his would be "a small part." Like all Coppola fans, Bardem however doesn't know what the crime means to the film's future. "After what happened, I don't know whats going to happen," he said.
Meanwhile Bardem said reports of him playing the lead in the musical, "Nine," are slightly premature. It's one of several projects he's considering, he said. And yes, he would sing in it and that's part of the fun. "I don't see myself doing a musical but that's why I wanted to take a look at it. I can't imagine myself doing it. I said, 'that's challenging, lets take a look.'"
Francis Ford Coppola talks about his next project – TETRO
Source: Collider.com
The other day I did something that I'd only dreamed about since moving to Los Angeles – I got to ask Francis Ford Coppola some questions at the press day for his new movie "Youth Without Youth."
After all, this is a man who's made a number of movies that are revered by millions of film lovers worldwide. From "The Godfather" to "Apocalypse Now," or from "The Outsiders" to "Dracula," he's made films that mean a great deal to a lot of people – myself included.
So when I got the invite to participate in a roundtable interview with one of the legends of cinema... I cleared my previous commitments and got to the hotel quite early. And I wasn't alone... as a number of the other journalists in the room were just as excited as Mr. Coppola hasn't done a press day in many, many years.
And while the entire transcript will be posted closer to the release of his new movie, I wanted to post his comments about his next movie "Tetro" right now.
If you've been following the news over the last few weeks, you may have heard about a break in at his Buenos Aires residence where his computer and other important documents were stolen – including his backup computer. It was all over the internet and the robbery made national news.
But while reports were not clear if the robber (or robbers) had made away with his only copy of the script, Mr. Coppola told us that he was quite surprised at the level of attention and calmed our nerves that he did, in fact, have more copies of the script.
And even though the break-in happened in the city where he was planning on shooting his next movie... he remains undeterred and he's still going to shoot there...just a bit later than expected.
So for those curious about his next movie and who's in it and what it's about, here's what he had to say:
Collider: How has the robbery in South America affected your next project?
Francis Ford Coppola: Anyone who's gotten robbed, it's always depressing, and I did lose some data. I didn't lose the script. They said the script is gone, but I have other copies of the script. Obviously I had to send it to actors and stuff, so no. I was astonished that that got such news coverage.
Collider: Can you talk about the next project and the casting?
Coppola: The next project is exciting because I've used Youth Without Youth as a crutch to get into a world of personal filmmaking where I'm not subject to the notes of studios. You know, I get the notes from my colleagues, Walter Merch. It's not that I don't want notes. I do want notes, but I don't want so many notes that they start contradicting themselves or that they start turning it into the typical movies that come out every Friday. So basically part of my work now is that I can create the money I use to finance the movie. And in this case the film, it's called Tetro, the name of a character. It's very personal. It's kind of like Tennessee Williams' period. I want to make a passionate story about brothers and fathers and all of that tumult that I've seen in different times of my life. It's a little bit the stuff I've seen in my family, but it's not, it's totally fiction.
Collider: Is it a more typical narrative or more like this one?
Coppola: I think Youth Without Youth is a narrative. I believe cinema is more like poetry than the narrative so it works on metaphor and stuff so, whereas I see this as, you'd call this as a more traditional narrative like Rocco and his Brothers or something, but I hope it will have poetry and metaphor in it as well. But it's got as its theme trying to investigate the notions of existence and consciousness.
Collider: Have you cast Tetro?
Coppola: Yeah, I have Tetro completely cast. I already mentioned Matt Dillon. Did I name all the actors or should I make a press release of it? I have the whole cast. What's been announced already is Javier Bardem, but his part is not a huge part. Matt Dillon, a very exciting new young actor who you wouldn't know anyway, but to give you one tidbit Maribel Verdu, the Spanish actress who was in Y Tu Mama Tambien. Do you know Maribel? She's wonderful. So it's going to be an interesting thing.
Collider: When do you start filming?
Coppola: I was supposed to start filming next month but because of the opening I'm unable to so I have to start right after Christmas, which is a drag.
Collider: And where are you filming?
Coppola: In Buenos Aires, in La Boca.
Movie newbie joins Coppola's 'Tetro' family
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Francis Ford Coppola has chosen newcomer Alden Ehrenreich to star in his family drama "Tetro."
Maribel Verdu ("Pan's Labyrinth") also is joining the cast, and Javier Bardem has an offer for a key role.
Written by Coppola, the script follows a young man (Ehrenreich) journeying to Buenos Aires to find his brother, who left the family years earlier.
Verdu will play the brother's girlfriend.
Bardem, whose deal depends on scheduling, would play an Argentinean literary critic named Unknown. Longtime Coppola cohorts Fred Roos and Anahid Nazarian are exec producing.
Production is due to start February in Buenos Aires.
While Ehrenreich's only credits are an episode of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and an episode of the CW's "Supernatural," he has a big-name backer: Steven Spielberg. The director discovered Ehrenreich at a bat mitzvah, where the teenager had done a video for a friend.
Coppola Reveals Details Of Next Film, 'Tetro' -- A 'Semi-Autobiographical Vision'
' 'Tetro' deals with personal themes that come out of my life -- though not my life,' director says.
Source: MTV
In some of the greatest films of all time, Oscar winning writer/director Francis Ford Coppola has trafficked in nuance, in ambiguity, in shades of gray. By comparison, his next film, "Tetro," is going to seem a little black and white — literally.
"It will be in black and white," Coppola revealed of the flick, set to being shooting soon in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "[Although] there are sequences, interestingly enough, that are inspired by 'Tales of Hoffman' and 'The Red Shoes' — and those will be in Technicolor."
It's a combination of styles that seems to fit perfectly with Coppola's "semi-autobiographical vision," half remembered with stunning vibrancy, half with the washed-out clarity of an old home movie. But while "Tetro" is based, at least in part, on Coppola's own childhood, it would be a mistake to think of it as anything resembling nonfiction, the director insisted.
"It's written out of memories and elements of my own life," he said. "But it's not [strictly] autobiographical. I'm fictionalizing things from my very early life. The father in 'Tetro' is a monster, and my father was the most wonderful man. Sometimes I took two or three relatives and combined them; so I've made a fiction piece more like a Tennessee Williams play."
That would be plays like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "A Streetcar Named Desire" and especially "The Glass Menagerie," where family conflicts are blown up to explore interpersonal demons. "Tetro" will be rife with those sorts of dynamics, Coppola said. "It's an interesting position to be inside a family with so many talented people," he explained. (Coppola's daughter, Sofia, and father, Carmine, have both won Oscars. His nephew is Nic Cage.) "To understand the dynamics, the way you idolize some of them, the competitions. Did this brother help that brother? 'Tetro' deals with personal themes that come out of my life — though not my life."
One person, real or imagined, who won't be joining Coppola in Buenos Aires — where the director is shooting because "that's a place that had many Italian immigrants" — is Matt Dillon, long rumored to be attached to the project. "Unfortunately the schedule got shifted and I missed the boat with Matt," Coppola confessed. "He has to start his new film. That's the one part that's uncast. It is the part of Tetro." In the end, Coppola admits that his movie will be somewhat noncommercial — and that doesn't worry him one bit.
"I'm spending my money," he said. "These are movies that would never get past any sensible studio that I'm not making to make money."
Gallo hops to 'Tetro' drama
Source: Hollywood Reporter
NEW YORK -- Vincent Gallo is joining Javier Bardem in writer-director Francis Ford Coppola's family drama "Tetro" for American Zoetrope.
The "Brown Bunny" actor-director will play the title character, a brother in a family torn apart by rivalries and betrayal. Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich plays the younger brother who searches for him in Buenos Aires. Bardem plays an Argentinean literary critic, and Maribel Verdu plays Tetro's longtime love interest.
Gallo is known for his on-set battles directing "Buffalo '66," his provocative offscreen comments and a sexually explicit "Bunny" scene with one-time girlfriend Chloe Sevigny.
The less-than-$15 million project begins principal photography March 31 on location in Buenos Aires. A 2009 release with an as-yet-undetermined distributor is planned.
Well. I'm interested.
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Coppola to shoot 'Tetro' in Argentina
By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer
In the trendy heart of Argentina's Italian community, Francis Ford Coppola says he has been set free.
Free at last to make movies — one a year, he hopes — with full financial and artistic control, taking advantage of Argentina's relatively low production costs and the creative inspiration he finds on the streets of its capital.
"After a while I realized that I was getting further and further away from what my original intentions had been," the 68-year-old filmmaker explains in an interview with The Associated Press. "So at this age I decided, 'Well, why don't I make the kinds of films I wanted to do when I was 18? I'll just do it later in life.'"
The five-time Oscar winner, best known for "The Godfather" trilogy about the Corleone mafia family, is preparing to shoot a film about a much different, but equally dysfunctional, Italian-immigrant clan.
"Tetro," for which Coppola wrote an original screenplay, follows two sons of a great but monstrously self-absorbed orchestra conductor in contemporary Argentina.
Much of the film will be shot in La Boca, a neighborhood marked by the legacy of poor Italian immigrants who arrived by the shiploads in the early 20th century. Researching his tale, Coppola discovered many parallels between Buenos Aires and the New York he grew up in.
"Italian families emigrated to Argentina and the United States, and very often brothers in the same family would go two different directions," Coppola explains, relaxing in the courtyard of his new home and studio, which comes complete with the steel barbecue grill no self-respecting Argentine would do without.
Coppola, who splits his time now between the San Francisco Bay area and Argentina, says he felt immediately at home in this most-European of South American capitals.
He has been photographed walking alone among the shops and markets in chic neighborhoods, a black beret pulled down over his graying hair.
"Buenos Aires is a big city like New York; it's full of life and it gave me a chance to put these characters in a slightly exotic setting where I would be free to work and pursue this more personal type of filmmaking."
Coppola has even discovered Argentina's biggest craze: attending soccer matches of the world-famous Boca Juniors team.
His stay hasn't all been pleasant — his studio was burglarized in September by thieves who stole computers and even his backup data system. Coppola made an unsuccessful public appeal for their return, but said his script for "Tetro" was never stolen, contrary to local press reports.
"They never stole the original script," he says. "They took the computers and the backup, but they only took photographs, only for the last year-and-a-half."
After a decade devoted to paying off creditors by focusing on less personal films, Coppola says he finally has the financial freedom to pursue his own projects with proceeds from his other businesses — including his California vineyard, an organic pasta business, and three luxury resorts in Belize and Guatemala.
And he continues to cast well known actors from outside the studio system.
Vincent Gallo of "Buffalo 66" and "The Brown Bunny" is the lead character in "Tetro," backed by Spanish actress Maribel Verdu of "Pan's Labyrinth" and Oscar winner Javier Bardem of "No Country For Old Men."
Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich, 18, will play a young man searching for the estranged older brother Tetro — a "tragic poet figure" who broke all family ties and moved in amid the Bohemian theater, dance and artistic community of Buenos Aires.
Coppola said he is not unlike millions of tourists who rediscovered budget Argentina after the 2002 economic crisis.
"People are coming here not unlike myself because the dollar is less compromised than even in Europe or Brazil," he said.
Coppola has made fortunes on gambles like "Apocalypse Now," and lost them on commercial flops like "One from the Heart." Now he says he can finance his own movies, like "Tetro," for under $15 million.
He has even gained a decent command of Spanish, breaking into basic sentences with a clear voice.
"I feel people who come to the U.S. should definitely speak English, but I love the idea of the United States becoming a bilingual country," he explains.
At the same time, he says U.S. English speakers could benefit from learning more about Latin America's rich literary traditions.
With his 2007 film "Youth Without Youth," Coppola returned to directing after a hiatus of several years. He calls "Tetro" the "second film of my new career, so I'm just learning."
His focus now is on making beautiful, enduring films.
"I'm not really trying to make a lot of money off the movie business," Coppola said. "I want personally for people to say, 'God, that was beautiful!'"
Quote from: MacGuffin on March 10, 2008, 10:31:04 AM
"So at this age I decided, 'Well, why don't I make the kinds of films I wanted to do when I was 18? I'll just do it later in life.'"
this explains his current facebook profile picture:
Quote from: MacGuffin on March 10, 2008, 10:31:04 AM
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Quote from: MacGuffin on March 07, 2008, 09:17:06 PM
Vincent Gallo
on Delancey (and Forsyth) on my walk to work every day i see VINCENT GALLO's name is written in the cement on the sidewalk. i wonder if he wrote it himself? i should take a picture.
i just stumbled upon the CONTACT ME on his website and its hilarious...
This is a personal contact page for me, Vincent Gallo. As it is personal, I would like to say a few things about this contact address. Do not send me scripts, as I have never read a script in my life, including ones to films I've acted in, and ones that I've written and directed. I only accept legal pay or play offers from attorneys, please don't tell me about the film you're going to make one day. I'll be dead long before that happens, any day now maybe. Do not ask for signed photographs as I do not keep any photographs of myself and never had a head shot. Keep checking the merchandise page. Eventually, I will try to offer signed photos.
If you'd like to send a nude photo of yourself and you were BORN a female, please do so. I would be happy though with a simple photo of your face. It is nice to see the face of someone who writes me. I will only accept JPEG attachments. I will try my best to answer all email that is not offensive or unreasonable. But please be patient.
WARNING: To all bitter or jealous or unemployed or frustrated or mean or nasty or under-loved or under-paid or under-hung men and butchy girls. Think before you write to me. THINK HOW SMALL AND SILLY YOU APPEAR WHEN ANGRY JEALOUS AND BITTER--WRITING TO ME LIKE A SCORNED FAN.http://www.vincentgallo.com/contact/
Coppola in Argentina to Film `Tetro'
Francis Ford Coppola will start filming next week on "Tetro," about the struggles of two brothers from an Italian family in present-day Argentina.
Vincent Gallo and 18-year-old newcomer Alden Ehrenreich will play the brothers. Maribel Verdu ("Y tu mama tambien," "Pan's Labyrinth") will play Gallo's girlfriend. Javier Bardem has a small role in the movie.
Coppola said the first scenes will be shot in the Italian neighborhood of La Boca, a gritty Buenos Aires district of multihued tenement buildings where thousands of immigrants arrived at the turn of the last century.
The Oscar-winning writer-director brushed off the possibility that "Tetro" traces the story lines of his own Italian immigrant family in New York City.
"It's not autobiographical really, it's personal," he said. "It's a story about a family. It's a small film ... an independent kind of film."
Coppola, who directed classics such as "Apocalypse Now" and "The Godfather" trilogy, compared "Tetro," which is budgeted at about $15 million, to European movies of the 1950s and '60s.
The 68-year-old filmmaker said he views "Tetro" as an opportunity for continued personal exploration as a director.
"I want very much to learn how to make movies. That may sound funny because I've been doing it for 40 years, but the cinema is something that you never stop learning, and I want to make films in new ways," he said at a news conference Wednesday.
"I'm trying to have a new start with my career making more personal, smaller films," he said.
Coppola presented Gallo, Verdu, Ehrenreich and a handful of Argentine actors as "our little company."
"As an actor you have fantasies, and this is the fantasy come true," Ehrenreich said of working with Coppola.
Coppola remained humble.
"I never made films as a grand maestro," he said. "I always made films more as an imaginative child."
Carmen Maura to replace Javier Bardem in 'Tetro'
Source: Hollywood Reporter
NEW YORK -- In what Francis Ford Coppola is calling a "sex change" operation, Carmen Maura is replacing fellow Spaniard Javier Bardem in the family drama "Tetro."
Coppola said his rewrite of the pivotal role came during rehearsals for the film's 11-week shoot, which began March 31 in Buenos Aires.
"One of the important roles in the script is a mentor and teacher to Tetro (Vincent Gallo), and I originally wrote it for a man," he said. "As I read and reread (the script), I felt that the interaction between the two characters would be far more intriguing if they were of the opposite sex."
The director often changes key elements of his script be¬fore and during filming, he said, but ac¬cording to another person involved in the deal, Bardem "became unavailable" for the project and is reading drafts of the script for his starring role in Rob Marshall's "Nine." The Weinstein Co.'s adaptation of the Broadway musical was delayed by the WGA strike and is expected to begin shooting in September.
Pedro Almodovar staple Maura ("Volver") recently joined around the time of rehearsals in Buenos Aires, which Bardem never attended. Although he had a supporting role and was only set to film for two weeks, the "No Country for Old Men" star was the highest profile name among the cast and the only Oscar nominee. (He went on to winning the award for best supporting actor in February.)
Maura will play a literary critic and mentor to Tetro, whose younger brother (Alden Ehrenreich) searches for him in Argentinia's capital city. Maribel Verdu also stars. Coppola's American Zoetrope is producing the $15 million production.
Union claims 'Tetro' shut down
Coppola's production house denies any delays
Source: Hollywood Reporter
BUENOS AIRES – The Argentinean actors union is claiming that actors on director Francis Ford Coppola's "Tetro" have been working without a contract, and said they shut down the film's production here.
Coppola's spokeswoman, Kathleen Talbert, denied this, saying production on the film was proceeding as planned.
"There are no holds on shooting, no problem with actors. In fact, the majority of the Argentine actors have already wrapped the shooting," she wrote in an e-mail.
The Asociacion Argentina de Actores (Argentina Actors Association) claims that union members have been working without a contract since production started in late March and that Zoetrope Argentina -- Coppola's newly-formed local production house -- was given various opportunities to present the proper paperwork to avoid the work stoppage.
"At the moment, they are not filming because the contracts have [not] arrived to the union. On Tuesday, the union gave them 48 hours to present the documents and they didn't do that, so we took this action," AAA spokesman Daniel Valenzuela said.
Local press reports say that script changes and communication problems between the multi-national cast and crew have extended filming days beyond regularly scheduled hours, and that some of the Argentine actors are still not certain of their salary.
Argentina's strong production capabilities, competitive prices and European look have made it a popular destination for foreign film and commercial shoots in recent years.
"Tetro" has had a rocky road from the beginning. Thieves broke into the Palermo neighborhood office of Zoetrope Argentina in September and stole Coppola's computers and back-up systems. Oscar-winner Javier Bardem dropped out just before shooting began and his part was re-written as a female role for actress Carmen Maura.
Coppola's semi-autobiographical screenplay tells the tale of an artistic family in modern-day Argentina, and stars Vincent Gallo in the title role as well as Maribel Verdu, Alden Ehrenreich, Rodrigo de la Serna and Leticia Bredice.
The AAA said it plans to send inspectors to the set on Friday evening to ensure that filming does not take place.
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Alden Ehrenreich, a 19-year-old NYU freshman, played a cross-dressing punk in a movie he made for a bat mitzvah. It's what eventually got him the lead in Francis Ford Coppola's next film.
Source: NYMag
My mom wouldn't let me do child acting. But starting in sixth grade, my friends and I would make home movies. In one I ran around as a skinny little punk, trying on girls' clothes and eating dirt. We decided to show it at another friend's bat mitzvah. My mom was like, "I really don't know if you want to present yourself that way. It's not the best portrait, and there are a lot of people who will be watching this." To be honest, you go to a bat mitzvah in Los Angeles and you can count on at least a few industry people to be there. But it wasn't like we thought of that.
Well, Steven Spielberg was there. I got a call afterwards from these giggling girls from school who told me that he had really liked the movie. Pretty soon the DreamWorks people had gotten me an agent, and by now I've gone on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of auditions.
The Coppola audition was the craziest. He first had me read from Catcher in the Rye. Then we had screen tests at his Napa vineyard. Then I got a call to go to Argentina, where I had another four days of screen tests—improvs at cafés and "directing" a group of Argentine actors. I asked him a lot about Marlon Brando. "He was a very dignified man," he said. Period.
Next: Atlantic Yards, Inch by Inch
Tetro, Coppola's Argentine family drama starring Ehrenreich and Vincent Gallo, opens June 11.
dammit! Why can't this happen to any of us? me, in particular
Francis Coppola's publicist Kathleen Talbert has sent out the following message about Tetro, Coppola's latest film, and the Cannes Film Festival: "Since there has been much speculation in the press about the Cannes line-up," she staites, "we want you to be aware that Francis Coppola has declined to bring his new film Tetro, starring Vincent Gallo, to Cannes.
"Below is his statement. If you choose to use it, I would ask that you use it in its entirety. Oh, and just to correct another misconception -- Tetro [has been] shot in black and white and color." Todd McCarthy's Cannes lineup piece that ran in Variety yesterday mentioned that Tetro (a) is a prospective Cannes attraction and (b) has been shot in black and white.
"While I very much appreciate the invitation," Coppola's statement reads, "this is an independent film, self-financed and self-released, and I felt that being invited for a non-competition gala screening wasn't true to the personal and independent nature of this film. More important than Cannes, our team can focus all our time, energy and resources into the U.S. release this June 11th."
HE translation #1: "As some of you have gathered since the release of Youth Without Youth, the words 'independent film,' 'self-financed' and 'self-released' as they concern yours truly are euphemisms for confounding, difficult to stay engrossed in, draggy, mind-numbing, etc." HE translation #2: "If we take our film to Cannes we'll get killed by the critics and the word will go out everywhere so why do it? We can only lose."
Tetro will open on 6.11 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Miami, and Washington, D.C.
man, if only george lucas was as smart and innovative as ffc.
Exclusive: Coppola Talks Tetro
On his new personal film
Source: Empire Online
Francis Ford Coppola doesn't go for obvious choices. After all, you might expect the director of The Godfather films to spend the rest of his days reclining on a bed of laurels and/or remaking Carry On films for sacks of cash. But instead he's making 'personal' films ("We're not allowed to say arthouse anymore, because it's the kiss of death") like the forthcoming Tetro, which he told us a little about in the new issue of Empire.
"As I grow older, I realise that I always wanted to be a writer," said the director, who - sure enough - wrote the screenplay for this tale of a 17 year-old sailor called Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) who arrives in Buenos Aires in search of his lost brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo), a poet. When he finds him, the pair reflect on their troubled past with domineering composer father Carlo (Klaus Maria Brandauer).
"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."
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Coppola on location:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpxsVvoJmNY
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi205.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fbb52%2FThe_Playlist%2Fmore%2Fffc-tetro-gallo.jpg&hash=dc8475459430bdd9fcb4496781da02734f90ca98)
trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MR1LXeYcwM
i'm looking forward seeing this in any format available. hell, even in vhs if that's possible.
Gimme an F, F! Gimme a U, U! Gimme a C, C! Gimme a K, K! Gimme a Y, Y! Gimme a A, A! What's that spell? Fuck Ya! What's that spell? Fuck Ya!!!!!!
gimme a :oops:, :oops:. what's that spell? SiliasRuby.
I honestly can't tell if this looks amazing or atrocious. I thought the Youth Without Youth trailer looked flat-out amazing so I'm a little nervous. Either way, I'll be front in center and ready to judge for myself.
First three minutes here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/tetro/)
i'm suddenly super interested in this.. i love the idea of making COLOUR a novelty again.
Quote from: picolas on May 06, 2009, 01:45:44 AM
i'm suddenly super interested in this.. i love the idea of making COLOUR a novelty again.
egh, don't you mean COLOR? and anyway that is so 1939. /stupid
nope. colour. i'm canadian.
Quote from: picolas on May 07, 2009, 10:50:24 PM
nope. colour. i'm canadian.
dude I have a 'u' in my screen name. I was being facetiouus. sigh. if only i could go back and prevent myself from typing that, we wouldn't have this conversation.
Quote from: SiliasRuby on May 03, 2009, 05:25:19 PM
Gimme an F, F! Gimme a U, U! Gimme a C, C! Gimme a K, K! Gimme a Y, Y! Gimme a A, A! What's that spell? Fuck Ya! What's that spell? Fuck Ya!!!!!!
who are you saying fuck ya to?
anyway, this is going to look kick ass in blu-ray!
Quote from: mogwai on May 08, 2009, 12:15:19 AM
anyway, this is going to look kick ass in blu-ray!
And I bet it'll look great in the theater before that.
That clip was absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to see this.
Coppola clan provides grist for director's `Tetro'
CANNES, France - Rivalries are inevitable in a family as big and talented as Francis Ford Coppola's, with so many siblings and cousins and uncles working in film and music.
It was friction between the filmmaker's father, composer Carmine Coppola, and his uncle, opera conductor Anton Coppola, that helped inspire the director's latest film, "Tetro," premiering Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival.
It marks the first original screenplay Coppola has written since 1974's "The Conversation" and continues the director's return to an independent career path from which he detoured after the fame and acclaim of his "Godfather" days.
Coppola, 70, always intended to write and direct personal stories. But his enormous success in the 1970s and colossal financial troubles from cost overruns and commercial flops in the 1980s forced him to take studio work and later retreat from filmmaking while trying to raise money for a big dream project that ultimately fell through.
"Tetro" follows 2007's "Youth Without Youth" as the second film in Coppola's renewed commitment to personal storytelling over Hollywood entertainment.
"That's kind of what I would have hoped to do in my career and didn't really get to do," Coppola said in an interview. "Even though you can say, yeah, well `The Godfather' films are personal. And they are, even though our family were never gangsters, and we only heard about somebody who knew a gangster.
"But still, the real day-to-day reality of the Italian family that was put into the gangster film was based on my family and what I remember as a kid. You can't make films without them being personal to some extent."
"Tetro" is really personal. The film stars Vincent Gallo in the title role as a writer living in Argentina in exile from his family — particularly his father, a cruelly domineering music conductor who has harsh rivalries with his brother, also a conductor, and his son.
There's room for only one genius in the family, the father proclaims.
While the sibling rivalry between Coppola's father and uncle was a basis for the film, the story is fictional, including the father-son estrangement and the journey of Tetro's younger brother (newcomer Alden Ehrenreich) to reconnect with his lost sibling.
"Everything in the film is real and comes from real stuff, but nothing ever happened at all like that. They say that `A Streetcar Named Desire' really is (Tennessee) Williams' expression of himself as Blanche, as someone talented and fragile, fragile in a world of harsh reality." Coppola said. "The story may not really ever have happened, but it's all true."
As with "Youth Without Youth," Coppola financed "Tetro" himself from the fortune he has built from his winery and other businesses.
He keeps tight rein on the budgets to avoid jeopardizing his finances as he did decades ago with "Apocalypse Now" and "One From the Heart," freeing himself to make films about anything he likes.
"It's a wonderful moment to think that it's like a blank sheet of paper," Coppola said. "I could do anything I want, in a way, as long as I control the budget to the amount where I don't have to ask someone else to give me a money."
Coppola also is distributing the film himself, giving it a limited release June 11, the birthday of his father, an Academy Award winner for the score of "The Godfather Part II." His father died in 1991.
While he did not want to show "Tetro" to film companies before its Cannes premiere, Coppola said he is open to a partnership with potential distributors that catch the film at Cannes and want to invest in a wider theatrical release.
"Youth Without Youth," a challenging tale of an elderly language expert (Tim Roth) made young again by a freak lightning storm, failed to find an audience, but Coppola aims to stick with his program of personal subjects that interest him.
"I'm in a unique situation," Coppola said. "I'm like now an elderly retired guy who made a lot of money, and now I can just, instead of playing golf, I can make art films."
Francis Ford Coppola gets personal
The director, 70, reemerges with 'Tetro,' a grand yet heartfelt story of an Argentine family at times reminiscent of his own.
By Dennis Lim; Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Cannes, France -- While the Cannes official selection kicked off last week with "Up," the tale of an old man seeking new pastures, the Directors' Fortnight, a parallel event that takes place at the other end of the Croisette, got underway with a film that marked the creative renewal of an old-timer, Francis Ford Coppola.
A two-time winner of the Palme d'Or (for "The Conversation" and "Apocalypse Now"), Coppola, 70, is back on the Riviera with "Tetro." Billed as semiautobiography, this Buenos Aires-set family melodrama had been considered a shoo-in for the festival. But Cannes programmers denied it a competition slot, instead offering to show the film as a special presentation. Coppola declined, and accepted an invitation from the Directors' Fortnight, a Cannes offshoot with a reputation as a showcase for emerging directors and challenging work.
"Tetro" is clearly the work of an engaged and rejuvenated artist but it is not exactly a young man's film. If anything, it has an almost classical grandeur. Filmed in widescreen, high-definition video and mostly in black-and-white (with a few Expressionist splashes of color), the movie is a sweeping, deeply felt exploration of what one of its characters calls "ancient themes": sibling rivalries, Oedipal conflicts, the gravitational pull of the family.
"It's almost like Pirandello," Coppola said, speaking the morning after the premiere last week. "At the root of the family is a terrible incident that has warped everything. Or in Tennessee Williams, where some trauma has become the secret."
"Tetro" begins with the arrival of a teenager (newcomer Alden Ehrenreich) in Buenos Aires, and his uneasy reunion with his older brother (Vincent Gallo), who left for a "writing sabbatical" years ago. Both siblings exist in the long shadow of their tyrannical father, a renowned conductor, who had a complicated relationship with his own brother, also a musician (Klaus Maria Brandauer plays both roles).
Personal style
In his first original screenplay since 1974's "The Conversation," Coppola incorporated a few elements from his own life: his father, Carmine, was a composer, and his uncle, Anton, an opera conductor. But he cautions against drawing literal correspondences: "Nothing in this movie ever really happened but it's all true."
"Tetro" continues in earnest the project Coppola began two years ago with the ambitious literary adaptation "Youth Without Youth," a long-delayed shift to personal filmmaking, a career path he had envisioned all along. "The Godfather" (in 1972) "was way more successful than I was prepared for," he said. "You have to learn to navigate those woods."
Thanks to his successful Napa winery, Coppola has been able to self-finance his last two films, freeing him from the American moviemaking system that he likened to "this cinema gulag." "It's as if some executive decided that black-and-white films we'll pay half for, and we won't have subtitled films, and all of a sudden that's the law. It's like the dictatorship of Stalin telling Shostakovich what music was."
He considered setting "Tetro" in Detroit, where he was born, but settled on Argentina as a location that made narrative and economic sense. "I needed a country where there was a big cultural tradition and where I wouldn't get killed by the euro or the pound."
Coppola immersed himself in the culture, learning the language and hiring locals as collaborators. "Tetro" also taps into a rich vein of 20th century Latin American literature, which Coppola called "the most important movement in fiction in the last 60 years." The movie feels as old-fashioned as a Greek myth, but with its use of meta-fictional devices and its evocation of a heady bohemian milieu, it also glancingly recalls the work of such modern writers as Julio Cortázar and Roberto Bolaño. One of the characters, a literary critic named Alone, is based on a character named Farewell in Bolaño's novel "By Night in Chile" (in turn based on an actual Chilean critic named Alone).
Like the great Coppola films of the '70s, "Tetro" is a terrific actors' showcase. Gallo, not known as an easy collaborator, gives a magnetic performance. "Everyone told me, don't get involved with him, he's a nightmare," Coppola said. "But he's very bright, very humble."
The actor, who has been notoriously fastidious with every aspect of the movies he has directed, spoke admiringly of Coppola's hands-on approach. (Coppola is releasing the film himself in the States, on June 11, his father's birthday.) "Making a film is so challenging that the idea of not having total control makes no sense to me," Gallo said.
Salinger text
Ehrenreich, who was 17 when "Tetro" was shot (he's now 19), had never before appeared in a feature. For his audition, Coppola asked him to read from "The Catcher in the Rye," a book with enormous personal significance. In his teens, Coppola ran away from military school (as did Ehrenreich's character) and stopped off in New York City on the way home. "I told my brother all the things I did, and he said, here, read this book, and it was 'Catcher in the Rye.' "
"The reason I make personal films is you can learn something," Coppola said. With "Tetro," his big revelation had to do with his brother, August, who's the father of Nicolas Cage. "I never knew that I felt he abandoned me," Coppola said, "and it was over something mundane."
Because the brothers went to different schools as teenagers, he said, "he vanished from my life, which is what I realized when I wrote the story. Now I don't need to go back there again, which is liberating. That's the purpose of writing. I can write something else now."
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this. I thought it would suck, but after hearing Coppola on the Howard Stern Show the other day it made me want to see this anyway. It's pretty good.
The performances are sensational. I love Vinnie Gallo and the new kid will be a huge star soon. The other Argentinean actors and stuff were also solid. Being from Buenos Aires, it was interesting to see Coppola's view of the city. What you see in the film is nothing like the real Buenos Aires, but a very cool 'imaginary' and bizarre version of it.
I'm writing a review and some comments on my blog if anybody is interested >> http://www.andyk.net (http://www.andyk.net) .
Far and away, one of the most beautiful movies I've seen this year. Hell, in the past few years, this movie was pretty damn solid.
So much eye candy that I think I have diabetes now.
The movie was pretty good, but I have to say - Vincent Gallo was fucking amazing in this. Performance of the year, hands down.
I need to see this soon.
An absolutely gorgeous film - from the first frame to the last - I was immediately taken by this film. The closest comparison I can give in the Coppola cannon is Rumble Fish, both aesthetically and thematically, and it practically rivals that film in emotional vitality. The fact that they're similar certainly doesn't surprise me, and I am not trying to make the comparison between the two films a revelation - it's not, they're similarities are obvious. But the fact that Coppola that return to such artistically exciting territory without seeming repetitive or abundantly nostalgic is a testament to how well this film works.
[MINOR SPOILERS]
I was worried Coppola would go the easy route and insert some sort of romantic rivalry between the brothers for Miranda's affection. It was a great relief when this didn't happen. Or, at least, that whatever romantic tension between Tetro and Bennie It may be argued that it is still there, but it is there is a much less tangible form that I dreaded.
[DONE]
I can't say enough good things about Vincent Gallo's performance, either. It's so great to see him in the control of a competent, accomplished director again. I really wish more director's would take the opportunity to use him because he has one of the most equally sympathetic and intimidating presences in modern cinema. There are moments in this film where he's almost frightening to watch, and other moments where he is heartbreakingly fragile. The image of him clutching his manuscripts, in the flashback, sticks with me. Even the way he walks, or descends a staircase is mesmerizing.
There is not a moment in this film that isn't visually stunning. It's a really infectiously exciting film.
And, in case you're wondering, Walter Murch is still the shit. Motherfuckers got skills.
i don't get it. it's an overindulgent mess that has little to offer.
i was unimpressed by everything that's been said to the film's credit, be it the aesthetic or vincent gallo's performance. (personally i think maribel verdu gives the praise-worthy performance) the film's "revelation" is asinine and invalidated the whole thing for me; after that it was a matter of waiting for the film to be over.
haha. I really can't wait to see this. It's been awhile since a love it or hate it type of flick has come around.
You all are sounding like two old women I heard discussing this movie shortly after seeing it.
Old woman #1: What did you think of Tetro?
Old woman #2: Ugh. Too arty.
Old woman #1: Too arty? In what way?
Old woman #2: They just did all this stuff with the lights and the acting... I didn't care for it.
Old woman #1: Maybe those things were intentional?
Old woman #2: I don't care, I didn't like it.
Old woman #1: Me neither.
So anybody else saw this or what? I'm downloading it right now, looks good. Looks like the kind of film we should have seen here :yabbse-undecided:
Quote from: Pas Rap on February 03, 2010, 03:45:23 PM
So anybody else saw this or what? I'm downloading it right now, looks good. Looks like the kind of film we should have seen here :yabbse-undecided:
perhaps you should read the posts above you. there are at least 5 ppl who saw it on this page alone. all with fairly passionate opinions about it.
:yabbse-angry:
In a very distinct way this felt like watching Funny People again. For something like an hour and a half Coppola turns into COPPOLA and delivers a truly fantastic film. In fact, saying he becomes his old self would be putting it mildly, cause this is actually a transformation into a new, young and bold director. Everything feels so vital. The screenplay drips of personal relevance, there is a sense this is so close to the bone for him, it almost hurts. As everyone has said here, Gallo channels his usual fury and love/hate persona into something that illustrates what a great actor he can be in the hands of a good director. It almost feels like no one else could have played this character. And the cinematography makes a strong case for watching the film in mute and still be fascinating.
Yet in the final 40 minutes the ships starts sinking in front of our very eyes, the characters lose their initial edge and mystery, contrived revelations and conclusions come, and even aesthetically the film does some very questionable things with the use of color (There was a couple of initial technicolor sequences that looked awesome, but the last one looks cheap and fake in the worst possible way).
In a way, Coppola really becomes a young director who shows promise but doesn't fulfill it here, going a little too far in the last act of the film. Also, he becomes a young director in the way he clearly shows his influences; this film feels strongly like a Pedro Almodovar melodrama, complete with twist and turns through the years in the story, the underworld of the argentinian stage, some drag performances and a few hot sexual scenes.
Despite it's flaws, this should set an example for all the other old movie brats who seem so comfortable now in their studio financed little world. They all should go out and finance a movie of their own.
Watched this finally. What the shit was that about? I just couldn't get over that the same guy who did The Godfather and Apocalypse Now is now doing these amateurish indie movies. I would buy it if this was from one of his non-famous kids, but I can't believe he did this.
i enjoyed it, but i agree with others, it's just 30 mins too long
I enjoyed it, but I disagree with others, it's just fine the way it is.