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Breve Miragem de Sol (2019)
Brazil's tragic reality
There is a popular saying in Brazil that says: "A psychologist just doesn't hear more problems than a taxi driver". As much as there may be a certain exaggeration, it is impossible to totally deny this statement, so much so that by providing so much margin for the development of narratives, that taxi and taxi driver have always been used throughout the history of cinema, as this strategy allows showing one of a given social reality.
Here, director Erik Rocha and screenwriters Fabio Andrade and Julia Ariani tell us the story of taxi driver Paulo who, from the very first minutes, presents himself as someone who is unwilling to deal with any type of intimacy with his passengers. Always giving quick answers, Paulo is only interested in two things during the taxi rides: the address and the payment. However, as the film progresses, small revelations are made about the man, it is revealed to us that behind his mask lives a father who dreams of paying child support to be able to see his son again.
Always traveling at night, Paulo travels across Rio de Janeiro, transporting people of all kinds, while observing through the windshield the figure of a country that seems to be sicker every day. It is interesting to observe how, through Whatsapp groups, Paulo's fellow taxi drivers announce tragedies, murders, protests, traffic jams, etc. The comrades' attitude of helping each other underscores how routine Brazil's tragic reality is becoming.
Burning Sun is a film that needs to be seen and debated so that we can understand how we ended up in our current situation.
A Metamorfose dos Pássaros (2020)
A Family Epic
Directed by Catarina Vasconcelos, the film narrates the life of a Portuguese family through various accounts, whether these letters, recordings, photographs or simply the artistic reinterpretation of some fact from the past.
Like other Portuguese filmmakers (Miguel Gomes, for example) the director Catarina Vasconcelos chooses to mix documentary and fiction, when reporting her family's biography and capturing with the lens the real subjects who starred in those narrated situations, but at the same time elaborating images almost surreal and filling narrative gaps with extremely deep philosophical reflections on family relationships. This has been a wonderful feature of Portuguese cinema in recent years, a factor that has earned many fans around the world, in addition to recognition at various international festivals.
Such fame is the result of the identification that we feel with realities so peculiar, but at the same time so similar to ours. When we enter the home of the family portrayed here, we observe a reality common to any family relationship. Parents and children experiencing a constant exchange of knowledge, in which children always have questions about various topics, and it is up to experienced adults to offer them satisfactory answers to this infinite range of questions.
In this regard, it is impossible not to be hooked by the poetic beauty of Metamorphosis of the Birds, when for example one of Catarina's brothers asks mother Beatriz something that moves her imaginative childhood curiosity: "do the plants think?". These are the moments that make this experience something unforgettable, since we are facing the formation of a human being's character and also the representation of a feeling that moves the world, that is, the constant search for meanings that give some meaning to life.
Such beauty seen on the screen also leaves us with a kind of moral responsibility, as the cinema of Portugal needs to be explored, especially by us Brazilians who, when watching any film produced in our former metropolis, observe in a language practically identical to ours a cultural formation quite different that, diverging from our Latin American society because it has beyond its geographic location, the history of a European country genuinely developed a cinema that is also subject to the artistic style of the old continent, so this cultural mix ends up resulting in what everyone we are passionate about images we seek ... Great films like this.
Pacarrete (2019)
A great woman!!!!
Machado de Assis had already shown with O Alienista that the social dimension of madness pursued by Simão Bacamarte, the protagonist of the novel, is of an immeasurable complexity leaving us with a constant doubt about who is mad and, if all are, it is concluded that normality dwells in madness, being crazy who is normal.
The simple fact of Pacarrete referring me to a literary classic of such quality already arouses a deep affection for the film, but luckily for me the film is authentic and proposes debates as relevant as those that Machado de Assis proposed more than 130 years ago.
The plot takes place in the city of Russas where a former dance teacher named Pacarrete (Marcélia Cartaxo) tries to perform a ballet performance in celebration of the city's centenary, but for that she needs authorization from the city council that does not think that this type of presentation attracts the interest of none of the inhabitants of the small municipality in the interior of Ceará.
Considered by the overwhelming majority of her neighbors to be crazy, Pacarrete reveals a very strong personality in the way she deals with all the situations she faces, never failing to hide her nostalgia, for example, since at the expense of innovations the protagonist chooses to preserve VHS tapes, read newspapers, sew her clothes, etc.
Despite not showing interest in the suspicious looks of her neighbors, Pacarrete is extremely hostile when she emerges from a situation that makes her ashamed, showing herself as a wild woman who despises socially acceptable behavior patterns.
And it is precisely in this sincerity in the way of dealing with its protagonist that the film has its greatest merit, since it does not idealize its characters and makes it very clear that it is not easy to get attached to Pacarrete due to the aggressive way in which she deals with both , but at the same time being impossible not to admire her affectionate way towards those she is fond of, as is the case of Miguel (João Miguel) one of the few who treats her well, regardless of the woman's mental state.
Bearing in mind that at a certain moment the film offers us precisely the role that was expected of Pacarrete when she enters a depressed state thanks to an extremely sad event. These are the most painful minutes of the whole projection, since all we want is to find that woman who, despite the defects, brought us so much joy.
All of these aspects are merits of the script and direction of Allan Deberton who managed to build a character that continues to confront our thoughts even after the final credits. Obviously, the experience borrowed by our eternal Brazilian star Marcélia Cartaxo in a fantastic performance, also contributed to the final quality of the work.
The city of Russas definitely missed a presentation that would have been fantastic to see, as Pacarrete is a historical heritage of that municipality.
Kes (1969)
Survive
After meeting Ken Loach through "I, Daniel Blake" and loving the experience, I quickly went to look for the entire filmography of this incredible filmmaker who in his second feature "Kes" shows a sensitive and politically engaged look with the situations we witnessed.
In the film we follow Billy (David Bradley) 's hard journey that in the midst of the conflicts of a very poor situation, he finds a hawk and decides to train him. The boy's initiative brings a friendship with the bird that explains not only his need to have a childhood, but also all the obstacles that he will encounter to sustain his new hobby.
As for the discovery of the boy's childhood, we have here an intelligent development when, for example, Billy replaces his interest in literary works on beating for a literature aimed at training his bird Kes, thus, the boy who was not doing well in school, at (child) work and with his family in general, he finally has something he can identify with and, in fact, be very good at what he is doing, at a level that would make Paulo Freire proud.
Taking advantage of the school theme, the film also uses this environment creatively, since this is a hostile place to the protagonist and it would have been easy to make all teachers villainous figures, however the work makes it very clear that the problem is not the school itself when Farthing (Colin Welland), one of the teachers, shows interest in the development of his student. The deconstructed figure of the teacher explains that the boy does not do well at school not because he is supposed to be a bummer, but because he is living in a reality designed to make him fail. When the boy has the opportunity to explain to the class something he likes, we see that he dominates the subject of falcon training as a prodigy, but his inevitable failure is implied in several technical elements of the film.
The soundtrack, for example, reinforces the contradiction that inhabits that society, using instruments, such as the recorder, which provide melancholic melodies, even in situations that register full happiness. The same is true of landscapes that can never look great without being stained with factories, smoke, bricks, etc.
It is clear the film's criticism of the purely nostalgic and irrational thought that "the generation is lost", reinforcing that these words are nothing more than a backrest for the ignorant to remain still in time, while a multitude of young people continue without any kind of guarantee of a future.
Our protagonist Billy, is just another boy who, like most others, has always been very busy using all the weapons available to survive.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
This film resembles the expression "better than sex".
The film itself is about sex and all its consequences as an instrument of pleasure, power, philosophical, etc. Here sex, be it the act or its simple verbalization, is the way for the self discovery of the four central characters, whether destroying or resuming social relations, sex is always the starting point for the development of the plot and the inhabitants of that particular world . What is striking is that in a movie about sex it is never explicit, which demonstrates the incredible genius of filmmaker Steven Soderbergh in his first feature ...
All the technical aspects were orchestrated in the right measure, music, editing, sound, they are all examples of how to do something subtle and powerful, the highlight being the light design, the first sight for anyone who doubts the capacity of the film's cinematography, because it is not an explosion of colors, but it is subtly grand, better than adjectives and remembering the scene in which the two sisters confront each other at a distance, one looks like an angel wrapped in peaceful white, while the other is in an infernal red environment, this is how to develop characters.
It is worth mentioning the small cast, as everyone is stupendous and convincing in the role of people, that if under bad interpretations they would be false.
Idi i smotri (1985)
Try to escape the close-ups of this movie!!!
It is impossible to escape the close-ups in this work by Elem Klimov, who prints his stories on the faces of the characters.
As the plot unfolds, smiles that were once so common are almost entirely suppressed from the faces, leaving for this gesture a new meaning that differs from joy. The looks now show the horror, instead of curiosity. The scars start to get more and more recurrent.
The experience of watching this film and the protagonist's journey are proportionate challenges, as we are as affected by the image and sound of this Soviet classic as Florya who inhabits this terrible reality that is translated to us from what his eyes and his mind see - that remains evident when we observe the surreal tone of the film. The camera movements are almost always subjective and reinforce the documentary aesthetics of the film. The sound is deafening.
The bombs fall with roars so powerful that they may only have been seen before in "Apocalypse Now".
1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
A beautiful view VS characters poorly developed
The film talks about the great voyages of Columbus and as a good movie Historic he manages to convey the mood of the time, but its history It is not very engaging and its characters are nothing developed. One thing that becomes clear in the film is the fact that he does not want to be more than a historical film, get "Schindler's List" for example, is a film that tells a very well history during the Second World War, but at the same time develops his characters in memorable scenes.
This film is not at all bad, in fact the only thing I bothered were the facts presented above, as I said "1492 - A Conquest of Paradise "is a film that conveys very well the mood of his time, the scenes of the Holy Inquisition and the great voyages are good Examples of visual quality of the film, which sometimes creates a climate shocking (such as the Holy Inquisition) and sometimes has a great weather (as in the case of the great voyages of Colombo). Finally I can say that this is a good film, its technical aspects They are clean, but its story and its characters are not very developed, but I recommend it for those who like to see the great accounts of history books on the screen.