Brazilian director Karim Ainouz has long been a favorite of the Lima Film Festival; it’s an association that goes all the way back to the 2003 premiere of his first full-length feature, Madame Satã, which netted a Best Actor award for star Lázaro Ramos, and a Best Cinematography nod for Walter Carvalho. Sixteen years later, with more films and television stints under his belt, Ainouz is once again back in the Festival and in competition with The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, a film which confirms the director as an elder statesman of contemporary Brazilian cinema. In 1940s-50s Rio de Janeiro, the titular Eurídice (Carol Duarte) has an unbreakable bond with her sister Guida (Julia Stockler), as they both grow up with their traditionalist parents....
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- 8/14/2019
- Screen Anarchy
Miami — In hallowed tradition, Brazilian TV giant Globo unveiled its Natpe line-up on the first day of the Miami trade fair.
With scripted and non-scripted promos playing to a thundering soundtrack Jerry Bruckheimer would have been proud of, this was, as ever for Globo, a polished and powerful presentation. But it also said much about where Globo is going. Five takes from the Jan. 22 Natpe presentation.
1. Globo Moves
In explanations of strategy, from CEO Carlos Henrique Schroder onwards, and the presentation’s motto- “Let’s Move Together” – Globo, by its own admission, is evolving in industry terms. Some indicators:
*Globo is reaching out to international partners for production and distribution, linking to Spain’s Atresmedia Internacional, for Latin American pay TV distribution, for example, and to Telemundo Intl Studios for a Spanish-language reversion of its eight-hour original drama “Doomed” (“Amores robados”).
*The Brazilian TV giant is reaching out to international in general.
With scripted and non-scripted promos playing to a thundering soundtrack Jerry Bruckheimer would have been proud of, this was, as ever for Globo, a polished and powerful presentation. But it also said much about where Globo is going. Five takes from the Jan. 22 Natpe presentation.
1. Globo Moves
In explanations of strategy, from CEO Carlos Henrique Schroder onwards, and the presentation’s motto- “Let’s Move Together” – Globo, by its own admission, is evolving in industry terms. Some indicators:
*Globo is reaching out to international partners for production and distribution, linking to Spain’s Atresmedia Internacional, for Latin American pay TV distribution, for example, and to Telemundo Intl Studios for a Spanish-language reversion of its eight-hour original drama “Doomed” (“Amores robados”).
*The Brazilian TV giant is reaching out to international in general.
- 1/22/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The sensorial cinema of Gabriel Mascaro, who turned the life of a group of cowhands into a poetic experience in Neon Bull (Boi Neon), was the big winner at the 17th edition of Rio de Janeiro’s International Film Festival.
The allegory of the recent economic transformations in Brazil received four Redentor awards on Tuesday night: best film, best screenplay, best cinematography and best supporting actress for Alyne Santana.
Previously the film screened in Venice, where it won the Orizzonti special jury prize, and Toronto.
The best director prize was shared between Ives Rosenfeld’s Hopefuls (Aspirantes), a journey of a young amateur football player, and Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Kill Me Please (Mate-Me Por Favor), a teen horror film set at a school in Barra de Tijuca. Both works are first features.
The jury headed by the director and cinematographer Walter Carvalho also celebrated Hopefuls with a best actor prize for Ariclenes Barroso and a...
The allegory of the recent economic transformations in Brazil received four Redentor awards on Tuesday night: best film, best screenplay, best cinematography and best supporting actress for Alyne Santana.
Previously the film screened in Venice, where it won the Orizzonti special jury prize, and Toronto.
The best director prize was shared between Ives Rosenfeld’s Hopefuls (Aspirantes), a journey of a young amateur football player, and Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Kill Me Please (Mate-Me Por Favor), a teen horror film set at a school in Barra de Tijuca. Both works are first features.
The jury headed by the director and cinematographer Walter Carvalho also celebrated Hopefuls with a best actor prize for Ariclenes Barroso and a...
- 10/13/2015
- by elaineguerini@terra.com.br (Elaine Guerini)
- ScreenDaily
Fantasy Fútbol Turned Nightmare: Santoro Brings Bravura
As we all know, the brightest stars often burn out far faster than your average Joe, especially when referring to narcissistic, trash talking celebrity athletes who seem to care for their public image more than the bodies that bring them success. Long before we witnessed the rise and fall of Mike Tyson, Darryl Strawberry, or Tiger Woods, there was Heleno de Freitas, a Brazilian bad boy soccer superstar who led the Botafogo football club throughout the 1940s, ending his career morosely by refusing to treat a crippling case of syphilis and talking himself into alienation from the sport that made him a national icon. Director José Henrique Fonseca’s biographic portrayal of the hot headed footballer takes pains to indulge de Freitas’ worst impulses in classic antihero fashion, but Heleno steamrolls story arch conventionalism with performance bravura and striking black and white cinematography...
As we all know, the brightest stars often burn out far faster than your average Joe, especially when referring to narcissistic, trash talking celebrity athletes who seem to care for their public image more than the bodies that bring them success. Long before we witnessed the rise and fall of Mike Tyson, Darryl Strawberry, or Tiger Woods, there was Heleno de Freitas, a Brazilian bad boy soccer superstar who led the Botafogo football club throughout the 1940s, ending his career morosely by refusing to treat a crippling case of syphilis and talking himself into alienation from the sport that made him a national icon. Director José Henrique Fonseca’s biographic portrayal of the hot headed footballer takes pains to indulge de Freitas’ worst impulses in classic antihero fashion, but Heleno steamrolls story arch conventionalism with performance bravura and striking black and white cinematography...
- 12/6/2012
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Rio Int'l Film Fest Winners; Rio Seeks More Premieres Like Twilight, More Fast Fives and Woody Allen
The Rio International Film Festival and its host city are pushing to get their close up, reports Matt Mueller:Rio de Janeiro’s annual film festival wrapped today, but the city wants to keep the spotlight shining, forking out $500K for “picture-postcard” advertising in Twilight: Breaking Dawn and courting Woody Allen to shoot his next film there. The Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival finished its 12-day run today with the world premiere of Walter Carvalho’s music documentary Raul. But what stood out more than the quality of Brazilian films that screened (somewhat lacklustre, if truth be told) was a sense that Rio is a metropolis jostling to position itself as the cinema capital of Latin America – and poised expectantly for its moment in the sun. ...
- 10/19/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
A drama set in a Brazilian dancehall over the course of a single night is a delight, says Jason Solomons
The week's hidden gem is at the Ica, a lovely Brazilian film set during a single night in a São Paulo dancehall, from doors opening to lights out. The music is superb – singer Elza Soares plays a local cabaret star – and the camerawork by Walter Carvalho thrilling, proving you don't need 3-D for a fully immersive experience. We get right in among the dancers and their various stories of ageing, loneliness, love and dancing.
World cinemaJason Solomons
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
The week's hidden gem is at the Ica, a lovely Brazilian film set during a single night in a São Paulo dancehall, from doors opening to lights out. The music is superb – singer Elza Soares plays a local cabaret star – and the camerawork by Walter Carvalho thrilling, proving you don't need 3-D for a fully immersive experience. We get right in among the dancers and their various stories of ageing, loneliness, love and dancing.
World cinemaJason Solomons
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 7/3/2010
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
- Box Office: Brazil The last three weeks of June, pretty much played out like other international markets. The Incredible Hulk (which filmed some scene here locally,) won the weeknd of the 13-15, that was followed by the comedy featuring Steve Carell in Get Smart. Pixar's Wall-e won the final weekend with a under 6 million take in 44 theaters. Brazil: At Home A New Era From July 5th to 12th, the first edition of the “Paulinia Movie Festival” took place in the city of Paulinia (126 kilometers away from Sao Paulo). The festival had in its competition, the most anticipated Brazilian movies of the year and was a salute to the recent achievements in our national cinema. Apart from the film selection, an important facet to the festival is the inclusion of the project “Magic of the Cinema”, created by the city’s government and intended to transform Brazilian cinema into an important cinematographic pole.
- 7/26/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
Strand Releasing
NEW YORK -- This latest film by Brazil's Karim Ainouz doesn't have the panache of his exuberant transvestite film Madame Sata, but it's still a well-observed slice of social realist cinema. The downbeat tale of a young woman turning to prostitution to escape life in a claustrophobic Brazilian town is well written, and benefits from naturalistic performances. It should do OK business in small upscale urban venues, though lack of a strong marketing angle might pose a problem.
The story revolves around Hermila (Hermila Guedes), a young woman striving to escape her oppressively small hometown in northeastern Brazil. Young and pretty but without prospects, she decides to raffle herself. The winner will get, as Hermila describes it, "a night in paradise." Dramatic tension is increased when a caring ex-boyfriend tries to keep her from leaving town.
Cinematography by Walter Carvalho (Central Station) successfully evokes the bleak feeling of a nowhere town. His compositions remind you of the work of famed American photographer Steven Shore, who made a career out of depicting such places in an esthetic style.
But Love for Sale, which opened Aug. 15, is generally an actors' piece. Guedes convincingly essays the role of a desperate innocent who gets slightly out of her depth. Some angry scenes with her mother ignite with dramatic intensity, and she subtly portrays a sad indifference towards the man who loves her. The final shot, a long static take of the town's road sign, has an Antonioni-esque feel.
NEW YORK -- This latest film by Brazil's Karim Ainouz doesn't have the panache of his exuberant transvestite film Madame Sata, but it's still a well-observed slice of social realist cinema. The downbeat tale of a young woman turning to prostitution to escape life in a claustrophobic Brazilian town is well written, and benefits from naturalistic performances. It should do OK business in small upscale urban venues, though lack of a strong marketing angle might pose a problem.
The story revolves around Hermila (Hermila Guedes), a young woman striving to escape her oppressively small hometown in northeastern Brazil. Young and pretty but without prospects, she decides to raffle herself. The winner will get, as Hermila describes it, "a night in paradise." Dramatic tension is increased when a caring ex-boyfriend tries to keep her from leaving town.
Cinematography by Walter Carvalho (Central Station) successfully evokes the bleak feeling of a nowhere town. His compositions remind you of the work of famed American photographer Steven Shore, who made a career out of depicting such places in an esthetic style.
But Love for Sale, which opened Aug. 15, is generally an actors' piece. Guedes convincingly essays the role of a desperate innocent who gets slightly out of her depth. Some angry scenes with her mother ignite with dramatic intensity, and she subtly portrays a sad indifference towards the man who loves her. The final shot, a long static take of the town's road sign, has an Antonioni-esque feel.
- 8/28/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- The jury composed of Walter Carvalho, Saverio Costanzo, Irène Jacob, Jia Zhang-ke, Romuald Karmakar and Bruno Todeschini gave out a bunch of leopards on the weekend. Masahiro Kobayashi (see pic above) won the Golden Leopard for his film Ai no yokan (The Rebirth). Best Director was awarded to Capitaine Achab by Philippe Ramos (France) and the Special Jury Prize went to Memories (Jeonju Digital Project 2007) by Pedro Costa, Harun Farocki and Eugène Green. Spanish actress Carmen Maura and the French actor Michel Piccoli both received an Excellence Award (Michel Piccoli also received the prize for best actor in Sous les toits de Paris, joint winner was Michele Venitucci in Fuori dalle corde). And finally (and not surprisingly), Death at a Funeral (the Brit comedy by Frank Oz) won the audience award – this making it the 5th or 6th time that it has walked away from an international festival with such honors.
- 8/13/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
A blind photographer, a renowned neurologist, a Nobel laureate and several filmmakers are among the eloquent participants in the Brazilian documentary "Janela da Alma" (Window of the Soul), a philosophical dialogue on the nature of vision. Working with directing-writing-producing partner Joao Jardim, cinematographer Walter Carvalho marks his helming debut with this provocative film, in which accomplished individuals with varying degrees of visual impairment address the subject from a multitude of angles -- profane and rarefied, personal and sociological.
Carvalho, highly regarded for his work on such films as "Central Station" and "Madame Sata", and his co-director interweave the inquisitive, discerning voices into an affecting fugue. Delving into psychology, art and the increasing disaffection of contemporary life, this high-quality item will find an appreciative audience at festivals and cinematheques and in classrooms. It screens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York after its recent competition slot at the L.A. Latino fest.
The musings begin with a poetic insight by Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago into the physiological limits of human vision -- specifically, why our very notion of romantic love would not exist if we could see as sharply as falcons. Several blind interviewees speak of how heightened their other senses are, some postulating that sight can hinder inner vision. Franco-Slovenian photographer Evgen Bavcar, for one, challenges assumptions with his striking black-and-white snapshots of beautiful women, among them actress Hanna Schygulla.
Running through most of the commentaries is the idea that imagination and emotion transfigure the way we see the world. Neurologist-author Oliver Sacks discusses the crucial link between emotion and visual cognition, while director Agnes Varda deconstructs footage of her late husband, filmmaker Jacques Demy, explaining that her deep affection for him dictated camera placement and the very length of shots.
Wim Wenders offers some of the most incisive remarks, including a critique of the tendency of contemporary films to provide closed, complete visuals rather than imagery that leaves space for the viewer's interpretations and responses, like reading between the lines of a book. There's plenty of room for such involvement in this elegant documentary.
A blind photographer, a renowned neurologist, a Nobel laureate and several filmmakers are among the eloquent participants in the Brazilian documentary "Janela da Alma" (Window of the Soul), a philosophical dialogue on the nature of vision. Working with directing-writing-producing partner Joao Jardim, cinematographer Walter Carvalho marks his helming debut with this provocative film, in which accomplished individuals with varying degrees of visual impairment address the subject from a multitude of angles -- profane and rarefied, personal and sociological.
Carvalho, highly regarded for his work on such films as "Central Station" and "Madame Sata", and his co-director interweave the inquisitive, discerning voices into an affecting fugue. Delving into psychology, art and the increasing disaffection of contemporary life, this high-quality item will find an appreciative audience at festivals and cinematheques and in classrooms. It screens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York after its recent competition slot at the L.A. Latino fest.
The musings begin with a poetic insight by Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago into the physiological limits of human vision -- specifically, why our very notion of romantic love would not exist if we could see as sharply as falcons. Several blind interviewees speak of how heightened their other senses are, some postulating that sight can hinder inner vision. Franco-Slovenian photographer Evgen Bavcar, for one, challenges assumptions with his striking black-and-white snapshots of beautiful women, among them actress Hanna Schygulla.
Running through most of the commentaries is the idea that imagination and emotion transfigure the way we see the world. Neurologist-author Oliver Sacks discusses the crucial link between emotion and visual cognition, while director Agnes Varda deconstructs footage of her late husband, filmmaker Jacques Demy, explaining that her deep affection for him dictated camera placement and the very length of shots.
Wim Wenders offers some of the most incisive remarks, including a critique of the tendency of contemporary films to provide closed, complete visuals rather than imagery that leaves space for the viewer's interpretations and responses, like reading between the lines of a book. There's plenty of room for such involvement in this elegant documentary.
A worthy but somewhat less-than-satisfying follow-up to the Oscar-nominated "Central Station", Brazilian director Walter Salles and producer Arthur Cohn's "Behind the Sun" is a somber tale of a blood feud depicted as an endless cycle of ritual violence. Distributor Miramax can count on Salles' name to lure dedicated cineastes for limited engagements, but "Sun" is probably not destined for boxoffice or awards vindication.
Inspired by Ismail Kadare's novel "Broken April", set in Albania, Salles and co-writers Sergio Machado and Karim Ainouz have fashioned a widescreen period drama that holds one's attention but comes up short as a cinematic experience that will resonate strongly with all viewers.
Transporting Kadare's original to the Inhamuns Badlands in northern Brazil's Ceara state, "Sun" plays like a lengthy short story or a short novella stretched to feature length. There are a handful of characters and few plot points that entail long scenes. As with his previous film, Salles tells much of the story with minimal dialogue and proves again to be a very talented visual artist.
What's missing in the film is the one character who can command the same attention as the film's technical virtues, while the horrid atmosphere of dread that hangs over the film is predictably destined to be broken. One comes away from the film in perhaps a gloomier mood than was intended, however, because there is nobody to enthusiastically root for. It's more a case of just hoping one or two folk survive the carnage.
The Breves family was once a proud supplier of sugar in the desert-y nowhere they call home, but the decline began with the abolition of slavery, and now the reigning patriarch (Jose Dumont) is forced to drive the oxen himself at the old mill where the sugar is processed. A very hard man who proudly remembers his many brothers and uncles who died defending the family's honor, this nameless father has a 20-year-old son, Tonho (Rodrigo Santoro), who is next in line to gun down one of the hated Ferreiras family. Tonho's younger brother Ravi Ramos Lacerda), who doesn't have a name -- his father and mother (Rita Assemany) call him "kid" -- has nightmares of the latest murder that needs avenging, but he doesn't want his older sibling to become a killer.
Nonetheless, once the blood on the shirt worn by the victim turns yellow, Tonho is sent on his mission of assassination. He succeeds and must wait for his demise, prohibited from leaving by his psychotic father. Enter a wandering pair of circus entertainers, Salustiano Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) and Clara Flavia Marco Antonio). The latter is a multitalented beauty who responds to Tonho's obvious infatuation, while her companion refuses to keep calling the younger boy "kid" and gives him the name Pacu.
A little romance and playfulness with swings and circus ropes provide an upbeat contrast to Tonho and Pacu's doomed-to-die-young fates, but it takes an unexpected tragedy and stronger-than-hate familial love to break the death cycle. Newcomer Lacerda, Dumont, Santoro and real-life circus performer Antonio are skilled at making their minimal characters fully dimensional, but the darkly atmospheric movie's biggest stars are Salles, cinematographer Walter Carvalho, soundman Felix Andrew and composer Antonio Pinto.
BEHIND THE SUN
Miramax Films
An Arthur Cohn production
Director: Walter Salles
Producer: Arthur Cohn
Screenwriters: Walter Salles, Sergio Machado, Karim Ainouz
Inspired by the novel "Broken April" by: Ismail Kadare
Executive producers: Mauricio Andrade Ramos, Lillian Birnbaum
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Art director: Cassio Amarante
Editor: Isabelle Rathery
Sound designer: Felix Andrew
Costume designer: Cao Albuquerque
Music: Antonio Pinto
Color/stereo
Cast:
Father: Jose Dumont
Tonho: Rodrigo Santoro
Pacu: Ravi Ramos Lacerda
Clara: Flavia Marco Antonio
Mother: Rita Assemany
Salustiano: Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA...
Inspired by Ismail Kadare's novel "Broken April", set in Albania, Salles and co-writers Sergio Machado and Karim Ainouz have fashioned a widescreen period drama that holds one's attention but comes up short as a cinematic experience that will resonate strongly with all viewers.
Transporting Kadare's original to the Inhamuns Badlands in northern Brazil's Ceara state, "Sun" plays like a lengthy short story or a short novella stretched to feature length. There are a handful of characters and few plot points that entail long scenes. As with his previous film, Salles tells much of the story with minimal dialogue and proves again to be a very talented visual artist.
What's missing in the film is the one character who can command the same attention as the film's technical virtues, while the horrid atmosphere of dread that hangs over the film is predictably destined to be broken. One comes away from the film in perhaps a gloomier mood than was intended, however, because there is nobody to enthusiastically root for. It's more a case of just hoping one or two folk survive the carnage.
The Breves family was once a proud supplier of sugar in the desert-y nowhere they call home, but the decline began with the abolition of slavery, and now the reigning patriarch (Jose Dumont) is forced to drive the oxen himself at the old mill where the sugar is processed. A very hard man who proudly remembers his many brothers and uncles who died defending the family's honor, this nameless father has a 20-year-old son, Tonho (Rodrigo Santoro), who is next in line to gun down one of the hated Ferreiras family. Tonho's younger brother Ravi Ramos Lacerda), who doesn't have a name -- his father and mother (Rita Assemany) call him "kid" -- has nightmares of the latest murder that needs avenging, but he doesn't want his older sibling to become a killer.
Nonetheless, once the blood on the shirt worn by the victim turns yellow, Tonho is sent on his mission of assassination. He succeeds and must wait for his demise, prohibited from leaving by his psychotic father. Enter a wandering pair of circus entertainers, Salustiano Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) and Clara Flavia Marco Antonio). The latter is a multitalented beauty who responds to Tonho's obvious infatuation, while her companion refuses to keep calling the younger boy "kid" and gives him the name Pacu.
A little romance and playfulness with swings and circus ropes provide an upbeat contrast to Tonho and Pacu's doomed-to-die-young fates, but it takes an unexpected tragedy and stronger-than-hate familial love to break the death cycle. Newcomer Lacerda, Dumont, Santoro and real-life circus performer Antonio are skilled at making their minimal characters fully dimensional, but the darkly atmospheric movie's biggest stars are Salles, cinematographer Walter Carvalho, soundman Felix Andrew and composer Antonio Pinto.
BEHIND THE SUN
Miramax Films
An Arthur Cohn production
Director: Walter Salles
Producer: Arthur Cohn
Screenwriters: Walter Salles, Sergio Machado, Karim Ainouz
Inspired by the novel "Broken April" by: Ismail Kadare
Executive producers: Mauricio Andrade Ramos, Lillian Birnbaum
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Art director: Cassio Amarante
Editor: Isabelle Rathery
Sound designer: Felix Andrew
Costume designer: Cao Albuquerque
Music: Antonio Pinto
Color/stereo
Cast:
Father: Jose Dumont
Tonho: Rodrigo Santoro
Pacu: Ravi Ramos Lacerda
Clara: Flavia Marco Antonio
Mother: Rita Assemany
Salustiano: Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA...
Ever thought of what would have happened if things had gone differently with a one-time love, how your life would be different? Of course you have, and in this frolicsome romantic comedy, we see the three-piece sets of one amiable guy's lives if a certain date had showed up one rainy evening. The co-winner of the Jury Prize in the Latin American section at this year's Sundance, this winning Brazilian film should woo appreciative viewers on a select-site basis. "Possible Loves" is the kind of sophisticated and sprightly romance that filmmakers don't seem to make any more in this advanced age of adult video and dysfunctional relationships.
In this jaunty divertissement, we first meet Carlos (Murilo Benicio), our doe-eyed, shaggy-haired and handsome hero, as he waits outside a Rio de Janeiro cinema for his first date with Julia. For a reason we never know, Julia doesn't show, and they never connect again. Carlos goes on and eventually marries another. Flash-forward 15 years in this "what if" romantic scenario, and we catch up on the possibilities that might have occurred in Carlos Love' life had chance and circumstance been slightly different in his missed connection with Julia. What's most amusing and also most sobering in this zesty scenario is how our romantic lives are dependent on chance and how vastly different they can become: It's the small, everyday things in life that often determine and shape our existence rather than the so-called "big" things we obsess over and strive for.
Delighting us with three plausible and frothy permutations of Carlos' life that could have occurred, screenwriter Paulo Halm's easygoing, charming scenarios all involve the beautiful, mysterious Julia (Carolina Ferraz), the woman who didn't show up that rainy night at the cinema. Both magical and natural, the three possibilities are vastly different, and each shows the far-ranging possibilities of these people's lives. In each scenario, a different facet of Carlos and Julia is explored, and quite incredibly, we come to see and appreciate each particular and vastly different life they could have led; indeed, they are two characters of intelligence, charm and energy, and Halm has channeled their essences into credible, engaging romantic stories.
It's the juicy lead performances that win us over, particularly Benicio as the man with three very different love lives. His rangy, sympathetic turn is consistently charming, while Ferraz is enticing and utterly alluring in her three turns as the multifaceted and passionate Julia.
With a heady boost from director Sandra Werneck, the technical contributions are fittingly frothy -- perfect cappers for romance. Joao Nabuco's jaunty samba score quickens our pulse while loosening our story inhibitions as to the possibilities of romance. Similarly, cinematographer Walter Carvalho's lensings are luxuriant and enticing -- perfect eye-play for this seductive cinema.
POSSIBLE LOVES
Producer-director: Sandra Werneck
Co-producer: Elisa Tolomelli
Screenwriter: Paulo Halm
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Editor: Isabelle Rathery
Music: Joao Nabuco
Color/stereo
Cast: Murito Benicio, Carolina Ferraz, Demilio de Mello, Irene Ravache, Alberto Szafran, Beth Goulart
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In this jaunty divertissement, we first meet Carlos (Murilo Benicio), our doe-eyed, shaggy-haired and handsome hero, as he waits outside a Rio de Janeiro cinema for his first date with Julia. For a reason we never know, Julia doesn't show, and they never connect again. Carlos goes on and eventually marries another. Flash-forward 15 years in this "what if" romantic scenario, and we catch up on the possibilities that might have occurred in Carlos Love' life had chance and circumstance been slightly different in his missed connection with Julia. What's most amusing and also most sobering in this zesty scenario is how our romantic lives are dependent on chance and how vastly different they can become: It's the small, everyday things in life that often determine and shape our existence rather than the so-called "big" things we obsess over and strive for.
Delighting us with three plausible and frothy permutations of Carlos' life that could have occurred, screenwriter Paulo Halm's easygoing, charming scenarios all involve the beautiful, mysterious Julia (Carolina Ferraz), the woman who didn't show up that rainy night at the cinema. Both magical and natural, the three possibilities are vastly different, and each shows the far-ranging possibilities of these people's lives. In each scenario, a different facet of Carlos and Julia is explored, and quite incredibly, we come to see and appreciate each particular and vastly different life they could have led; indeed, they are two characters of intelligence, charm and energy, and Halm has channeled their essences into credible, engaging romantic stories.
It's the juicy lead performances that win us over, particularly Benicio as the man with three very different love lives. His rangy, sympathetic turn is consistently charming, while Ferraz is enticing and utterly alluring in her three turns as the multifaceted and passionate Julia.
With a heady boost from director Sandra Werneck, the technical contributions are fittingly frothy -- perfect cappers for romance. Joao Nabuco's jaunty samba score quickens our pulse while loosening our story inhibitions as to the possibilities of romance. Similarly, cinematographer Walter Carvalho's lensings are luxuriant and enticing -- perfect eye-play for this seductive cinema.
POSSIBLE LOVES
Producer-director: Sandra Werneck
Co-producer: Elisa Tolomelli
Screenwriter: Paulo Halm
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Editor: Isabelle Rathery
Music: Joao Nabuco
Color/stereo
Cast: Murito Benicio, Carolina Ferraz, Demilio de Mello, Irene Ravache, Alberto Szafran, Beth Goulart
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
A blind photographer, a renowned neurologist, a Nobel laureate and several filmmakers are among the eloquent participants in the Brazilian documentary "Janela da Alma" (Window of the Soul), a philosophical dialogue on the nature of vision. Working with directing-writing-producing partner Joao Jardim, cinematographer Walter Carvalho marks his helming debut with this provocative film, in which accomplished individuals with varying degrees of visual impairment address the subject from a multitude of angles -- profane and rarefied, personal and sociological.
Carvalho, highly regarded for his work on such films as "Central Station" and "Madame Sata", and his co-director interweave the inquisitive, discerning voices into an affecting fugue. Delving into psychology, art and the increasing disaffection of contemporary life, this high-quality item will find an appreciative audience at festivals and cinematheques and in classrooms. It screens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York after its recent competition slot at the L.A. Latino fest.
The musings begin with a poetic insight by Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago into the physiological limits of human vision -- specifically, why our very notion of romantic love would not exist if we could see as sharply as falcons. Several blind interviewees speak of how heightened their other senses are, some postulating that sight can hinder inner vision. Franco-Slovenian photographer Evgen Bavcar, for one, challenges assumptions with his striking black-and-white snapshots of beautiful women, among them actress Hanna Schygulla.
Running through most of the commentaries is the idea that imagination and emotion transfigure the way we see the world. Neurologist-author Oliver Sacks discusses the crucial link between emotion and visual cognition, while director Agnes Varda deconstructs footage of her late husband, filmmaker Jacques Demy, explaining that her deep affection for him dictated camera placement and the very length of shots.
Wim Wenders offers some of the most incisive remarks, including a critique of the tendency of contemporary films to provide closed, complete visuals rather than imagery that leaves space for the viewer's interpretations and responses, like reading between the lines of a book. There's plenty of room for such involvement in this elegant documentary.
A blind photographer, a renowned neurologist, a Nobel laureate and several filmmakers are among the eloquent participants in the Brazilian documentary "Janela da Alma" (Window of the Soul), a philosophical dialogue on the nature of vision. Working with directing-writing-producing partner Joao Jardim, cinematographer Walter Carvalho marks his helming debut with this provocative film, in which accomplished individuals with varying degrees of visual impairment address the subject from a multitude of angles -- profane and rarefied, personal and sociological.
Carvalho, highly regarded for his work on such films as "Central Station" and "Madame Sata", and his co-director interweave the inquisitive, discerning voices into an affecting fugue. Delving into psychology, art and the increasing disaffection of contemporary life, this high-quality item will find an appreciative audience at festivals and cinematheques and in classrooms. It screens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York after its recent competition slot at the L.A. Latino fest.
The musings begin with a poetic insight by Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago into the physiological limits of human vision -- specifically, why our very notion of romantic love would not exist if we could see as sharply as falcons. Several blind interviewees speak of how heightened their other senses are, some postulating that sight can hinder inner vision. Franco-Slovenian photographer Evgen Bavcar, for one, challenges assumptions with his striking black-and-white snapshots of beautiful women, among them actress Hanna Schygulla.
Running through most of the commentaries is the idea that imagination and emotion transfigure the way we see the world. Neurologist-author Oliver Sacks discusses the crucial link between emotion and visual cognition, while director Agnes Varda deconstructs footage of her late husband, filmmaker Jacques Demy, explaining that her deep affection for him dictated camera placement and the very length of shots.
Wim Wenders offers some of the most incisive remarks, including a critique of the tendency of contemporary films to provide closed, complete visuals rather than imagery that leaves space for the viewer's interpretations and responses, like reading between the lines of a book. There's plenty of room for such involvement in this elegant documentary.
- 8/28/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
L.A. Latino Int'l Film Festival
The delirious and lugubrious depiction of a family's unhappiness in Brazilian director Luiz Fernando Carvalho's first film, "To the Left of the Father" (Lavoura Arcaica), exhausts one's patience. At the two-hour mark, you might smile at the excessive emotionalism even as you admire Walter Carvalho's lyrical cinematography and Marco Antonio Guimaraes' vibrant music. The film contains some of the most gorgeous imagery you likely to encounter in any movie this year. Yet as the film nears the three-hour mark, even its pictorialism wears thin.
Does a tale of incest and family dysfunction really deserve such lush imagery? Or is this not self-conscious artfulness posing as genuine art? Rather than pull you into the story, the movie's tricked-out manner -- the mournful music, the actors' overwrought emotionalism, the excruciatingly claustrophobic camerawork -- shoves you away. Worse, Carvalho, the film's writer, director and co-producer, working from a novel by Raduan Nassar, fails to explore fully his dramatic situation.
The focus is a family of Lebanese immigrants in rural Brazil sometime in the unnamed past. Their isolation and a strict, religiously devout father have apparently turned the mother and several offspring into nut cases. They are "scarred," as the son's narration would have it. By what, one wonders?
The mother fondles her small son with sexual fervor. The grown-up son then seduces his nubile sister. He flees, then like the prodigal son returns and is last seen setting his sexual sights on a younger brother. Oi!
The dialogue is little help getting to the bottom of things: It's flowery and literary, more concerned with the play of words than actual communication of ideas or emotions. Unless, that is, you think people in real life would ever talk about the "atavism of our passion."...
The delirious and lugubrious depiction of a family's unhappiness in Brazilian director Luiz Fernando Carvalho's first film, "To the Left of the Father" (Lavoura Arcaica), exhausts one's patience. At the two-hour mark, you might smile at the excessive emotionalism even as you admire Walter Carvalho's lyrical cinematography and Marco Antonio Guimaraes' vibrant music. The film contains some of the most gorgeous imagery you likely to encounter in any movie this year. Yet as the film nears the three-hour mark, even its pictorialism wears thin.
Does a tale of incest and family dysfunction really deserve such lush imagery? Or is this not self-conscious artfulness posing as genuine art? Rather than pull you into the story, the movie's tricked-out manner -- the mournful music, the actors' overwrought emotionalism, the excruciatingly claustrophobic camerawork -- shoves you away. Worse, Carvalho, the film's writer, director and co-producer, working from a novel by Raduan Nassar, fails to explore fully his dramatic situation.
The focus is a family of Lebanese immigrants in rural Brazil sometime in the unnamed past. Their isolation and a strict, religiously devout father have apparently turned the mother and several offspring into nut cases. They are "scarred," as the son's narration would have it. By what, one wonders?
The mother fondles her small son with sexual fervor. The grown-up son then seduces his nubile sister. He flees, then like the prodigal son returns and is last seen setting his sexual sights on a younger brother. Oi!
The dialogue is little help getting to the bottom of things: It's flowery and literary, more concerned with the play of words than actual communication of ideas or emotions. Unless, that is, you think people in real life would ever talk about the "atavism of our passion."...
- 7/23/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A worthy but somewhat less-than-satisfying follow-up to the Oscar-nominated "Central Station", Brazilian director Walter Salles and producer Arthur Cohn's "Behind the Sun" is a somber tale of a blood feud depicted as an endless cycle of ritual violence. Distributor Miramax can count on Salles' name to lure dedicated cineastes for limited engagements, but "Sun" is probably not destined for boxoffice or awards vindication.
Inspired by Ismail Kadare's novel "Broken April", set in Albania, Salles and co-writers Sergio Machado and Karim Ainouz have fashioned a widescreen period drama that holds one's attention but comes up short as a cinematic experience that will resonate strongly with all viewers.
Transporting Kadare's original to the Inhamuns Badlands in northern Brazil's Ceara state, "Sun" plays like a lengthy short story or a short novella stretched to feature length. There are a handful of characters and few plot points that entail long scenes. As with his previous film, Salles tells much of the story with minimal dialogue and proves again to be a very talented visual artist.
What's missing in the film is the one character who can command the same attention as the film's technical virtues, while the horrid atmosphere of dread that hangs over the film is predictably destined to be broken. One comes away from the film in perhaps a gloomier mood than was intended, however, because there is nobody to enthusiastically root for. It's more a case of just hoping one or two folk survive the carnage.
The Breves family was once a proud supplier of sugar in the desert-y nowhere they call home, but the decline began with the abolition of slavery, and now the reigning patriarch (Jose Dumont) is forced to drive the oxen himself at the old mill where the sugar is processed. A very hard man who proudly remembers his many brothers and uncles who died defending the family's honor, this nameless father has a 20-year-old son, Tonho (Rodrigo Santoro), who is next in line to gun down one of the hated Ferreiras family. Tonho's younger brother Ravi Ramos Lacerda), who doesn't have a name -- his father and mother (Rita Assemany) call him "kid" -- has nightmares of the latest murder that needs avenging, but he doesn't want his older sibling to become a killer.
Nonetheless, once the blood on the shirt worn by the victim turns yellow, Tonho is sent on his mission of assassination. He succeeds and must wait for his demise, prohibited from leaving by his psychotic father. Enter a wandering pair of circus entertainers, Salustiano Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) and Clara Flavia Marco Antonio). The latter is a multitalented beauty who responds to Tonho's obvious infatuation, while her companion refuses to keep calling the younger boy "kid" and gives him the name Pacu.
A little romance and playfulness with swings and circus ropes provide an upbeat contrast to Tonho and Pacu's doomed-to-die-young fates, but it takes an unexpected tragedy and stronger-than-hate familial love to break the death cycle. Newcomer Lacerda, Dumont, Santoro and real-life circus performer Antonio are skilled at making their minimal characters fully dimensional, but the darkly atmospheric movie's biggest stars are Salles, cinematographer Walter Carvalho, soundman Felix Andrew and composer Antonio Pinto.
BEHIND THE SUN
Miramax Films
An Arthur Cohn production
Director: Walter Salles
Producer: Arthur Cohn
Screenwriters: Walter Salles, Sergio Machado, Karim Ainouz
Inspired by the novel "Broken April" by: Ismail Kadare
Executive producers: Mauricio Andrade Ramos, Lillian Birnbaum
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Art director: Cassio Amarante
Editor: Isabelle Rathery
Sound designer: Felix Andrew
Costume designer: Cao Albuquerque
Music: Antonio Pinto
Color/stereo
Cast:
Father: Jose Dumont
Tonho: Rodrigo Santoro
Pacu: Ravi Ramos Lacerda
Clara: Flavia Marco Antonio
Mother: Rita Assemany
Salustiano: Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA...
Inspired by Ismail Kadare's novel "Broken April", set in Albania, Salles and co-writers Sergio Machado and Karim Ainouz have fashioned a widescreen period drama that holds one's attention but comes up short as a cinematic experience that will resonate strongly with all viewers.
Transporting Kadare's original to the Inhamuns Badlands in northern Brazil's Ceara state, "Sun" plays like a lengthy short story or a short novella stretched to feature length. There are a handful of characters and few plot points that entail long scenes. As with his previous film, Salles tells much of the story with minimal dialogue and proves again to be a very talented visual artist.
What's missing in the film is the one character who can command the same attention as the film's technical virtues, while the horrid atmosphere of dread that hangs over the film is predictably destined to be broken. One comes away from the film in perhaps a gloomier mood than was intended, however, because there is nobody to enthusiastically root for. It's more a case of just hoping one or two folk survive the carnage.
The Breves family was once a proud supplier of sugar in the desert-y nowhere they call home, but the decline began with the abolition of slavery, and now the reigning patriarch (Jose Dumont) is forced to drive the oxen himself at the old mill where the sugar is processed. A very hard man who proudly remembers his many brothers and uncles who died defending the family's honor, this nameless father has a 20-year-old son, Tonho (Rodrigo Santoro), who is next in line to gun down one of the hated Ferreiras family. Tonho's younger brother Ravi Ramos Lacerda), who doesn't have a name -- his father and mother (Rita Assemany) call him "kid" -- has nightmares of the latest murder that needs avenging, but he doesn't want his older sibling to become a killer.
Nonetheless, once the blood on the shirt worn by the victim turns yellow, Tonho is sent on his mission of assassination. He succeeds and must wait for his demise, prohibited from leaving by his psychotic father. Enter a wandering pair of circus entertainers, Salustiano Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) and Clara Flavia Marco Antonio). The latter is a multitalented beauty who responds to Tonho's obvious infatuation, while her companion refuses to keep calling the younger boy "kid" and gives him the name Pacu.
A little romance and playfulness with swings and circus ropes provide an upbeat contrast to Tonho and Pacu's doomed-to-die-young fates, but it takes an unexpected tragedy and stronger-than-hate familial love to break the death cycle. Newcomer Lacerda, Dumont, Santoro and real-life circus performer Antonio are skilled at making their minimal characters fully dimensional, but the darkly atmospheric movie's biggest stars are Salles, cinematographer Walter Carvalho, soundman Felix Andrew and composer Antonio Pinto.
BEHIND THE SUN
Miramax Films
An Arthur Cohn production
Director: Walter Salles
Producer: Arthur Cohn
Screenwriters: Walter Salles, Sergio Machado, Karim Ainouz
Inspired by the novel "Broken April" by: Ismail Kadare
Executive producers: Mauricio Andrade Ramos, Lillian Birnbaum
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Art director: Cassio Amarante
Editor: Isabelle Rathery
Sound designer: Felix Andrew
Costume designer: Cao Albuquerque
Music: Antonio Pinto
Color/stereo
Cast:
Father: Jose Dumont
Tonho: Rodrigo Santoro
Pacu: Ravi Ramos Lacerda
Clara: Flavia Marco Antonio
Mother: Rita Assemany
Salustiano: Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA...
- 12/12/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ever thought of what would have happened if things had gone differently with a one-time love, how your life would be different? Of course you have, and in this frolicsome romantic comedy, we see the three-piece sets of one amiable guy's lives if a certain date had showed up one rainy evening. The co-winner of the Jury Prize in the Latin American section at this year's Sundance, this winning Brazilian film should woo appreciative viewers on a select-site basis. "Possible Loves" is the kind of sophisticated and sprightly romance that filmmakers don't seem to make any more in this advanced age of adult video and dysfunctional relationships.
In this jaunty divertissement, we first meet Carlos (Murilo Benicio), our doe-eyed, shaggy-haired and handsome hero, as he waits outside a Rio de Janeiro cinema for his first date with Julia. For a reason we never know, Julia doesn't show, and they never connect again. Carlos goes on and eventually marries another. Flash-forward 15 years in this "what if" romantic scenario, and we catch up on the possibilities that might have occurred in Carlos Love' life had chance and circumstance been slightly different in his missed connection with Julia. What's most amusing and also most sobering in this zesty scenario is how our romantic lives are dependent on chance and how vastly different they can become: It's the small, everyday things in life that often determine and shape our existence rather than the so-called "big" things we obsess over and strive for.
Delighting us with three plausible and frothy permutations of Carlos' life that could have occurred, screenwriter Paulo Halm's easygoing, charming scenarios all involve the beautiful, mysterious Julia (Carolina Ferraz), the woman who didn't show up that rainy night at the cinema. Both magical and natural, the three possibilities are vastly different, and each shows the far-ranging possibilities of these people's lives. In each scenario, a different facet of Carlos and Julia is explored, and quite incredibly, we come to see and appreciate each particular and vastly different life they could have led; indeed, they are two characters of intelligence, charm and energy, and Halm has channeled their essences into credible, engaging romantic stories.
It's the juicy lead performances that win us over, particularly Benicio as the man with three very different love lives. His rangy, sympathetic turn is consistently charming, while Ferraz is enticing and utterly alluring in her three turns as the multifaceted and passionate Julia.
With a heady boost from director Sandra Werneck, the technical contributions are fittingly frothy -- perfect cappers for romance. Joao Nabuco's jaunty samba score quickens our pulse while loosening our story inhibitions as to the possibilities of romance. Similarly, cinematographer Walter Carvalho's lensings are luxuriant and enticing -- perfect eye-play for this seductive cinema.
POSSIBLE LOVES
Producer-director: Sandra Werneck
Co-producer: Elisa Tolomelli
Screenwriter: Paulo Halm
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Editor: Isabelle Rathery
Music: Joao Nabuco
Color/stereo
Cast: Murito Benicio, Carolina Ferraz, Demilio de Mello, Irene Ravache, Alberto Szafran, Beth Goulart
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In this jaunty divertissement, we first meet Carlos (Murilo Benicio), our doe-eyed, shaggy-haired and handsome hero, as he waits outside a Rio de Janeiro cinema for his first date with Julia. For a reason we never know, Julia doesn't show, and they never connect again. Carlos goes on and eventually marries another. Flash-forward 15 years in this "what if" romantic scenario, and we catch up on the possibilities that might have occurred in Carlos Love' life had chance and circumstance been slightly different in his missed connection with Julia. What's most amusing and also most sobering in this zesty scenario is how our romantic lives are dependent on chance and how vastly different they can become: It's the small, everyday things in life that often determine and shape our existence rather than the so-called "big" things we obsess over and strive for.
Delighting us with three plausible and frothy permutations of Carlos' life that could have occurred, screenwriter Paulo Halm's easygoing, charming scenarios all involve the beautiful, mysterious Julia (Carolina Ferraz), the woman who didn't show up that rainy night at the cinema. Both magical and natural, the three possibilities are vastly different, and each shows the far-ranging possibilities of these people's lives. In each scenario, a different facet of Carlos and Julia is explored, and quite incredibly, we come to see and appreciate each particular and vastly different life they could have led; indeed, they are two characters of intelligence, charm and energy, and Halm has channeled their essences into credible, engaging romantic stories.
It's the juicy lead performances that win us over, particularly Benicio as the man with three very different love lives. His rangy, sympathetic turn is consistently charming, while Ferraz is enticing and utterly alluring in her three turns as the multifaceted and passionate Julia.
With a heady boost from director Sandra Werneck, the technical contributions are fittingly frothy -- perfect cappers for romance. Joao Nabuco's jaunty samba score quickens our pulse while loosening our story inhibitions as to the possibilities of romance. Similarly, cinematographer Walter Carvalho's lensings are luxuriant and enticing -- perfect eye-play for this seductive cinema.
POSSIBLE LOVES
Producer-director: Sandra Werneck
Co-producer: Elisa Tolomelli
Screenwriter: Paulo Halm
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Editor: Isabelle Rathery
Music: Joao Nabuco
Color/stereo
Cast: Murito Benicio, Carolina Ferraz, Demilio de Mello, Irene Ravache, Alberto Szafran, Beth Goulart
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/22/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A deserved hit with film festival audiences, "Central Station" takes potentially predictable subject matter -- a lonely older woman and a young boy, who has just lost his mother, search for the father he never knew -- and infuses it with a jolt of bracing originality and quiet power.
Yes, the reluctant odd couple will ultimately form a bond in spite of themselves. Yes, each will ultimately have a profound influence on the other. But impressive filmmaker Walter Salles ("Foreign Land"), working from an original concept richly fleshed out by first-time screenwriters Joao Emanuel Carneiro and Marcos Bernstein, displays both a visual virtuosity and a tremendous rapport with his two remarkable leads.
Destined to be nominated for the foreign-language film Oscar, the Arthur Cohn production could also generate considerable traffic beyond the usual art house destinations.
Respected Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro puts in a masterful, fearless performance as the world-weary Dora, a lonely, cynical, far-from-pleasant former schoolteacher who meets rent for her depressing little flat by writing letters dictated by commuters who pass through Rio de Janeiro's Central Station.
But rather than mailing those letters, Dora takes them home and has fun reading them to her neighbor, Irene (Marilia Pera), before either ripping them up or stuffing them into a drawer.
Nice person.
One of those would-be correspondents -- a woman with a 9-year-old boy who just dictated a note to her son's long-absent father -- is killed by a bus, leaving the child, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira) to fend for himself in the busy terminal.
Ultimately, after a couple of bad starts (at one juncture Dora "sells" Josue to a shady adoption racket, using some of her cash to buy a new remote-control TV), the stubborn twosome hit the road in search of the Josue's dad, with Dora ending up finding some long-lost feelings along the way.
Montenegro, who won the Silver Bear for best actress at this year's Berlin Film Festival for her warts-and-all performance, never stoops to caricature in her portrayal of a hardened woman who spent a good chunk of her adult life in self-imposed emotional exile.
Equally impressive is her traveling companion, de Oliveira, a former Rio airport shoeshine boy who never acted prior to his demanding, extraordinarily focused and moving work here.
Not only does Salles coax greatness from his leads, he also directs with a stirring visual sense. Working in tandem with director of photography Walter Carvalho, Salles deftly choreographs sequence after sequence -- Josue attempting to run after a departing train, Dora looking for Josue in the midst of a massive, candle-lit religious service -- that vividly underscore the film's themes of alienation and misplaced identity.
CENTRAL STATION
Sony Pictures Classics
An Arthur Cohn production
A film by Walter Salles
Director: Walter Salles
Producers: Arthur Cohn, Martine de Clermont-Tonnerre
Executive producers: Elisa Tolomelli, Lillian Birnbaum, Donald Ranvaud
Screenwriters: Joao Emanuel Carneiro, Marcos Bernstein
Based on an original idea by Walter Salles
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Production designers: Cassio Amarante, Carla Caffe
Editors: Isabelle Rathery, Felipe Lacerda
Costume designer: Cristina Camargo
Music: Antonio Pinto, Jaques Morelembaum
Color/stereo
Cast:
Dora: Fernanda Montenegro
Irene: Marilia Pera
Josue: Vinicius de Oliveira
Ana: Soia Lira
Cesar: Othon Bastos
Pedrao: Otavio Augusto
Isaias: Matheus Nachtergaele
Moises: Caio Junqueira
Running time -- 115 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Yes, the reluctant odd couple will ultimately form a bond in spite of themselves. Yes, each will ultimately have a profound influence on the other. But impressive filmmaker Walter Salles ("Foreign Land"), working from an original concept richly fleshed out by first-time screenwriters Joao Emanuel Carneiro and Marcos Bernstein, displays both a visual virtuosity and a tremendous rapport with his two remarkable leads.
Destined to be nominated for the foreign-language film Oscar, the Arthur Cohn production could also generate considerable traffic beyond the usual art house destinations.
Respected Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro puts in a masterful, fearless performance as the world-weary Dora, a lonely, cynical, far-from-pleasant former schoolteacher who meets rent for her depressing little flat by writing letters dictated by commuters who pass through Rio de Janeiro's Central Station.
But rather than mailing those letters, Dora takes them home and has fun reading them to her neighbor, Irene (Marilia Pera), before either ripping them up or stuffing them into a drawer.
Nice person.
One of those would-be correspondents -- a woman with a 9-year-old boy who just dictated a note to her son's long-absent father -- is killed by a bus, leaving the child, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira) to fend for himself in the busy terminal.
Ultimately, after a couple of bad starts (at one juncture Dora "sells" Josue to a shady adoption racket, using some of her cash to buy a new remote-control TV), the stubborn twosome hit the road in search of the Josue's dad, with Dora ending up finding some long-lost feelings along the way.
Montenegro, who won the Silver Bear for best actress at this year's Berlin Film Festival for her warts-and-all performance, never stoops to caricature in her portrayal of a hardened woman who spent a good chunk of her adult life in self-imposed emotional exile.
Equally impressive is her traveling companion, de Oliveira, a former Rio airport shoeshine boy who never acted prior to his demanding, extraordinarily focused and moving work here.
Not only does Salles coax greatness from his leads, he also directs with a stirring visual sense. Working in tandem with director of photography Walter Carvalho, Salles deftly choreographs sequence after sequence -- Josue attempting to run after a departing train, Dora looking for Josue in the midst of a massive, candle-lit religious service -- that vividly underscore the film's themes of alienation and misplaced identity.
CENTRAL STATION
Sony Pictures Classics
An Arthur Cohn production
A film by Walter Salles
Director: Walter Salles
Producers: Arthur Cohn, Martine de Clermont-Tonnerre
Executive producers: Elisa Tolomelli, Lillian Birnbaum, Donald Ranvaud
Screenwriters: Joao Emanuel Carneiro, Marcos Bernstein
Based on an original idea by Walter Salles
Director of photography: Walter Carvalho
Production designers: Cassio Amarante, Carla Caffe
Editors: Isabelle Rathery, Felipe Lacerda
Costume designer: Cristina Camargo
Music: Antonio Pinto, Jaques Morelembaum
Color/stereo
Cast:
Dora: Fernanda Montenegro
Irene: Marilia Pera
Josue: Vinicius de Oliveira
Ana: Soia Lira
Cesar: Othon Bastos
Pedrao: Otavio Augusto
Isaias: Matheus Nachtergaele
Moises: Caio Junqueira
Running time -- 115 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/18/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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