Inspired by Francis Coppola’s concept of Live Cinema, Brother Verses Brother is an incredible undertaking. Twin brothers, Ari and Ethan Gold, show remarkable creativity, planning, perseverance and cinematography.
Their film is a personal odyssey running one hour and 37 minutes shot in one unbroken take as they play guitar and sing strolling through San Francisco’s Chinatown and North Beach, on their way up Russian Hill to check on their dying 99-year-old Dad, poet Herbert Gold (“Father Verses Sons”). Ari is a filmmaker and his brother, Ethan, is a published composer/songwriter. Their musical tale becomes a testament to the power of music, brotherhood, and family.
We saw the film at SXSW with Q & A, and had a chance to talk at length with Ari and Ethan about making the film at the Chicago Critics Film Festival.
Ari’s dream has been to meet his idol, Francis Ford Coppola, who is known to have mentored many young filmmakers. It wasn’t until after this film was finished that they were able, through a contact, to the great director to screen their one take wonder. Ford Coppola not only gave it their blessing, but signed on as their Executive Producer! And they actually got to have a brief meeting together.
Cinematographer, Stephan Ciupek (Slum Dog Millionaire, and another epic one-shot showpiece, Russian Ark), deserve kudos for following the brothers, walking backwards a lot, and up hill to keep the camera rolling to continue capturing them in one take. Ari and Ethan say going up the big hill to find their father was no problem. They’d been climbing that hill since they were kids. But Ari did feel it a little having sprained his ankle in an earlier sequence in the movie. And it was no walk in the park for the crew, walking backwards up hill to capture the brothers walking to find their Dad.
Ari and Ethan walk through the streets, ducking in and out of the beat generation bars of Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, Ari is looking for love and excitement engaging in conversation with friend and jazz singer, the lovely, Lara Louise in her first film. Ethan takes a seat at the piano to play trying to get the patrons to listen. Brian Bell (Weezer), who also helped with production, appears in the film as a rocker vying for Lara’s attention, while Ethan keeps playing. He just wants to share his music. As night falls they strum and sing stories going through more of San Francisco’s secret haunts, finally walking up that steep San Francisco hill to find their Dad, and it’s all in real time.
Although the film is one long take, Ari applied his knowledge and that of his collaborators to sweeten the sound in post production. He wanted to eliminate extraneous sounds of loud street noise and passers by, and even put sneakers on his hands to recreate feet, retracing his steps walking on the pavement to match what they shot. And, sound mixer colleagues added instruments to fill out the orchestrations for the sound track.
By the time Ari and Ethan get to the top of Russian Hill, we get to care about the brothers and are just as curious about the condition of their Dad. More fascinating details about the family’s relationships are revealed during the credits. You’ll be fascinated by how talented twins, Ari and Ethan Gold, pooled their talents to create this captivating stream-of-conscious musical about their family, all in one take.
131 minutes Not yet rated
