[critical] Tetro

Tetro is a man without a past. Ten years ago, he has severed all ties with his family for exile in Argentina.

At the dawn of its 18 years, Bennie, his younger brother, hand to find in Buenos Aires.

Between the two brothers, the shadow of a father despotic, illustrious leader of the orchestra, continues to cast a shadow and the object.

But Bennie wants to understand. At any price. Leave to reopen some wounds, and to bring them up to the surface of the family secrets until now well buried.

Author’s Note

[rating:8/10]

• Release Date : December 23, 2009

• Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

• Film american,argentine

• With Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich, Maribel Verdu

• Duration : 2h07min

• Original title : Tetro

• Trailer :

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Francis Ford Coppola sign here an intimate film, and particularly aesthetic. It must be said that the topics discussed are appropriate : it is, of course, a question of family, but also of art and the human adventure. It is not, therefore, need to be familiar with the work of Coppola , in order to appreciate the talent : The work of the image in Tetro could be a photographer sometimes and a painter. It is through the construction of some of the plans that the dialogues are an amazing poetry : it is not uncommon to see a talk to the shadow or reflection of the other.

The director plays here with the multiple universe and multiple genres, making us switch from one to the other, as the characters that go from English to Spanish sometimes in the same dialogue. This constant movement we are imbued with a special atmosphere, that we will attract a lot more easily than the story itself. Coppola stage director in more than Coppola screenwriter.

The first peculiarity of this film is of course the will of Francis Ford Coppola to shoot scenes of the present in black and white. It is highly contrasted, giving more strength to the characters, in the face of the memories of the past, in colours on a plane tightened, as muffled by the presence of the family.

It is also through the transposition and color to the scene that the characters seem to reconcile with their past and the suffering they bear. This care and richness of the image remains the one of the strong points of the film.

Music : two musical worlds meet and clash in this film. The current life of Tetro is in The Boca district (Buenos Aires), and floats in the air of a tango or milonga. The atmosphere of la Boca is strangely timeless, almost floating. The past life of Tetro, within her family, is she steeped in the universe of the Father, illustrates a conductor.

The music is so invasive, classical and imposing in spite of its beauty. We are particularly impressed by the coloring in the background of the film, which helps us to enter more easily. The music seems to be the fibre of these characters, and the relationship that is created between the two brothers is also an air of tango : they oscillate between love, reconciliation, and rivalry.

The characters and the actors should be at the height. The trio, which plays between Tetro (Vincent Gallo), Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) and Miranda (Maribel Verdu) is remarkable : they complement each other, follow each other, support each other. To the side of a Maribel Verdu particularly poignant, Vincent Gallo illustrates a Tetro scored an injury still to bright, kind of frustrated genius, a little apart, that becomes fascinating. But its passive position, always in denial, increasing sometimes the film, the pulling on these lengths. In spite of the characters charming, the acting sometimes seems to stay in the background.

The story of Tetro is at the bottom a little too simplistic. It could be enough by itself, the family representative, a subject that was already heavy, and the loan of a violence terrible, even if she remains silent. It is a pity, then, the atmosphere more intimate, poetic and slight in the beginning, which is lost a little in the final apotheosis, with a reversal of the situation predictable. One loses the universe moving at the start and the film door in spite of all its length, even if it does not fall into boredom.