Movies Features
Coppola starts shooting new film Tetro in Buenos Aires
By DPA
Mar 29, 2008, 14:29 GMT

Buenos Aires - Hollywood filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola on Monday is set to start shooting his latest film Tetro in the Argentinian capital, featuring among others Academy Award winner Javier Bardem in a small role.

Coppola, 68, director of legendary films like The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, said Tetro is a personal but not autobiographical piece with an estimated budget of 15 million dollars.

It will star US actor Vincent Gallo (The Brown Bunny), the Spaniard Maribel Verdu (Pan's Labyrinth) and newcomer Alden Ehrenreich.

In a press conference Wednesday in Buenos Aires, Coppola declined to give too many details, saying that would spoil all the fun.

'Why would I make the movie if you want to know everything now?' he told reporters.

What is known, is that Tetro tells the story of an Italian immigrant family in the Argentine capital, where Ehrenreich's character looks for his older brother, played by Gallo. The family, with Verdu playing Gallo's wife, is ridden by ferocious rivalries and tragedies.

'I have been making films for 40 years, but the idea is to always learn about me and to make films in new ways. I want to make smaller, more personal films,' Coppola said.

'The larger the budget, the narrower the things you can tell - there is usually some murder, a rape. But when you have a small budget you can go into personal relations,' the filmmaker said.

Coppola said his interest in families comes from a strong relationship with his own, including daughter and Academy Award winning director Sofia Coppola and nephew Nicolas Cage.

Tetro is set to be shot in about 11 weeks, mostly in Argentina, where Coppola has spent long periods in recent years.

Many scenes are to be shot in the traditional immigrant neighbourhood of La Boca in Buenos Aires and in other areas of the city, although the team led by Coppola - basically the same that worked with him in his previous feature, Youth Without Youth - will also travel to Calafate and Bariloche, in the Argentine Patagonia region.

Parts of the film will also be made in the City of Light film complex in Alicante, Spain.

Tetro is also set to feature local actors, most notably Rodrigo de la Serna from The Motorcycle Diaries.

'I knew Argentina has a great cultural, artistic, literary, musical, cinema tradition, and I like those kinds of atmospheres very much because you usually find creative people to work with,' Coppola said.

As to the robbery at his production company's headquarters in Buenos Aires last year, which at one point threatened to derail the film, Coppola minimized its importance and said it was mostly photographs that were lost. The robbers also stole the script, though there was more than one copy, the director noted.

Coppola admitted that he would have liked to start shooting Tetro some 4 or 5 months earlier, but he had trouble coordinating actors' agendas. Matt Dillon was originally set to play the Gallo's part but was unable to do it.

'It is difficult to concentrate all the actors in one place, particularly when you do not have millions of euros, or better still pounds, but just some millions of dollars,' Coppola joked.

Far into a long career, the filmmaker also looked back on the impact of his works.

'When my films premiered they were not the great successes that they are now. Whenever I make a movie I feel that I am working without a safety net. It is as if I had to wait 10 years to see the impact they will have,' Coppola said.

Tetro's cast was generous in its praise of the acclaimed director.

De la Serna said rehearsing with Coppola was 'a luxury' as well as 'a great responsibility, an honour.'

Gallo praised the filmmaker as 'very open-minded.'

'He is able to bring out one's best potential, to make one flourish,' the US actor noted.

'Any excuse is good to come to Buenos Aires, but if on top of that it is because Coppola has called on you, that's just amazing,' Verdu said.

For rookie Ehrenreich, working with Coppola is a 'fantasy come true.'