julazul Reviews

Rappaccini's Daughter (1980 TV Movie)

Could wither fresh flowers

[3/10 · 5 January 2011]

I just finished reading this short story and was interested in seeing the adaption. While nothing could have matched the mastery of the original, the most glaring problem for me was the over the top melodramatic dialogue. Hawthorne is rather cool and I was surprised how modern he reads. The film's dialogue was dripping with sentiment in the same way that Rappacini's plants exuded poison.

Another distraction (kind of petty but you be the judge) was that Rappaccini's garden was supposed to have only three recognizable plants (all highly poisonous) with the rest his own creations , but the many shots of the garden included vast numbers of easily recognizable garden-variety plants such as Chinese Evergreen, elephant ear and columbine.

Basically the film fails to evoke the atmosphere of the short story, and in its attempt to convey the plot, manages to flatten it. Once again, the book is better...but I would love to see a well-made version of this tale.

Quem Tem Medo de Lobisomem? (1975)

Fun fear and frolic in the pale moonlight

[6/10 · 9 July 2006]

This film is lightweight but entertaining. It is the kind of movie I'd usually get impatient with but the pacing kept me engaged - that, and the ever-amusing Stepan Nercessian (Neto). His sidekick, Lula, is played by Reginaldo Farias, who also wrote and directed "Quem tem medo." The film's title in English is "Who's afraid of the werewolf?" It opens with Lula and Neto consulting an ancient map to find Lula's family land,only to find a city instead of the expected valley. In town, they pick up Iracema, who, though stood up by her bridegroom, is eventually courted (if you can call it that)by three of the 4 main male characters, including the werewolf. The whole movie is dreamlike in its jump from reality to reality and one never knows what's really going on. To judge it severely, it is neither fish nor fowl - not funny enough throughout to be a comedy, nor sufficiently scary to work as a horror movie. Nor could we call it psychologically deep unless one wants to read into it references to the dictatorship: references that probably weren't there. Anyway, as a fan of Brazilian cinema I enjoyed seeing this. It was fun, moved right along, and had some nice interior sets and outside shots of the Brazilian countryside.

Durval Discos (2002)

Vinyl will never die!

[8/10 · 9 July 2006]

No, vinyl will never die, which unfortunately for the environment is true on several levels. But I digress. I LOVED "Durval Discos" for so many reasons, starting with the clever opening credits that not only pulled me right into the scene but had me sighing with saudade to be back in a Brazilian city and experiencing the everyday flow of life there. Secondly there was the homage to MPB which had me feeling as reverent as the character Fat Marley when he comes across a certain LP in the bin - easily the funniest scene in the movie. That is, unless you count the one where Durval is explaining just why vinyl LPs are better than CDs, which he refuses to sell in his shop. To me, with all those classic records at his fingertips, Durval had the dream job of all time, yet his peaceful existence was about to be shattered like a brittle 78. Despite the puzzling ending, I was glad that the movie kept its edge and never descended into the "cute kiddie wins over curmudgeonly bachelor" formula. Etty Fraser is fantastic as the out-of control (would-be) grandma. See this if you get the chance!

A Penúltima Donzela (1969)

Light-hearted comedy with a bite - and gorgeous music

[9/10 · 2 April 2006]

Intelligent, beautiful Tania, presumably the next-to-the-last virgin left in Rio in 1969, is checking things out. She attends college and works for a fashion magazine. She has a cute boyfriend belonging to the same social class. Tania also has very conservative parents. Her dad obsesses about the "Russian influence" which is tearing down the sacredness of the family. But despite his watchfulness, he is heading for his own family crisis.

The trouble - and comedy - starts when Tania begins to question the mores and morals of her conservative upbringing. She sneaks out in a bikini. She dabbles in leftist politics. She calls her boyfriend out for sleeping with "other" girls out of respect for her. And, most importantly to the plot, she has a fling with an older guy - Oswaldo- a photographer for the magazine.

Yet it's not just the conservatism that gets the old poke in the ribs. Through Tania's eyes, we see various societal incongruities: her hip boyfriend won't go to the movies because he "doesn't like Brazilian cinema." A young intellectual tries to seduce a girl on the beach by spouting feminist rhetoric. (Although the girl mistakes Simone de Bouvouir for a TV personality, she easily counters the guy's rationale for premarital sex by pointing out that Bouvouir was married to Sartre.) Tania's school friends mock the photographer because he's "old." And a relative, brought in to help Tania's family weather the crisis, questions the family's move to Rio and says "this never would have happened in Belo Horizante."

There is a subtle theme in the movie of looking deeply at the things we take for granted. Oswaldo shows Tania how to use a camera and she is fascinated by taking close-ups of nature, such as leaves and spider webs.

In " A Penultima Donzela", images speak louder than words. As Tania crosses a plaza, she sees a street photographer's stand with examples of his work, which are rather crude and almost like those in an automated picture booth. We"know" that the photographs don't simply remind Tania of Oswaldo; she is also acknowledging a new sophistication in herself that her relationship with Oswaldo has precipitated.

The title for this movie is clever - the word "donzela" is an old one that formerly referred to a maiden of noble birth; but in its modern usage it means a virgin. There is another level to the title - although Tania loses her virginity, she remains innocent and therefore "noble" by rejecting the hypocrisy surrounding her.

It is touching and interesting that when Tania's little brother had a nightmare about the Russians, his father comforts him by saying that there are no Russians. Tania's father can perhaps be forgiven for fearing the Russians, because the whole country was under a military dictatorship for years due to real or manufactured fears of communism. It's hard to believe that this film was made during the heyday of the dictatorship because there was tight censorship of all mass communication and art (which effectively made all art political). In what is perhaps the most ironic scene, Tania's dad imagines Russian communists holding his daughter down and torturing her. Yet in reality, torture was a systematic and daily function of the Brazilian government, justified by the threat of communism.

Many popular songs during the dictatorship slipped under the censor's by seeming to be about a woman, yet actually referring to Brazil. In a way, I can see Tania as a symbol of a Brazil ready to emerge from military repression.

See this movie if you get a chance! Even if you're not as obsessed with Brazil as I am (hence the rambling commentary) I believe you will love this film because it works beautifully as a comedy and its themes are universal. The acting is wonderful. The music by Egberto Gismonti is quite beautiful and haunting : it is elegant, tense and soaring by turns.

Louise's Wedding (2001)

Delightful and obviously made with love

[9/10 · 7 June 2005]

"O casamento de Louise" (Louisa's marriage) is a witty screwball comedy that bounces from one beautifully crafted line of dialog to the next, as we are privy to the inner monologues of two women: Louise, a wealthy violinist, and her maid/nanny/cook/secretary Luiza. Besides their social level, the women are opposite also in temperament, intelligence, and ability - Louise is "theory" and Luiza "practice". From birth they seem to have led parallel lives that play out right down to the level of their moment to moment thoughts. Of course parallel can also mean exactly opposite, and from this comes much of the humor of the film.

On a star-crossed day, a procession of likable men visit Louise (and Luiza) with comical results. Who (if any) will be the one to marry Louise as the title implies? Although the movie pokes fun at pretensions in general and Brazilian social structure in particular, it does so gently and without the slightest heaviness. If this movie were a drink it would be a caipirinha - tart, sweet and refreshing.