CANNES 2009 – Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

TETRO
Ein Film von
Francis Ford Coppola

Mit
Vincent Gallo, Maribel Verdú, Alden Ehrenreich,
Klaus Maria Brandauer

Dauer: 127 Min.

Start: Juni 2010

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 SYNOPSIS

Tetro ist ein Mann ohne Vergangenheit. Vor über zehn Jahren hat er jeden Kontakt zu seiner
Familie abgebrochen, er gilt als vermisst. Sein jüngerer Bruder, der 17-jährige Bennie, reist
nach Buenos Aires, um ihn zu finden. Doch Tetro ist ganz anders, als Bennie es erwartet
hat: Der Dichter ist ein melancholischer und unbeständiger Zeitgenosse und lebt mit seiner
Freundin Miranda zusammen. Die Brüder beginnen, sich mit ihren Kindheitserinnerungen
auseinanderzusetzen und entdecken dabei erschreckende Geheimnisse.

CAST

Tetro .............................................................................................................Vincent Gallo

Bennie ....................................................................................................Alden Ehrenreich
Miranda ........................................................................................................Maribel Verdù
Carlo/Alfie .......................................................................................Klaus Maria Brandauer
Alone ......................................................................................................... Carmen Maura
Jose ................................................................................................... Rodrigo de la Serna
Josefina .......................................................................................................Leticia Bredice
Abelardo ................................................................................................... Mike Amigorena
Maria Luisa .............................................................................................. Sofia Castiglione
Ana .................................................................................................................. Erica Rivas

CREW

Regie ...............................................................................................Francis Ford Coppola

Buch .................................................................................................Francis Ford Coppola
Produzent ........................................................................................Francis Ford Coppola
Ausführender Produzent........................................................ Anahid Nazarian, Fred Roos
Bild......................................................................................................Mihai Malaimare, JR
Innenausstattung ..............................................................................................Stan Collet
Productions Designer ......................................................................Sebastián Orgambide
Kostüm ..........................................................................................................Cecilia Monti
Schnitt ...........................................................................................................Walter Murch
Ton ............................................................................................................. Vincente d’Elia
Choreographie.................................................................................. Ana Maria Stekelman
Casting ..........................................................................................................Walter Rippel
Musik ........................................................................................................ Osvaldo Golijov

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INTRODUCTION
Tetro is the first original screenplay from Francis Ford Coppola in more than 30 years. The film
is a poetic drama about a family torn apart by deep rivalries, secrets, and betrayals.

The bohemian Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca is the backdrop for Tetro. One of the
oldest neighborhoods in the city, La Boca was inhabited early on largely by Italian immigrants,
and is the birthplace of many important singers, musicians, poets, and painters.

Coppola conducted a lengthy search for the film’s protagonist that eventually led him to the
intense and imaginative U.S. actor and director, Vincent Gallo (ARIZONA DREAM, BUFFALO
’66, THE BROWN BUNNY). Tetro is a writer who returns to Buenos Aires after fleeing from an
unbearable family history tied specifically to his domineering father, Carlo Tetrocini, a famed
orchestra director, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer (MEPHISTO, OUT OF AFRICA).

Tetro opens with Bennie’s arrival in Buenos Aires from New York City hoping to reunite with his
older brother, Tetro, whom he last saw at age 7. Now, just before his 18th birthday, Bennie
refuses to leave Buenos Aires without discovering why his brother left and never returned for
him as promised. Arriving at his brother’s modest apartment, he meets Miranda, Tetro’s
girlfriend, played by Spanish actress Maribel Verdú (Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN, PAN’S
LABYRINTH) but doesn’t get the warm welcome he expected from his brother.

Bennie’s story represents a step toward maturity. He finds himself struggling with the romantic,
idealized image of his brother as a successful artist, and the reality of the aggressive and
tormented person that he encounters in Buenos Aires. Tetro is a melancholic poet, possessed
with great talent but also with great sadness. He seems to have lived always in the shadow of
someone stronger, someone who has thwarted his development. This story about the
competitions and rivalries between men in a family combines classic elements of Greek
tragedy, particularly with regards to the vicissitudes of everyday life. It also speaks of the
necessity of “destroying” the father figure, who represents cruelty and oppression, and leaving
the past behind in order to fulfill one’s own destiny.

Bennie is played by Alden Ehrenreich, a debut actor who, after attracting the attention of Fred
Roos, the film’s executive producer, had to temporarily abandon his high school studies in Los
Angeles to participate in the shoot.

The international cast also includes the renowned Carmen Maura (VOLVER, WOMEN ON
THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN), known worldwide as being one of the muses
of Pedro Almodóvar; and the Italian actress, Francesca De Sapio, who had worked with the
director before on THE GODFATHER: PART II.

For supporting roles, Coppola selected some of the most notable Argentine stars of cinema,
theater, and television, such as Rodrigo De la Serna, Leticia Bredice, Mike Amigorena, Sofía
Castiglione, and Erica Rivas.

For the making of TETRO, Coppola reunited with his collaborators on his previous film,
YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH: cinematographer Mihai Malamaire, Jr.; Argentine composer,
Osvaldo Golijov; editor Walter Murch, and executive producers Anahid Nazarian and Fred
Roos.

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DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Ever since I was young, I wanted to write stories. Initially, I imagined myself as a playwright,
and at 17 won a playwriting scholarship to college, and became a drama major. But I think at
that age your critical abilities are better developed than your creativity, and so I was forlorn
over my lack of talent. I became the ‘tech guy’ for my college productions and as I worked with
the crew up in the grid, hanging lights, I'd watch the director below working with actors, and
thought that ‘I can do that’. My switch to directing was a success and before I knew it I was the
most soughtafter director at Hofstra. But that success didn’t relieve the ache over what I
perceived as my lack of talent as a writer. Later on, after seeing the Sergei Eisenstein silent
film OCTOBER, I changed directions, applied to the UCLA film school, and began my Master's
program as a film major.

I found that after years of trying to be a writer, of spending hours working on stories, plays and
screenplays, the effort was paying off and I was getting better at it. A little better. This gave me
an advantage over some of the students, as did my theatrical experience. Finally, at age 22,
when I won the award for my script Pilma, I started to really feel like a writer and I knew what
my career would be. In my late 20s, I was working on screenplays like THE RAIN PEOPLE,
and THE CONVERSATION, somewhat based on experiences I either had or witnessed in my
life and thought I'd be a writer-director like some of the great auteurs. LA DOLCE VITA came
out in 1960, and then the more mysterious work of Antonioni, and I was sure that I wanted to
follow in their footsteps, working on original screenplays. That’s how I envisioned my life. Just
write stories, make screenplays and then direct them. In particular, I wanted to write a drama
similar to the ones that I had enjoyed in my youth, something emotional and personal along the
lines of Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, or anything by Tennessee Williams. THE
GODFATHER changed all that, and before I knew it I was far more successful than I could
ever have imagined, and yes -- I was writing the screenplays as well as directing (and
producing) the films, but it wasn't what I had really intended. What I wanted was to write
'original' screenplays.

As I grew older, whether I changed or the 'film industry' changed, I questioned my desire to
continue and did not make a movie for many years. Of course I realized that films had to be
entertaining, as did plays in theater -- but I was repelled by the 'sameness' of movies, the lack
of adventure and the overwhelming succession of remakes and sequels -- from old films,
comic books, even television programs. Or in publishing, it seemed that there weren't new
novels, only new 'bestsellers.' So clearly, things had changed, and I really couldn't find a place
for myself. Nor did I have a hint of how I'd finance and distribute the kinds of films I did want to
make, even if I could muster the resources necessary to keep on writing. I finally decided that
YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, a more personal film, but based on an existing novella, would be
a way to get the ball rolling again. I knew that the experience would prepare me to write an
original story and produce a film with the same style and production budget as YOUTH
WITHOUT YOUTH.

I already had a fragment of an idea of what eventually became TETRO. It was really only a
page or two of notes that I had written a long time ago. It was about a younger brother
searching for an older brother who had left the family in a huff, claiming he never wanted to see
them again. I wanted to set the film in a foreign city, and chose Buenos Aires because I
thought that I would enjoy living and working there. I liked the music, the food, and the culture.
So I took this little fragment of a story, set it in Argentina, and began to write the screenplay
while we were editing YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. By the time we had finished, I was ready to
go with a new film.

We began filming on March 28th and shot for thirteen weeks with a predominantly Argentine
cast and crew. There were two Americans actors, Vincent Gallo and Alden Ehrenreich; two fine
Spanish actresses, Maribel Verdú and Carmen Maura; an Italian actress, Francesca De Sapio;

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and the well-known Austrian actor, Klaus Maria Brandauer. The remainder of the large
supporting cast was Argentine.

I felt comfortable with our crew because, like many people in the world, they spoke English,
and those who didn’t spoke Italian or Spanish. The language of cinema and theater is
universal-- whether one works in the Chinese or Italian film industries--there’s a certain
language that everyone speaks that transcends one’s native language. At first, many of the
roles that I had written for Argentine actors were minor ones, but I admired the actors so much
that I made their parts bigger.

I decided to collaborate with the same team that I had worked with on YOUTH WITHOUT
YOUTH: the young cinematographer, Mihai Malamaire, Jr.; the Argentine composer, Osvaldo
Golijov; editor Walter Murch; and executive producers Anahid Nazarian and Fred Roos.

An original screenplay has themes drawn from your own life and for any filmmaker, through the
process of making a movie you arrive at a better understanding of those issues, even if you still
might not have all the answers. In TETRO, the principal theme involves the rivalry between the
men of an artistic family -- the father, brothers, uncles, and nephews who are all, in their own
way, trying to express their talents and personalities. The fact that it is rivalry within a family --
that is, between people who love each other -- makes it complicated and dramatic.

Even though the story of TETRO has little to do with the story of my own life, the characters all
embody parts of me. I wrote a completely fictitious story that nonetheless drew on memories
from my family. It was heavily influenced by those films and plays that I had admired as a
theater student and aspiring playwright. As in the theatrical tradition of Tennessee Williams’s
Sweet Bird of Youth or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or even in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the
Elms, the father figure in Tetro is, in a sense, a “Biblical” father, cruel and domineering ,
someone who must be ultimately destroyed if his sons are to survive. Since the beginning of
time and even within the animal kingdom, we all have been in competition with the most
powerful men of the family. My own father wasn't like that, he was kind and inspiring, but
because he was brilliant and somewhat vain, it was just a few more steps to turn into a
monster.

From the moment I conceived this film, I imagined it in black and white. As the story took
shape, I decided scenes set in the past should be filmed in color. I wanted it filmed that way
because one rarely sees black and white in contemporary films anymore, and I’ve always
thought there was something unique in the black and white image, certainly the lighting. I
remember Akira Kurosawa films in Cinemascope black and white, as well as the films of Elia
Kazan and Robert Bresson. In my mind I associate black and white with a certain kind of poetic
drama.

While one could look to my own family to shed light on the film’s themes, these themes will
most likely be of interest to any family, since such rivalries exist in all families. I’ve always
believed that if you’re going to go through all the work it takes to make a film, it should be a film
that is somewhat revealing about your thoughts and emotions, which are truly who you are.

Francis Ford Coppola

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VISUAL STYLE OF THE FILM
"I don't often get the opportunity to do films in black and white,” Coppola said. “They require a
very different lighting philosophy, since you don't have color to separate the differing layers in the
frame. Having worked with Mihai Malamaire before in color, I thought that we would both enjoy
this new challenge."

Coppola had made only one other film in black and white: RUMBLE FISH (1983). Based on the
novel by Susie Hinton, RUMBLE FISH tells the story of two brothers. Rusty James (Matt Dillon) is
a teenager whose street credibility rises thanks to the legendary reputation of his brother, the
enigmatic and charismatic "Motorcycle Boy" (Mickey Rourke). Rusty James dreams about being
like his brother and returning to the days when gangs meant everything. After some family
secrets about their mother are revealed, the brothers decide to change their lives forever. "I like
the fact that RUMBLE FISH has, in a way, a spiritual connection to TETRO. So I thought it would
be ideal if they were both shot in black and white," Coppola stated.

Coppola decided to base the movie’s black and white visual style on the masterworks that he had
admired during his student years. “Mihai and I watched many beautiful films together, studying
the styles of LA NOTTE (1961) by Michelangelo Antonioni, BABY DOLL (1956) and ON THE
WATERFRONT (1954) by Elia Kazan. From these films, we settled on a very vivid and contrasted
black and white look.”

Scene from ON THE WATERFRONT Scene from RUMBLE FISH

Elia Kazan (Istanbul 1909 – New York 2003) is remembered as one of the most influential
directors of the 1950s and 1960s. His first films were expertly staged theatrical works that were
firmly rooted in the director’s own theatrical background. Starting with PANIC IN THE STREETS
(1950) and ON THE WATERFRONT, Kazan adopted a new visual sensibility based on a realism
that was defined by carefully studied compositions, the arrangement of the masses, angularity,
and the use of chiaroscuro.

Similar to RUMBLE FISH, TETRO also contains parts in color. In the movie, the flashbacks were
filmed in a sort of "washed-out color, like the color in home movies," Coppola said. "There's also
the fact that the movie was shot in wide screen. Kurosawa used both black and white and wide
screen in his films. All those great and creative filmmakers loved black and white. Mihai and I also
picked up with an idea that we experimented with in YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH: a camera that
rarely moves. In ninety percent of TETRO, the camera is stationary. I think that the combination
of wide screen and a very contrasted and classic black and white style with occasional bursts of
color give the film added impact."

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A FILM ABOUT CONTRASTS

One of the biggest challenges for Mihai Malaimare, Jr. was filming in black and white. At first, it
was surprising for him to see the traditional Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca -- famous for
its eye-popping mixture of primary colors -- bathed in shades of white, gray, and black. "I thought
it was great because nobody had shown it like that. Before I arrived here, I was searching the
internet, and when I saw those colors, I got really excited," the director of photography explained.
"In black and white, you have to be careful with the framing, with the light and shadow. Even if
you’re not conscious of those things, viewers will be more conscious of what they see in terms of
composition. With color it’s easier to trick viewers. So at first you might think it’s easier to shoot in
black and white, but it’s actually more difficult because you have to do more with composition and
light and shadow to make up for the things that you can’t express with color."

Coppola sought to achieve a very contrasted black and white style, similar to the movies that he’d
watched during his youth. "We were looking for a certain high contrast," Malaimare explained.
"The negative in the 1960s was very specific. In modern cinema there are plenty of directors of
photography that use soft light. But from the beginning we aimed for high contrast. We had a very
powerful backlight that allowed us to have a very high contrast in black and white."

Malaimare worked with Cecilia Monti, the costume designer, to determine how the colors and
textures of the clothing would look in black and white. Monti said, "It was great when Mihai told
me that we were going to use pure shades of black and white, which is unusual in a color film.
We achieved an interesting effect that opened up many possibilities. The fabrics with more
texture and luster printed better than others, which is to say, the effect was different. The color
tests were arduous. Depending on the degree of saturation, there were some colors that looked
very similar in black and white. We had to assemble a diverse palette of grays in order to
determine which shade to use for each character." Monti wanted the clothing styles for Bennie
and Tetro to reflect certain aspects of their personalities. Bennie, the idealistic, enthusiastic,
curious, and slightly naïve younger brother, wears clear, bright colors on-screen. In contrast, the
moodier Tetro dresses in dark clothes with rich textures, such as leather and chamois leather.

This play of contrasts -- between light and dark, between the brothers’ distinctive lifestyles,
between opposing worlds -- is also reflected in the music. While coming up with the film score for
TETRO, the Argentine musician Osvaldo Golijov, who had collaborated with Coppola on his
previous film, YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, initially worked in the United States during the filming
process before then traveling to Buenos Aires to work with the director once the shoot had
concluded.

In his correspondences with Golijov, Coppola insisted on using symphonic jazz, similar to the
soundtrack for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. In Golijov’s words: "After working for several
weeks in the U.S. on that kind of music, I came to Buenos Aires and watched the film four times
with Francis. During our discussions, we came up with the idea of capturing what our sound
engineer called 'nostalgic optimism.'"

When it came time to compose the principal sections of the film score, Golijov took into account,
on the one hand, Tetro’s dark personality and his wounds from the past; and, on the other hand,
the start of a journey that will change Benny’s life. The resulting score mixes nostalgia with pain,
while maintaining a tinge of optimism. In addition, according to Golijov: "We had to capture the
city’s unique vitality. There’s this beautiful group of characters, all played by Argentine actors.
They’re like the champagne of the movie, what propels it forward."

The film’s soundtrack ultimately fused classical music with the milonga and rhythms from the
Argentine countryside, such as the chamamé. In general, Golijov tried to avoid using tango in the
Astor Piazzola style, "which is amazing but too specific." The cheeriness of the milonga and the
chamamé contrasts with the seriousness of the symphonic music that accompanies Carlo
Tetroccini, Tetro’s father. The intensity of this music definitively takes over the film during the final
twenty minutes. "

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The score of YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH was almost like a symphonic rhythm. That movie was at
once very musical and very fluid. In contrast, TETRO has much greater fluctuations in tempo.
Everything has more contour, so to speak," Golijov explained. "YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH was
more… not so much impressionist but diffuse because sometimes you couldn’t tell what was
happening or if what was happening was a dream or a memory. In TETRO, there’s no mist,
everything is clear. It’s almost as if you could sketch it. So, in a sense, I feel that the movie gives
birth to the music."

COPPOLA AND HIS CAST

Javier Blaya, an Argentine musician and poet whom Coppola met during his stay in Buenos
Aires, mentioned Vincent Gallo to the director at a time when Coppola was undecided about who
would be best suited to play the leading role. "I've seen BUFFALO ‘66 and THE BROWN
BUNNY, and thought that Vincent was really interesting and just the right age. He's handsome in
a striking way, and very alive on screen. From the moment I saw him walking through the gate at
the Buenos Aires airport, I thought, 'Yeah, he could be Tetro.'"

Vincent Gallo, who had never met the director and who had only circumstantially met his children,
Sofia and Roman, was surprised by the phone call from Coppola. "I received a call from Francis,
which in itself was very unusual. He'd never paid attention to me before, and I imagined that I was
most likely not on his radar. In fact, I was convinced that he was completely unaware of my work,"
Gallo said. "The phone call had a huge impact on me because he had always been a symbolic
figure in my life. Francis comes from a classic cinema generation. Before Francis Ford Coppola,
there really weren't any young filmmakers in the United States working within the studio system
who had the kind of flexibility and freedom that he had at such a young age. That's very unusual.
He’s been a creative influence for me, one of the most dynamic, avant-garde, radical, and
esoteric artists of the twentieth century."

Enthused by the call, Gallo immediately traveled to Buenos Aires to meet with the director and
production crew. "He came to the airport to pick me up, which I thought was quite…I have a
friend in L.A. that picked me up once, but no one else has ever picked me up at an airport!"
exclaimed Gallo. Coppola is known for the affection and admiration that he shows his actors from
the very first moment that they start working together. These qualities help to create warm and
trusting environment among the cast and crew. "He's a very funny person with a really good
sense of humor. He's able to see everyone's best potential regardless of whether he's in conflict
philosophically, religiously, or creatively with them. Even with people whose creative sensibilities
conflict with his, he's able to move past it and tap into their potential. He's a very beautiful person
in that way. He has a really clever and intelligent mind, and he's steeped in history. But his best
quality is his curiosity and interest in the work that he's doing."

Even though Gallo joined the cast later than the other principal actors, they all had the opportunity
to rehearse together for several weeks. During the rehearsals, Coppola admired Gallo’s
willingness to test everything called for in the script, but also to point out things that he believed
his character wouldn’t do. “I find that actors do this for two reasons,” Coppola said. “One: they’re
frightened and want to challenge the script whenever they can. Two: they’re in the process of
becoming the character, and they think that they know better than you what their character would
do or say. In my experience, this is usually what happens. It’s not that the actors slowly become
the characters, but that the characters slowly become the actors. When you really study the great
performances of Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Bobby De Niro…you recognize
that while it’s still Bobby De Niro, the character has completely overtaken him. He still looks,
walks, and talks the same, yet if you look at a different performance by De Niro, it would be totally
different. That’s the kind of actor Vincent is as well.”

Francesca De Sapio, the Italian actress who plays Tetro’s sister, arrived at the shoot in its final
stages and had practically no time to participate in rehearsals. Nevertheless, she found it
fascinating to work with Gallo. “Vincent is wonderful. Yesterday, we had to re-shoot a scene and I

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wasn't prepared. But as I watched Vincent’s eyes, I was able to get ready. I’d never met him
before, but each time I looked into his eyes, I felt that he really was my brother and that I’ve
known him for a long time. It’s amazing.”

Gallo is known not only for his work as an actor and director, but also as a producer, editor,
writer, musician, and even a model, which has allowed him to become acquainted with some of
the most famous artists and photographers world-wide. “I’ve never thought of the cinematic world
as a concentrated place for sophisticated creativity. Even though I work a lot in music and
cinema, the art and fashion worlds, for some reason, seem to attract the sort of creative
personalities that I’m more in line with. But during the shoot, I kept thinking about how lucky I was
to have this entirely different experience. Francis is the first person I’ve ever worked with that has
made me feel that, in any world or universe and during any period of human history, I would have
been drawn to him and whatever he was doing. No matter what, I would have wanted his
attention and friendship.”

Eighteen-year-old Alden Ehrenreich plays Bennie, Tetro’s younger brother. After having been
separated from his brother for eleven years, Bennie travels from the U.S. to Argentina to find
Tetro and get an explanation for their estrangement. “I met Alden while looking for someone who
could play the part that I’d written,” Coppola explained. “The character was supposed to be only
seventeen, which worried me a little, since the professional actors recommended for such parts
are often twenty-four years old. I was anxious to cast someone who was actually young.”
Ehrenreich had never before worked on a professional film. Fred Roos, the film’s executive
producer, met him through some work that he had done at school. “I was stunned,” Ehrenreich
remembered. “It’s difficult to grasp what happened. This is such a huge leap for me. It’s very
surreal. For who I am, this was the ideal role, down to the specific details. It’s really a dream for
me. And it wasn’t gradual at all…It was just like, ‘Bam!’”

One of the things that caught Ehrenreich’s attention was how open Coppola was to the actor’s
suggestions and changes, especially considering the personal nature of the screenplay. “When I
first met him, I was surprised to find that someone with such an iconic reputation was so nice. I
noticed that he has an incredible way of making people feel very relaxed. You never feel that
you’re in some kind of shadow when you’re talking to him. He’s very sure of himself, yet at the
same time he’s very open and spontaneous. He’s really funny, and he’s always singing. He’s
such a comforting presence to be around.”

Working with actors from different backgrounds was an exceptional experience for the young
actor. “One of the things I learned was how specific each actor was. Even the supporting actors
brought such different energies and personalities to their characters. We all got along very well.
It’s not like you had the main story of the two brothers with everyone else complementing that.
The actors did complement that story, but in very individual ways that gave the movie a lot of
color.”

American Zoetrope has helped to launch the careers of some of the most successful and talented
actors in the world. Al Pacino, Harrison Ford, Glenn Close, and many others made their first
movie or had their breakout role with the production company. “I was really moved by Alden’s
performance,” Coppola admitted. “Only time will tell, but I think that in a year or two he’s going to
be one of the most important young actors out there. He’s so young, talented, handsome, and
intelligent. I’m sure that he has big things ahead of him.”

Maribel Verdú is renowned in Spain for having worked with some of the country’s most
prestigious directors, such as Fernando Trueba and Carlos Saura. But the actress found
international fame after starring in Guillermo del Toro’s PAN’S LABYRINTH, for which the actress
was invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in Hollywood. When she
met Francis Ford Coppola, he didn’t divulge the reason why he had contacted her. “I was on
vacation in Mexico,” Verdú recalled. “Francis found out and asked me if I would like to meet up
with him in Guatemala. I hopped on a plane to Guatemala and spent a few days at his fantastic
resort. He never once talked to me about the movie or even why I was there. And, of course, I
never asked him. We chatted about life, cinema, sports, food, our fears, our insecurities, what we

9
like and don’t like, our ambitions. Pretty much everything. After a month or so, he invited me
down to Buenos Aires. I never even realized that he had been testing me.’”
Coppola admired Verdú’s work, but was concerned about whether she would be able to speak in
English. Miranda is Tetro’s girlfriend. Her warmth and sympathy transform her into a consistent
link between Tetro and his younger brother. Even though her character is Spanish in origin, she
speaks English during the majority of the film because of her connection between the two
brothers. “When I first met her, she spoke to me only in English, and I felt completely comfortable
and very close to her. But she really couldn’t speak English that well. She studied very hard. It’s a
tremendous challenge for anyone to tackle such a big role in a language that they don't really
speak. But I think that she did an excellent job. She didn’t pretend that she could speak English
perfectly. She did it instead as a Spanish woman who doesn’t speak English very well but can
communicate partly in English, partly in Spanish, and partly in gestures.”

For Verdú, the language was one of her biggest challenges. “It was an enormous obstacle.
Francis would speak to me very slowly and clearly. It was hard but well worth it. When you’re an
actor, you adapt. That’s what our profession is all about: adapting. A director can bring forth from
you things that you never even knew existed.”

Another challenge was the rehearsals, which lasted a month. According to Verdú, Coppola had
an unusual way of rehearsing. The rehearsals weren’t necessarily about practicing scenes from
the movie, but rather about improvising and inventing stories about the characters that weren’t in
the script. “Francis would set up the scene, and then suddenly ask me and Vincent, ‘OK, how did
you two meet? Where was it? What did you talk about?’” Verdú recounted. “One day he
organized a costume party, and we had to show up dressed up in a costume that our characters
would have selected. And it was a real party, with a disc jockey, bartender, and everything!
During the party Francis asked us things and we had to react dressed up as our characters. It
was an interesting and marvelous experience because you’re not only filming a movie but also
carrying inside of you the character’s entire past. You begin to look at things differently. You really
get to know and understood your character’s past.”

“Maribel brought out many layers in Miranda’s character,” Coppola stated. “Miranda's funny, sexy,
lovely, and enjoys her life, but at the same time she’s capable of expressing very deep emotions.”

At first, Carmen Maura’s character, Alone, was going to be played by another famous Spanish
actor: Javier Bardem. He and the director had talked several times about working together.
“Tetro’s mentor and teacher is a key role, and I had originally written it for a man. But as I read
and reread (the script), I felt that the interaction between the two characters would be far more
intriguing if they were of the opposite sex. So I had to find an equally famous Spanish actress,
and I thought immediately of Carmen Maura. Maribel knew her and was very excited about the
idea. Carmen is such a wonderful young woman. I call her a young woman because in her style
and manner, she’ll always be a young woman. She’s a delight.”

“Francis is very affectionate with actors,” Maura stated. “If you have a good take, he’ll frequently
give you a kiss or tell you that you’re beautiful. You get the impression that he knows what he
wants when he asks for it. His energy and vitality really surprised me. He’s managed to preserve
a child’s sense of wonder.”

For the role of the father, the acclaimed orchestra director, Carlo Tetrocini, Coppola called on the
prestigious Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, renowned as much for his cinematic roles
(MEPHISTO, OUT OF AFRICA) as for his theatrical directing work in Austria and Germany. In
2006, he also directed his first opera: LOHENGRIN, by the composer Richard Wagner.

“Carlo was a very demanding role," Coppola said. "I began shooting without having selected
anyone for the part. Since Brandauer had been involved in theater and opera in his native
Austria, I thought that he would be convincing as an autocratic director of a big orchestra. The
father is someone of great complexity, arrogance, and cruelty. He is both powerful and
controlling. Klaus dominates the screen just as his character dominates the family.”

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CAST BIOGRAPHIES

VINCENT GALLO (TETRO)

American born, Buffalo, New York, 1962. Vincent Gallo moved from Buffalo, New York to
New York City in 1978 and began playing in the musical group, Gray with artist Jean-Michel
Basquiat. From 1978 through 1981 Gallo also became known for his very unusual street
performances, which were executed in public but also witnessed by invited friends. The One
Armed Man, The Man with No Face, Sandman Boy Hit by a Car, and Boy Cries in
Restaurant Window to name a few. These radical performances upset and disturbed
pedestrians and patrons while entertaining Gallo's invited friends.

One invited guest, New York Underground filmmaker Eric Mitchell, wound up casting Gallo
as the lead in his film THE WAY IT IS alongside newcomer Steve Buscemi. THE WAY IT IS
was Gallo's first appearance in a feature film, though previously he had directed himself in
several short films - IF YOU FEEL FROGGY JUMP, THE GUN LOVER, Vincent Gallo as
Jesus Christ and Rocky 10. Gallo has acted in a total of 33 feature films including Abel
Ferrara's THE FUNERAL, Emir Kusturica's ARIZONA DREAM, Claire Denis' TROUBLE
EVERY DAY, and his own written, directed and produced BUFFALO 66 (shown in
competition at Sundance 1998), THE BROWN BUNNY (shown in main competition at
Cannes 2003), and PROMISES WRITTEN IN WATER (set for release in 2010.)

Gallo has exhibited artwork in a total of 25 one-man shows including several with famed New
York art dealer Annina Nosei and 3 museum shows including one at the Hara Museum in
Tokyo, Japan. Gallo has also released several musical albums including 2 on the prestigious
Warp Records label—When and Recordings of Music for Film. In addition, Gallo wrote,
composed and performed the original music for Buffalo 66.

ALDEN EHRENREICH (BENNIE)

18-year-old Alden Ehrenreich makes his feature film debut as Bennie in Tetro. He began
acting at an early age in various school and summer camp plays, as well as community
children's theater groups. Throughout junior high and high school, Alden wrote, directed, and
acted in student films with his friends. A spirited and comedic performance by Alden was
shown on a loop at a friend’s Bat Mitzvah reception. Alden was not there and was amazed to
receive a call from one of the guests--Steven Spielberg. This led to television roles on
CSI:Crime Scene Investigation and Supernatural and many auditions. Early on, Alden had a
distinct vision for the kind of career he wanted to pursue. That vision came true when Francis
Ford Coppola offered him a leading role in TETRO. Alden is currently a freshman at New
York University's Tisch School of Drama.

MARIBEL VERDÚ (MIRANDA)

Maria Isabel Verdú Rollán was born in Madrid, Spain, in October 1970. At thirteen years old
she began doing commercials and modeling for fashion magazines. Two years later, she
dropped out of school to pursue an acting career. She has appeared in more than sixty films
and numerous television series and theatrical productions.

Verdú began to gain critical acclaim thanks to her role as a young drug addict in Montxo
Armendáriz's film, 27 Hours (1986). She worked on important productions such as Fernando
Trueba's El Año de las Luces, but it was her role in Amantes by the director Vicente Arando
that demonstrated her newfound maturity as an actress and forever shaped her cinematic
career. In the 1990s, she worked with several prestigious Spanish directors, including Bigas
Luna on HUEVOS DE ORO (1993); Fernando Trueba once again on BELLE ÉPOQUE,
(1994 Oscar® winner for Best Foreign Film) and Carlos Saura on GOYA EN BURDEOS

11
(1999). She gained an international following after starring in Alfonso Cuarón's highly
successful film, Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN, which became an iconic movie of the New Mexican
Cinema. She found further success in Mexico by winning the 2007 Ariel Award for Best
Actress for her role in Guillermo del Toro's PAN'S LABYRINTH. After several nominations
Spain's prestigious Goya Award, she won the coveted awarded Best Actress at the 2008
Goya Awards for her role in SIETE MESES DE BILLAR FRANCÉS (2007) by the Spanish
director Gracia Querejeta. Verdú received a 2009 Goya nomination for her role in Jose Luis
Cuerda's 2008 drama, THE BLIND SUNFLOWERS.

KLAUS MARIA BRANDAUER (CARLO TETROCINI)

Klaus Georg Steng—artistically known as Klaus Maria Brandauer—was born in 1943 in the
Austrian town of Bad Aussee. He spent his initial years with his grandparents, and then lived
with his parents in Switzerland and Germany. In 1963 he abandoned his university studies at
the Stuttgart Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and made his professional acting debut in
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, playing the role of Claudio. After living in Salzburg and
Dusseldorf, he became a member of Vienna’s esteemed Wiener Burgtheater in 1972 and
also made his cinematic acting debut.

Because of his burgeoning theatrical career, Brandauer accepted only supporting roles in
movies, such as in the 1972 film, The Salzburg Connection. It was only when the Hungarian
director Istvan Szabo offered him the starring role in MEPHISTO—the winner of the Oscar®
for Best Foreign Film in 1982—that Brandauer gained worldwide recognition. He played the
villain opposite Sean Connery in the James Bond movie, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN
(1983), and received a Golden Globe and an Oscar® nomination for his role as Baron Blixen
in OUT OF AFRICA (1985). He has acted in four languages: German, Hungarian, French,
and English.

The first film that Brandauer directed was Georg Elser-Einer aus Deutschland (1989), in
which he also played the lead role. He also fascinated and divided the Berlin public with his
interpretation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. In 2006 he made his debut as an
opera director with Lohengrin by the composer Richard Wagner. The following year in Berlin,
he returned to the stage in a ten-hour production of Friedrich Schiller’s trilogy, Wallenstein,
which was directed by Peter Stein.

CARMEN MAURA (ALONE)

The great-niece of the Spanish politician Antonio Maura, Carmen Maura was born in Madrid
in 1945 to a prominent conservative family. At first, she pursued a career route that
corresponded to her social status, studying philosophy and literature at the Ecole de Beaux-
Arts in Paris. There, she worked in the university theater and also directed an art gallery
before finally abandoning her studies in order to become a stage actress. In the 1970s, she
was offered several small cinematic roles and formed part of the prestigious Madrid theater
company, “Los Goliardos.” Through her work with “Los Goliardos” she met Pedro Almodovar,
with whom she collaborated on several short films until he was able to secure funding for his
first feature-length movie: PEPI, LUCI, BOM Y OTRAS CHICAS DEL MONTON (1980). The
movie was an instant success and became a touchstone for the social movements of the
1980s.

Throughout the 1980s, Camen Maura was known as the “Almodovar girl” for her roles in
ENTRE TINIEBLAS (1983); WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS? (1984); MATADOR
(1986) with the Spanish actor Antonio Banderas; the transgressive LAW OF DESIRE (1987),
which depicted for the first time an unbiased view of homosexuality and in which Maura
played a transsexual; and the comedy Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

12
(1988), a movie for which she won her first Goya Award, along with a Felix Award for Best
European Actress.

Maura would win another Goya Award as Best Actress, as well as another Felix Award as
Best European Actress, for the Carlos Saura film, ¡AY CARMELA! (1990). Another great
triumph in Maura’s career was her role in Alex de la Iglesias’s LA COMUNIDAD (2000), for
which she won her third Goya Award. Then, in 2006, she reunited with Pedro Almodovar for
VOLVER, a movie for which she won the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress and for
which she shared the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival with five other cast
members.

RODRIGO DE LA SERNA (JOSÉ)

Born in 1976, this young Argentine actor became interested in the theater as a young boy.
He participated in acting workshops at school, and by the time he had finished high school,
he was already working as a professional actor. Since 1995, he has acted in numerous
television series and films.

In 2004, he achieved international recognition for his magnificent performance in THE

MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, which was directed by Walter Salles and starred the Mexican
actor Gael García Bernal as the revolutionary figure, Ernesto Che Guevara. For his role as
Albert Granado, De la Serna won a Condor de Plata Award for Best Actor and an
Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. After its opening at the Sundance
Film Festival, the film went on to win multiple prizes, and was nominated for four awards at
the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

In addition to acting, De la Serna also sings and plays traditional Argentine rhythms like the
tango and candombe on the guitar in the group El Yotivenco—which means “tenement”
spelled backwards in Spanish.

LETICIA BRÉDICE (JOSEFINA)

Born in Buenos Aires in 1972, Leticia Brédice studied theater between the ages of 12 and 16
at the Norman Briski School of Theater. At age sixteen she showed up at the casting call for
the Italian-Argentine co-production, AÑOS REBELDES (1994). She won not only the part but
also a Condor de Plata Award for Best Female Newcomer. However, the role that truly
cemented her career was that of Ana Muro in the film, CENIZAS DEL PARAÍSO (1997). The
film also initiated her working relationship with the renowned Argentine director, Marcelo
Pineyro, who later cast her in PLATA QUEMADA (2000) and KAMCHATKA (2002).

After starring in the critically acclaimed movie, Nine Queens, by director Fabian Bielinsky,
Brédice began to alternate between work in Spain and Argentina. She also has found
success on television and on stage, where she has acted in works such as SEIS
PERSONAS EN BUSCA DE UN AUTOR AND CLOSER. She has been on the cover of
Rolling Stone magazine, and in 2004, she released her first album, Actriz, which was
nominated for an MTV Music Award.

MIKE AMIGORENA (ABERLARDO)

Born in the province of Mendoza, Mike Amigorena started out his career as a model and
actor in commercials. Since 1992, he has alternated between independent theatrical
productions in Buenos Aires and numerous roles in well-known national television programs.
Despite having acted in more than thirty-five television series, Amigorena only recently won
his first starring role in the comedy series, Los Exitosos Pells, which made its eagerly
anticipated debut in November 2008.

13
Amigorena has worked on many theatrical productions, including Shakespeare Comprimido,
for which he was awarded a 2005 ACE Award for Best Newcomer. His acting studies, which
were intermittent and explored various types of techniques, ranged from training with
venerated drama professors to participation in workshops dedicated to the study of clowns,
jesters, and neutral masks. Humor is prevalent in all the roles that Amigorena plays. He
brings his audacious and sympathetic style to the character of Abelardo in TETRO.

SOFÍA CASTIGLIONE (MARÍA LUISA)

Sofía Gala Castiglione was born in Buenos Aires in January 1987. As the daughter of Moria
Casán, a well-known actress and television host, Castiglione spent most of her childhood on
television sets or in the dressing rooms of theaters where her parents were performing.
Castiglione acted in various episodes of her mother’s television series during her childhood, and
then, at age eleven, became a reporter on a television show.

Her first foray into the world of professional acting came via a supporting role in the acclaimed
television series, Los Roldán. She then took on her first theatrical role in Fernando Peña’s
controversial play, Yo chancho y glamoroso. In that production, she played the adopted daughter
of a married homosexual couple, and performed one scene in the nude. In 2006, she acted in
several television series, such as El Tiempo No Para and Mujeres Asesinas.

In 2007, she starred in her first film, EL RESULTADO DE AMOR, by the renowned Argentine
director, Eliseo Subiela. For her role as Mabel, Castiglione received the Condor de Plata Award
for Best Female Newcomer, and the Best Actress Award at the Huelva Film Festival. The
following year she appeared in the films, LA RONDA, RODNEY, AND EL SOL, with the latter two
scheduled for release later this year.

ÉRICA RIVAS (ANA)

Érica Rivas was born in Buenos Aires December 1974. Argentines know and admire her from her
role in CASADOS CON HIJOS, a comedy series adapted from the well-known U.S. sitcom from
the 1980s, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN. As María Elena, the neighbor of the show’s
protagonists, Rivas received a Clarín Award and a Martín Fierro Award, the most venerable
prizes for Argentine television.

While Rivas has played supporting roles in numerous television programs, it is on stage where
she has been able to demonstrate the full range of her acting talent. She has performed under
the direction of some of the most prestigious national artists—such as the director Roberto “Tito”
Cossa and the actors Oscar Martinez and Hugo Chávez—and appeared in such plays as Eugene
Ionesco’s IMPROVISATION, or THE SHEPHERD’S CHAMELEON, August Strindberg’s THE
STORM, and Neil Simon’s THE GINGERBREAD LADY.

FRANCESCA DE SAPIO (AMALIA)

Born in Rome, Francesca de Sapio began her artistic career after completing her studies in Italy
and moving to the United States in 1965. She became a member of the Actor’s Studio four years
later. In 1974, she landed the role of young Mama Corleone playing opposite Robert DeNiro in
THE GODFATHER: PART II. She worked with such master actors as Al Pacino and Arthur Penn
before co-founding with Giuseppe Perruccio the “Duse Studio” in 1985, where she still gives
classes. She continues to act in numerous films, as well as direct and write.

14
THE FILMMAKERS

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA (Director, Producer, Screenwriter)

Having lived a colorful, turbulent life, replete with triumphs and calamities, Francis Coppola now
returns full circle to the aspirations of his younger self: writing and directing personally meaningful
films.

One of the most honored film artists of his or any generation, Coppola has also endured crushing
defeat and heart-rending sorrow. His cornucopia of honors overflows with Oscars, Globes,
Palmes, and Writers and Director’s Guild awards—yet he also knows what it feels like when a
dream shatters. In 1983, he gave up Zoetrope Studios, the Hollywood-based workplace he hoped
would lead American filmmaking into a technologically vibrant 21st century. The ensuing financial
hardships led to years of “work for hire” —the disdainful, legal term for those who serve at the
pleasure of others. For a proud and independent soul, this meant directing films in the corporate
sphere, over which he had no rights of ownership. He chose projects which piqued his
imagination, even as he paid off debts and built alternative businesses to provide enduring
financial security for his family and himself.

But after the dawning of a new century, having met these challenges, Coppola once again made
an unorthodox choice: to regain expressive freedom by returning to the ethos of his early years—
making movies of modest budget, far from a Hollywood sound stage, with a small crew and
actors who are passionately committed. YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH is the first of these projects.

Born April 7, 1939 in Detroit, Coppola is descended from musically-gifted Southern Italians who
immigrated to New York in the early 20th century. His maternal grandfather, Francesco Pennino,
was a songwriter, and his father, Carmine, first flute for the NBC Symphony under Toscanini and
an Academy Award winning composer. He himself plays the tuba and string bass modestly and
might have gone on to a career in music were it not for a bout of polio when he was nine, which
kept him bedridden for well over a year. During his confinement, he developed an interest in
comic books, puppetry and ventriloquism and started making 8mm movies when he was back on
his feet. He lost momentum during his teen years as his family moved from place to place to
accommodate his father’s employment. But he found kindred spirits at Great Neck High School
and again at Hofstra University where his stellar contributions to theatre arts brought him the
school’s highest honor, the Beckerman Award. After graduating in 1959 with a B.A. in Theatre
Arts, he enrolled at UCLA for graduate work in film.

Coppola’s unerring instinct for career-building led to an apprenticeship at Roger Corman’s New
World Pictures. After varied stints on low-budget genre pictures, Corman allowed him to direct a
film from his own screenplay, DEMENTIA 13. It was during this period that he met Eleanor Neil,
whom he would later marry.

In 1962, Coppola’s student screenplay PILMA PILMA won the Samuel Goldwyn Award at UCLA,
after which he began his professional career in earnest. His adaptations of REFLECTIONS IN A
GOLDEN EYE, THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED, and IS PARIS BURNING? were produced,
making him a much-in-demand screenwriter. He also wrote a script about George Patton based
substantially upon Ladislas Farago’s PATTON: ORDEAL AND TRIUMPH. In 1970, PATTON won
7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay, shared by
Coppola with Edmund H. North.

His second film, YOU’RE A BIG BOY NOW (1966), served as his MFA thesis and marked his first
appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, where he would later enjoy acclaim, twice winning the
Palme d’Or (THE CONVERSATION, 1972; APOCALYPSE NOW, 1979). He directed Fred Astaire
and Petula Clark in FINIAN’S RAINBOW, adapted from the Broadway musical, followed by an
original work, THE RAIN PEOPLE. As the 1960s wound down, Coppola made two momentous
decisions. By now the father of two sons, Gian-Carlo and Roman, he relocated his family to San
Francisco, where he founded with George Lucas an independent production company, American
Zoetrope. Lucas’s first two features, THX 1138 (1971) and AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) were

15
produced under its aegis. But the company was high maintenance, and in 1970 Coppola was
persuaded to direct a gangster picture based upon a best-selling novel by Mario Puzo, THE
GODFATHER. His battles with Paramount executives are by now the stuff of legend. THE
GODFATHER created a sensation upon release, altering the course of his career. Its equally
successful follow-up, THE GODFATHER, PART II, is credited with starting an industry-wide trend
by making sequels respectable—and immensely profitable. THE GODFATHER, PART III (1990),
made almost 20 years later, continued the tradition.

In between the two gangster epics, Coppola made THE CONVERSATION (1974) from his
original screenplay. It is an off-beat quasi-thriller about wiretapping and responsibility which
endures as one of his most admired and influential pictures.

In 1976, Coppola began APOCALYPSE NOW, financing the Vietnam War epic himself. Almost
everything that could go wrong did: star Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack; co-star Marlon
Brando showed up grotesquely overweight; a typhoon destroyed the sets. Shooting stopped, then
re-started, and the budget skyrocketed, delaying the film’s release until 1979. Stylistically,
APOCALYPSE NOW was so unusual, especially for a war film, that critics were divided.
Nonetheless, its box office was entirely respectable and, over time, hugely successful.
APOCALYPSE NOW has come to occupy a very special place in the annals of American
moviemaking, influencing two generations of directors across the globe. When, in 2002, Coppola
added footage for a new version dubbed APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX, critics were rhapsodic.

The 1980s brought about a radical change in Coppola’s career parabola. Desiring more
independence as well as an electronically modern filmmaking facility, he bought Hollywood
General Studios on Las Palmas and renamed it “Zoetrope Studios.” Production immediately
began on HAMMETT, directed by Wim Wenders, and soon thereafter on ONE FROM THE
HEART, an innovative musical. But cost overruns and public squabbles with distributors incited
an avalanche of negative publicity which deleteriously affected reception to each film. Coppola
then made two Oklahoma-based youth pictures, THE OUTSIDERS and RUMBLE FISH. Though
THE OUTSIDERS enjoyed considerable commercial success, it wasn’t enough to pay the bills of
the studio. Ownership of the facility passed into the hands of creditors, and Coppola returned to
northern California.

The second half of the 1980s constituted a period of evaluation and regeneration. Coppola and
Eleanor found solace by helping to raise their late son’s daughter, Gian-Carla. His Napa Valley
winery was expanded, and Coppola directed four features. As a new decade commenced,
Coppola was in the spotlight once again: THE GODFATHER, PART III (1990) garnered 7 Oscar
nominations, including one for him as Best Director. DRACULA (1992) snared 4 Oscar
nominations, winning for Best Costume Design, Sound Effects Editing and Makeup. On JACK, he
filled the slot on a Disney and Robin Williams production searching for a director. He wanted very
much to work with Williams, whom he regarded as a genius. THE RAINMAKER, starring Matt
Damon, introduced him to the new generation of actors and had healthy returns at the box office.

Now Coppola was ready to make his dream project, MEGALOPOLIS, based upon his original
screenplay. It was an optimistic, even idealistic, story about the creation of a modern-day utopia
in the middle of New York City, ambitious in both subject matter and scope. It would require stars
and outside financing. Though the script wasn’t quite ready, he was eager to do some preliminary
shooting and was in Brooklyn with a cameraman in the summer of 2001 when the Twin Towers
were struck. “All of a sudden, the world was eating itself up,” he recalls. The new dystopian reality
would require extensive rewriting of MEGALOPOLIS. This he stoically undertook without ever
being quite satisfied. Too, he was discouraged by the ever-changing movie business which
relegated drama to the small screen. Coppola was perplexed and uncertain of direction until, in
2005, he read YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, an allegory about an aging professor who becomes
young again thanks to a bolt of lightning. His spirits soared. “I can make this,” he said. And he did.

16
WALTER MURCH (Editor)

A three-time Academy Award winner and widely acknowledged master of film and sound editing,
Walter Murch is a New York native who came west to attend the University of Southern California
Film School. He began his career with sound editing, working for Francis Coppola (THE RAIN
PEOPLE, THE GODFATHER, PARTS I AND II) and George Lucas (THX 1138, AMERICAN
GRAFFITI).

Murch received his first Oscar nomination in 1975 for Coppola’s THE CONVERSATION and his
second for Fred Zinnemann’s JULIA (1977). In 1980, he won his first Oscar for the sound mix of
APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) and was nominated for editing the same picture. During his many
months fine-tuning Coppola’s Vietnam war epic, Murch coined the term “Sound Designer,” and
helped elevate the art and impact of film sound by originating the current standard film sound
format, the 5.1 channel array.

Throughout the 1980s, Murch consulted on a variety of films, including his own RETURN TO OZ
(1985), which he wrote and directed. Dual Oscar nominations followed for GHOST (1990) and
THE GODFATHER, PART III (1990). In 1997, Murch won two more Oscars—for sound mixing
and editing Anthony Minghella’s THE ENGLISH PATIENT. He also made history: His Oscar for
picture editing was the first to be awarded for an electronically edited film using an Avid system.
Murch further proved the viability and cost effectiveness of electronic editing with Minghella’s
follow-up film, COLD MOUNTAIN (2003) on Apple’s sub-$1000 Final Cut Pro software. Again,
Murch received an Academy Award nomination for his work. He also edited Minghella’s THE
TALENTED MR. RIPLEY and helped reconstruct TOUCH OF EVIL from Orson Welles’ original
notes. Most recently, Murch was film editor and sound designer for Coppola's YOUTH WITHOUT
YOUTH (2007).

MIHAI MALAIMARE, JR. (Director of Photography)

Being selected by a renowned filmmaker to photograph his new movie is the equivalent of hitting
the jackpot, but such was Mihai Malaimare’s good fortune in 2005 when Francis Coppola came to
Romania to prepare YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. After auditioning about a dozen
cinematographers, Coppola chose the 30-year-old. “I liked the fact that Mihai was so young, had
a wonderful personality, and was tremendously talented.”

It was a daunting assignment. Coppola planned to use his own camera, a Sony F900, and while
Malamaire had digitally shot commercials and videos, all his features had been on film. This didn’t
faze Coppola who simply sent him for additional training to Sony’s Los Angeles facility.
Everything worked out well. The proof of Coppola’s sagacity is right on the screen, and the young
Romanian was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography. Malaimare’s
growing up years were quite special. Just ten years old when his mother passed away, he
became exceptionally close to his father, an actor and mime who worked throughout Europe. His
earliest memories are from watching his father rehearse, act and teach at Bucharest’s National
Theatre.

At age 15, after being gifted with a video camera, he found his own passion. He recorded family
life and made short films, and finally told his father that, without a doubt, he wanted to become a
cinematographer. He was then enrolled in an afterschool program for still photography. Fully
equipped with Russian cameras and chemicals, and taught by experts, the class was an ideal
training ground and remains an influence on his filming style. “I traveled with my father pretty
much all over Europe, shooting rehearsals and helping him.”

In 1996, Malaimare entered Romania’s University of Theatre and Film to study cinematography.
In his fourth year, he took a small crew of still photographers to a remote village where they took
pictures of its rural inhabitants, developing and printing them in the river at night, and giving them
to the subjects the next day. Malaimare describes it as “an amazing experience because many of
these folks had never seen a picture of themselves.” He made a documentary of the experience,
which was broadcast on television. He then began working professionally, winning a Romanian

17
Film Union Award on his very first effort, Ioan Carmazan’s Lotus. He next shot two short films,
Constantin Popescu’s THE APARTMENT (2004) and A LINEMAN’S CABIN (2005), which won
awards in their category at Venice’s Circuito Off. In 2004, he completed his second feature, Geo
Saizescu’s Pacala se INTOARCE.

CHOREOGRAPHY
Within the extensive filmography of Francis Ford Coppola, TETRO contains something new: the
inclusion of a ballet. Coppola was inspired by his own life experiences while writing the film and
the character of Tetro also includes key elements of his own past in his writings. One of the works
that Tetro writes is depicted in the movie in the form of a ballet, choreographed by one of
Argentina’s most renowned artists, Ana Maria Stekelman.

Coppola proposed that both he and Stekelman study two films by Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger, THE RED SHOES, and the Coppelia tale in THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, before
she came up with the choreography. These directors believed in a sort of “total cinema” that could
encompass a wide range of visual arts. They integrated dance into the cinematographic
spectacle, at times making it the principal motif in their films. In accordance to the idea of cinema
as an encounter between diverse art forms, and in the hopes of attaining a surreal and dream-like
atmosphere, Powell left the artistic design for THE RED SHOES (1948) in the hands of a painter.

With THE TALES OF HOFFMANN—an adaptation of the opera by Offenbach about the writer
E.T.A. Hoffmann and his works—Powell and Pressburger returned to the theme of ballet, and
utilized diverse color tones in each tale to create different moods. In the tale of COPPELIA,
Doctor Coppelius, a mysterious inventor, possesses a life-size doll of a ballet dancer. It seems so
real to Franz, a villager, that he falls in love with the doll and leaves behind Swanilde, his true
love. Swanilde later shows him the madness of his ways by dressing up as the doll and
pretending to bring it to life.

“When I first read the script, I took in a little of its essence: the internal struggles and tensions of
Tetro’s family,” Stekelman recounted. “Afterwards, Francis and I watched these movies and I was
able to spot various links between the characters of Carlo Tetrocini, Tetro, Naomi, and Bennie’s
mother, and the characters in THE RED SHOES. There were also similarities between Naomi’s
appearance and gestures, and the character of Swanilde from Coppelia.”

FILMING IN ARGENTINA
Coppola visited Argentina for the first time in 1998 while accompanying his daughter Sofia to the
International Film Festival of Buenos Aires (BAFICI) for the presentation of her short film, LICK
THE STAR. He was immediately attracted to the city. With its architecture and layout, it seemed
like a grand European city relocated to South America, albeit one distinguished by the legendary
tango, the famous gauchos of the Pampas, and exquisite food. “As an Italian- American, it felt like
an exotic yet familiar place,” Coppola said. “Argentina has been heavily influenced by the Italians,
who immigrated here at the beginning of the twentieth century. Also, I was aware of the tradition
of Argentinean theater and dance. It just seemed like a place that I would enjoy spending a year
or two.”

The crew was entirely Argentine, while the cast included local stars of cinema, theater, and
television. Rodrigo De la Serna, Leticia Brédice, Mike Amigorena, and Sofia Gala already had
ample experience in the national show business scene. In addition, both Maribel Verdú and
Carmen Maura had worked in Buenos Aires several times on other films. “Cities affect you
because of the people you meet in them, and this city has affected me because of the numerous
friends that I’ve made here over the past ten years,” Verdú said. “I feel happy and free in Buenos
Aires. I’m always smiling when I walk these streets. And I love the food. I’ve always said that if I
didn’t live in Madrid, I’d live here. I feel at home here.”

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The fact that a Francis Ford Coppola movie was being filmed in Buenos Aires with such
recognizable actors caused an uproar among the inhabitants and local press, who became
obsessed with finding out about all the details of the shoot. The majority of the scenes were
filmed in real locations. “All of the sets were decorated with what you would find in the streets,
houses, or bars,” Sebastian Orgambide, the production designer of TETRO, commented. “Our
philosophy consisted of trying to stay as tied to reality as possible. Everywhere we visited, we
imagined what our protagonists, if they existed in real life, would do in that context, in that
situation.” During the shoot, the director intervened as little as possible in the space where the
action occurred. The streets, for example, maintained a largely open flow of traffic. The
production equipment on the set was kept at a minimum so as not to alter the atmosphere of the
location. “I like real locations because you want to capture life in a film. When I go to a location, I
like to check out the atmosphere there and figure out how I can use it. That’s why I was pleased
that this film was set in present day,” Coppola explained. In a city as immense as Buenos Aires,
Coppola wanted to find a neighborhood where the protagonists would live. He settled on La
Boca.

La Boca has a distinctive personality among Buenos Aires neighborhoods, thanks largely to its
bright colors and unique architectural style. Situated at the city’s southeastern limit, where the
majority of boats enter the country, La Boca attracted large numbers of immigrants, primarily
Genovese Italians, in the late 1800s. Famous for its artistic sensibility, the neighborhood is the
birthplace of numerous singers, musicians, poets, and painters. La Boca is also where many
master painters and sculptors have chosen to live, develop their art and set up their own studios,
transforming the neighborhood into a center of attraction for all those interested in art and urban
landscapes.

One can still stroll through streets lined with the traditional tenements that were the prototype of
popular housing for immigrant families: Houses made of wood and corrugated sheet metal,
painted in bright colors and mounted on high foundations because of frequent flooding. Utilizing
whatever spare paint the sailors carried with them, the immigrants painted the frames and walls
of the houses in a wide variety of colors, as each shade continually ran out. These houses are
currently the most representative images of La Boca.

The heart of La Boca is Caminito, a street museum and pedestrian walkway of great cultural and
touristic interest. Only 100 meters long, the street is lined with windows and balconies decorated
with plants and hanging clothes. The walls of the houses are brightly painted in various colors
and adorned with murals and ceramics. Along the short path one encounters mimes, painters,
bartenders, musicians, and tango dancers. The street is an explosion of colors, sounds, and
rhythms, and the most iconic landmark of La Boca.

The first scene in the movie takes place right next to Caminito. During the shoot, the tourists
could not believe that Francis Ford Coppola was there filming a movie. Many of them went over
to greet him while others simply stood back and watched, snapping photos with their digital
cameras or cell phones. After a while, the neighborhood residents grew accustomed to having the
director and his crew in the streets at all hours. At one point, during a cold April night, a group of
young people presented Coppola with a blue and yellow wool hat—the characteristic colors of
Boca Juniors, the most famous soccer team in Argentina and one which derived its name from
the neighborhood where it originated. Coppola gratefully took off his beret and wore the wool hat
for the rest of the night. It made a great snapshot for any soccer fan or admirer of that typical
Buenos Aires neighborhood.

Another area selected for shooting was San Telmo, the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires.
With its large colonial houses and cobblestone streets, San Telmo is one of the city’s
bestpreserved neighborhoods. It is an historic area that has maintained a colonial feel, where
single-level houses share space with modern buildings. Numerous cafes line the street, reflecting
the classic Buenos Aires style of architecture, with their white walls, red roofs, and open patios.

Tenements, museums, family stores, cafes, and markets, along with its historic houses, have
transformed San Telmo into one of the most visited neighborhoods in the city, and a popular
meeting spot for artists.

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An important scene in the film depicts Bennie’s eighteenth birthday party. It’s a special moment
for Bennie, as he finds himself surrounded by his brother and newfound friends—the “new family”
that will change his life forever. The setting chosen for this occasion is one of the most traditional
places in Buenos Aires: Café Tortoni, the oldest café in the city. Founded in 1858, the café took
its name from a stylish café on the Boulevard des Italiens in Paris, where the Parisian cultural
elite from the nineteenth century frequently gathered. Café Tortoni moved to its current location in
1880. The furnishings from the café’s early years have been conserved, including the marble
tables and oak chairs with leather borders.

Actor Alden Ehrenreich (BENNIE) also saw in Buenos Aires a reflection of many European cities.
“It’s European in the sense that there’s this great outdoor café life, and a buzzing, cultural,
sophisticated, and kind of bohemian scene. But it doesn’t have the sort of aristocratic feel that
some European cities have. It’s a very different mentality than that found in the U.S., and it’s a
really great perspective for me to have. The way that we made the film—shooting here with an
Argentine crew, with a lot of Argentine actors and all that—it was a really great thing to be a part
of.”

In order to film Carlo Tetrocini’s funeral scene, Coppola needed an imposing theater, preferably
one that could host operatic or symphonic performances. Coppola and his crew chose the Teatro
Nacional Cervantes. The building’s majestic façade constitutes a detailed reproduction of the
University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain, with plateresque columns and a Renaissance style. The
Teatro Nacional Cervantes was inaugurated in 1921 and declared a National Historic Monument
in 1995.

For eight days, the crew shot scenes in the Palacio San Souci. Located on the outskirts of
Buenos Aires, this mansion’s French neoclassical style was inspired by the architecture at
Versailles. It was constructed by the French architect Rene Sergent for the Alvear family and
inaugurated in 1918. In the movie, this mansion belongs to Alone, the character played by
Carmen Maura, a very rich woman and a patron of writers and artists. In one of the mansion’s
beautiful rooms—the “Imperial”—the crew shot the scenes for the Patagonia Festival, which
brought together real celebrities from a wide variety of artistic disciplines.

One of the most remarkable aspects of filming in the Palacio Sans Souci was that the crew called
on individuals from the local cultural and artistic scenes to “act” in the movie. Painters, journalists,
actors, models, television directors, and famous business owners did not want to miss the
opportunity to meet Coppola in person and participate in one of his films. According to production
manager Adriana Rotaru, the primary objective was for the individuals in these scenes to be
famous in real life in Argentina, so that in their “acting” one would sense their “stardom,” as much
in their gestures as in their poses and way of speaking. The wardrobe department and makeup
and hairstyle artists did not have dress or style these “characters,” since the “actors” already were
accustomed to dressing up for galas. As though they were attending another public event, these
figures paraded down the red carpet side by side with the film’s actors. The paparazzi (played by
extras) snapped photos and journalists (also extras) shouted out questions. Whether on or off
camera, these individuals always “acted,” according to Coppola, perfectly like themselves.

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