Tetro Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich, Maribel Verdu Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Financed with his own money - a war chest generated through his vineyards - Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to his 2007 comeback, Youth Without Youth, revolves around the tensions between two siblings.
The 18-year-old Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) travels to Buenos Aires to visit his older brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo, below left with Ehrenreich), who left home and cut off contact with his family years ago to defy their father Carlo (Karl Maria Brandauer). Carlo is a megalomaniac orchestra conductor who proclaims to his estranged aspiring-novelist son that 'there's only one genius in the family'.
It's a line that's ripe for interpretation: Coppola is well known for grand artistic gestures and is father to filmmakers Roman and Sofia. They get a mention in Coppola senior's biographical note in the catalogue of last year's Directors' Fortnight sidebar at Cannes. Adding to the intrigue, Roman served as Tetro's second-unit director.
Such speculation makes watching Tetro fun. But only just: the film is a stylised and laboured attempt at channelling the siblings' issues: Tetro and Bennie come across as creatures driven by angst and confusion, and not much else.
The noir-like atmospherics that begin the film quickly dissipate as the characters implode, and the impact of having the present unfold in monochrome while flashbacks appear in high-definition colour soon fades away.
