Lavoura Arcaica (2001)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Luiz Fernando Carvalho

Writers:

Luiz Fernando Carvalho (writer)
Raduan Nassar (novel)

Release Date:

29 October 2001 (Brazil)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Brazilian baroque. The young son that ran from his dominant family, descends into decadence and then returns to the nest...

Plot Keywords:

Incest | Train | Epilepsy | Prostitute | Prodigal Son

Awards:

39 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Selton Mello	...	André
Raul Cortez	...	Father
Juliana Carneiro da Cunha	...	Mother
Simone Spoladore	...	Ana
Leonardo Medeiros	...	Pedro, the elder brother
Caio Blat	...	Lula, the younger brother
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Felipe Abreu Salomão
Samir Muci Alcici Júnior
Leda Samara Antunes
Pablo César Câncio	...	André as a boy
Luiz Fernando Carvalho	...	André - Narrator (voice)
Raphaela Borges David
Denise Del Vecchio	...	Prostitute
Fábio Luiz Marinho de Oliveira
Laura Hallack Ferreira
Christiana Kalache
Kalil Ibrahim Mansur
Sula Moreira Miana
Mônica Nassif	...	Sister
Renata Rizek	...	Sister

Also Known As:

LavourArcaica (Brazil) (alternative spelling)
To the Left of the Father (International: English title)

Runtime:

163 min | Argentina:171 min | Cuba:171 min

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:16 | France:-12

Filming Locations:

Minas Gerais, Brazil

Company:

VideoFilmes

Not an easy film, but rewarding

'Stunning' is not an exaggerated word to describe this film. The images are haunting, and I saw it on the small screen at home. I can only imagine what it must have looked like in a theatre.

Director Luiz Fernando Carvalho is masterful in meticulously capturing the poetic word rhythms of novelist Raduan Nassar, who wrote this metaphysical, philosophical work. The largely verbatim prose-poetry (direct from Nasar's book), spoken improvisationally by the actors, is psychologically multi-layered. It is all brilliantly complemented by Walter Cavalho's multi-award-winning cinematography. Cavalho's disturbing and often sumptuous images linger long after the screen has turned dark. One is reminded of Sven Nykvist's haunting style of 'still-life-photography' in films, particularly those made with Ingmar Bergman.

Lavoura Carcaica is almost three hours long, and (isn't this always the way with great films?) it requires an almost immediate re-viewing. One just cannot absorb the language and imagery in one sitting.

The ensemble acting is first-rate. Sultan Mello is the tortured son in temporary self-imposed exile from his family, who yearns (shamefully) for the love and sensual heat of his sister Ana's body; Simone Spoladore is the innocent, sweet-faced Ana, who expresses her desire for love by dancing (the images are more erotic than 99% of the soft-core sex you see in mainstream movies these days); Juliana Carneiro da Cunha is the loving, long-suffering mother who is an exemplar of maternity, a woman who sacrifices everything to her children, and particularly her 'pet,' Andre (Mello); and Raul Cortez is simply astonishing to watch as the austere, evangelistic, hypocritical father who rages about the primacy of familial love but doesn't really understand its true meaning when it comes to his own children.

This is a film that well deserved its many nominations and awards. It is deeply challenging and demanding, something you would never -- EVER -- see coming out of Hollywood, which specializes in cinema for the terminally simple-minded.