On the arthouse wire, Coppola’s comeback hasn’t exactly been peachy. After his decade-long hiatus, ‘Youth Without Youth’ surfaced belly-up; for anyone hoping ‘Tetro’ will be better, Cannes’ consensus remains as divided as the Korean peninsula.
Since flipping off studios and ditching Hollywood in the mid ’90s, Coppola has been gearing up to personally finance his films ‘mdash; growing grapes in Northern California, planting resort villas in Costa Rica and backing both literary-arts magazine ‘Zoetrope All-Story’ and production company American Zoetrope. But for all his success with capital ventures, the Godfather has failed to strike gold with any recent blockbusters.
Set in a black-and-white Buenos Aires, ‘Tetro’ rings like an amateur screenwright’s first shot: a brotherly drama about the dark secrets of an immigrant Italian family. Whether or not the film can revive Coppola’s crowning glory, one thing’s certain ‘mdash; he doesn’t have far to fall.