I found these Coppola quotes in a piece from rushprint that’s mostly in Norwegian.
‚ÄùThe flashbacks that show the past of the protagonist were filmed in a sort of ‚Äùwashed-out-coloor, like the color in home movies.‚Äù … ‚ÄùThere‚Äôs 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 [the cinematographer] 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 burst of color give the film added impact.‚Äù
Another couple of clips with Coppola on location, and Vincent Gallo talking about Tetro after the cut.