Coppola -- The Mature Welles Reborn?

[Glenn Anders]

The first reviews of Francis Ford Coppola's new TETRO, shot in Argentina, are just coming to us. In todays issue of Salon, Andrew O’Hehir compares, both realistically and by implication, Coppola and his film to the trajectory of Orson Welles' career.

Take a look:

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/fea ... newsletter

In the same issue, Alfred Hitchcock's SABOTEUR is re-examined as prefiguring the American domestic terrorism which has plagued America, before and after 9/11. The subject, of course, has been prominent in the news of the last two weeks. [A distinction should be made, however, between the "local lone nuts" recently involved and the fascist-directed plot in Hitchcock's film.] Though not mentioned, SABOTEUR has a mood not dissimilar to that of Welles' THE STRANGER, and of course, Hitchcock's picture featured Mercury Theater member Norman LLoyd in his first prominent movie role.

Glenn

[Alfred Willmore]

I . L O V E D . T H I S . M O V I E

[Glenn Anders]

You have most of us who do not live in New York or LA at disadvantage. I can't judge the enterprise known as TETRO yet, Alfred, but I have looked at the generous clips on several sites, and whole scenes look masterful. I detect homages to Welles and others in the black and white main sections, and to Michael Powell, among others, in the color flashbacks.

Let's raise a glass of the modest red wines of Coppola to Welles' successor!

The movie opens in more major cities on June 19th.

Glenn

[ToddBaesen]

Tonight, Francis Ford Coppola invoked the words of Orson Welles several times, when he appeared at Robert Redford's Kabuki Theater in San Francisco, after a screening of TETRO.

Glenn Anders wasn't there, as he had already seen the film, but Wellesnet's Lawrence French was there, and he asked Coppola if he met Orson on the set of IS PARIS BURNING, the film he wrote with Gore Vidal in 1966.

Coppola answered this and many other questions for over an hour to an intimate San Francisco crowd of no more than 300 people. Personally, I must say I wasn't bowled over by TETRO, but I must say, just for shooting the film in black and white, with his own money, Coppola is to be commended...

Here is the statement Coppola wrote for all the art house theaters in America that would agree to show his black and white film:

+++++

It is a dream come true to be able to make personal films and have them shown in great theatres. TETRO is the kind of film I might have been making 35 years ago, had my career not taken an abrupt and sudden turn as it did with The Godfather. Sure, it was exhilarating to find myself an important Hollywood director, with all that came with it. But as the years went on, I found myself trying to avoid becoming a gangster film director, with all that came with that: stabbings, shootings, car crashes and strangulations. It became pretty clear that even if well-paid, a Hollywood director is expected to do what the company who employs him wants. And most times it is a genre film of some type, if not a gangster film, then take your choice between a thriller, a caper film, a romantic comedy (nothing wrong with that) or sci-fi epic (nor that). I found myself dissatisfied, and frustrated over the fact that even though I had made successful films and won plenty of awards, I still would have to go, hat in hand, and beg permission to make something really new.

With Apocalypse Now, I ultimately found I had to finance it myself. Financing movies is a perilous activity, especially when the films are as unusual as I wanted to make. At first Apocalypse Now seemed as if it would bury me—the initial reaction wasn't good, despite some acknowledged spectacular scenes, but it was deemed too philosophical or worse, 'arty'—which is the ultimate damning word that can be used on a film. Well, I thought, weren't most of Ingmar Bergman' or Michelangelo Antonioni's films 'arty but good'? As were the many films of Federico Fellini or Akira Kurosawa? Maybe those films weren't financial powerhouses, but they stayed with you and were inspirational. And also, they were all different from any other films being made. That in the end is my main criteria for enjoying a film: that I never saw it before or anything quite like it.

Many years went by.

Then, taking inspiration from my daughter who had learned the very same tricks from me, I decided to return to my youth, and realizing that the smaller the budget of a film the greater the ideas of that film could be, began to self-finance the very kinds of films I had hoped to make at the beginning. It was like trying to find my place, after being away a long time. I took a story from Mircea Eliade, Youth Without Youth. When it was done, I found the film audience had ventured even further away from anything other than the pre-made, pre-measured genre films that I had tried to escape from, and now wanted even their independent films to be mini-Hollywood ventures. No matter, I thought, the idea was to find myself and I had done that. Now, the next step was to pick up where I had left off, and write an original story and screenplay, something I hadn't done for 30 years since The Conversation.

The result is TETRO, which you are about to see soon at a Landmark theatre near you. I hope you will find it moving, as it is drawn from real emotions related to my experiences and life—though not in any way autobiographical. I hope you wish me well on this new career of mine. It was the one I always wanted from the beginning, to be an independent filmmaker, writing stories and making personal films. God knows what will come next!


Sincerely,

Francis Ford Coppola

[Glenn Anders]

Todd: Thank you for sacrificing yourself by accompanying Mr. French to Francis Ford Coppola's welcome at the Kabuki Sundance Theater (the only one in SF where you can regularly have a Gimlet on the premises, in fact have one while watching a movie -- though I haven't figured out how to do that yet.) The question all Wellesnetters have is: What did Maestro Coppola have to say about his experience with Orson Welles? [IS PARIS BURNING was thought, at the time, to have been a pretty discouraging enterprise for all involved.]

I didn't find TETRO the greatest movie ever made either, but not for want of skill, passion, and just plain trying. It did seem a kind of psychodrama to me, a kaleidoscope in which I could see parts of Coppola's film life, parts of the films of others he admired, parts of his real life, parts of his family's life, and parts of my own life. TETRO is a kind of Southern Sea in which we may find many things, including ourselves. In fact, aspects of the film, suggested to me a charade on the richness of Wellesnet.com, itself. Other Wellesnetters, I'm sure, would like to hear more of the impressions you and Mr. French formed.

Certainly, Coppola's prepared introduction reinforces the observation of Salon Critic O'Hehir that TETRO suggests the work of an artist like Orson Welles who has decided to sacrifice the support and hoopla of the Hollywood Studios for the freedom to create work which will reflect his own personal interests and passions, without the interference of a "front office."

Fortunately, for Francis Ford Coppola, he has held onto the vestiges of his American Zeotrope organization and lucrative investments in wine and holiday enterprises. Something which the more profligate Welles failed to do -- whether entirely his own fault or not.

Today, the wise film maker might say: "It takes -- not just a wine not drunk before its time -- but a whole vineyard to raise a TETRO . . . ."

Tell us more, Toddy, tell us more!

Glenn

[Alan Brody]

I may give Coppola's new film a chance, although I really don't think he deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as Welles, despite such great movies as the first two Godfathers, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now. Leaving aside the fact that he never did it on both sides of the camera like Welles, I've seen very few Coppola films, other then the ones mentioned above, that I felt were worth watching more then once.

I wouldn't dispute that Coppola was one of the world's greatest filmmakers...in the 1970's. That may even be a major reason why Welles's attempted comeback in Hollywood at that time was met with such indifference: Coppola had already assumed his mantle. But from that point forward it's been all downhill for him, with no later peaks to even approach such late Welles masterworks as Touch of Evil or Chimes at Midnight. And Welles, even at his worst, never came close to making such a bloated turkey as One From the Heart.

To be fair. Coppola has made a few good films since running into that brick wall, like Godfather III, Tucker and The Outsiders, but most of his films have been vaguely disappointing, and even the good ones are a far cry from his 70s work. For the past 20 years or so, I've actually thought of him more as a winemaker then a filmmaker, but his decision to shoot the new film in black and white does show that he still has some serious artistic integrity.