mardi 29 décembre 2009

Clair-obscur


Yesterday I watched Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro. Now that's a real movie and a very good one!

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece for it has a few little flaws, but it's definitely a film worth watching and one of the best Coppola ever made. I highly recommend it. This is a personal work, fed with private stuff, but this is mostly the film wherein Coppola shows his love for the movies and how he's mastered the art.

The black and white photo(the flashbacks or the "quotations" only are showed in colour, colours that look quaint compared to the timeless w&b) is gorgeous and conveys the right intimacy and modesty the story required; the cinematography is beautiful (hey people no need to have fancy special effects, 3-D and Pandora's ecosystem to provide lovely visuals, creativity and style !!!!); there's a real scenario, smart writing; there's imagination, and the cast is really good.
I wish people would see films like this rather than just watch Summer blockbusters or hyped movies supported by Internet buzz.

"Tetro" means either sad or dark in Italian...wich perfectly defines Vincent Gallo's character who goes by that name. In the movie Tetro is also short for Tetrocini which is actually the character's last name or rather his patronymic name.

In Buenos Aires, a young sailor (still a boy since his 18th birthday happens during the film), Benjamin Tetrocini, turns up at his long lost brother's place. The 20-year-older brother is a broken man/artist who has given up his literary ambitions and now lives with a woman who used to be his doctor in the asylum he had ended up. He has cut all the family bounds, changed his name (Angelo became Tetro), works as a mere electrician (he is dark but he is the one providing the light!) and doesn't seem happy to see his baby brother. But Bennie needs answers and takes roots. Slowly the past unfolds and the truth is unveiled, glaring like a dangerous dazzling light in the dark ...

In Tetro, Coppola deals with his favourite theme–– that is family, and shapes the storylines and characters after personal stuff(relationships between his father and uncle, between his own brother and him). Some things were already there in his previous films (The Godfather of course, but also Rusty James) but it was less obvious. Looks like that being in his 70's now he's free to tell the story he has always wanted to tell, and he does it in a brilliant and very modern way. Bravo maestro!

I loved the Buenos Aires atmosphere, the way American, Spanish and Italian influences merged. I loved the play on mirrors, the reflections and parallels (Argentina is Borges' homeland after all!)and how Coppola eventually avoided a mere reproduction, how he twisted certain parallels; I loved how the filmaker confused the audience, about the time the action takes place, about certain characters who look alike: I loved how, while he was telling intimate stuff, he indulged in using operatic pieces and mise en abîme, either extracts from old movies (paying a tribute to Michael Powell by mentioning The Red Shoes and showing bits from The Tales of Hoffman) or ludicrous play scenes and dancing moments that were nothing but a meta commentary. Sometimes the film reminded me of Almodovar's work, sometimes it called to my mind Tennesse Williams or Rocco and his brothers.

Tetro is a men's film. A film about brothers, about fathers and sons, about male artists that struggle to assert themselves. The women are there, of course, but there are mostly dolls, like the broken Coppelia (even though Coppelia is also a metaphor for Gallo's character) or the women in Greek tragedies, doomed to love.

Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich is touching and does sort of look like young Leonardo DiCaprio under certain angles yet he's tougher (actually he embodies Dalida's famous song: "Il venait d'avoir dix huit ans, il était beau comme un enfant, fort come un homme"...) . Klaus Maria Brandauer is perfect as the Great One, the tyrannic patriarch and charming ogre (an avatar of some of Coppola's relatives but also of Coppola's himself!). And Vincent Gallo is very good as Tetro. Apart from his performance he is too handsome for words. Damn he's aged well! The camera loves his face and so do I.

He is simply entrancing.