Aquarius is an interesting film, which has a good photography and a beautiful soundtrack, besides a compelling performance of the cast. Sonia Braga is great, playing a mature woman who stands for her rights and opinions. The story is shot in Recife and slowly presents the almost silent tug of war between Clara (Sonia) and the construction company. They want Clara sells them her apartment - the last one to be sold in the whole building - for the construction of a new property. The development of the characters is good, Kleber Mendonça Filho finds the correct pace for telling us Clara's story, so we can see why is so important to her to stay living in that place. In the other side, we have enough clues of how bad the other people fight against Clara, because there's real money and other interests involved. Although I think it worths watching, I recognize it is not a film for everyone; maybe some details only can be truly understood for people who has spent some time living in Brazil. I refer to the almost invisible social war between wealthy and poor people, represented in many subtle dialogues, gestures, and eye contact among characters. That's why I don't give 10, as a warning for non-Brazilian spectators.
Reviews
6 Reviews
In Dog's Words
(2016)
A competent thriller
7 July 2016
This thriller is strangely underrated in Brazil, perhaps due to poor disclosure. It has a competent casting, beautiful shooting, writing, and editing. The dog thing reminds Iñarritu's "Amores Perros" (2000), as well the scene at the football stadium (the mythical Pacaembu stadium, in Sao Paulo), seems to be a reference to Campanella's "The Secret in Their Eyes" (2009), two recent important Latin American films. Lazaro Ramos performs a dreadful villain, the first bad guy in his successful career; Babu Santana is perfect as "Santana", a peaceful dogcatcher that plays the drums quite well, in a church. Santana's children are performed very consistently by Thainá Duarte (as "Isaura") and Vini Carvalho (as "João"). Even the dogs deliver a compelling acting! It is not a complex story, but it is beautifully done, and the film is worth seeing.
A good episode, but a quite confusing timing.
22 December 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The downside of this almost perfect episode is the time spanning since Garvey's attempt of suicide by the river and the girls' escape, in which they left the car on that spot; since Garvey had visited the old man in the woods as a sleepwalker, it is implied he had to go to bed and felt sleep first. But then, how to explain that he was capable of sleeping so deep as he left his home sleepwalking to the woods and take some time chatting with the old man, and finally, he made his way to the river BEFORE the girls arrive in their car, since them had driven down there as soon Garvey was leaving his neighbor's house? It makes no sense and is quite impossible.
Nice five-tail story
15 July 2015
Kiriku is a beautiful 2D French animation in five tails that unveil the everyday life at a small village in Africa. In all of them, the little kid Kiriku shows up his smartness and kindness to help his people and even some unexpected visitors. In the first one, Kiriku figures out a way to help a fat woman that needs to fix her home's roof; in the second he tricks the fearsome witch who lives near the village, to find the whereabouts of the missing elder; in the third tail Kiriku and the other children spot a mysterious blue creature and so they try to figure out what it is; the next tail shows a storyteller old woman that come by the village; and in the last one the wind whips the village bringing all the noise directly to the ears of the witch, so Kiriku has to make two babies stop crying and his mommy teaches him a magic way to perform this trick. This movie is extremely cool and it brings a lively impression of "otherness", but deprived of "exoticism". A nice option for kids and sensitive grown people.
Villa-Lobos and the String Quartet
(2012–2013)
A great rendition of Villa-Lobos's string quartets!
21 November 2013
This DVD offers an interpretation of the complete series of seventeen string quartets composed by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959). These works are undoubtedly one of the most important cycle of quartets written in the 20th century, besides Bartók and Shostakovich's quartets. The locations were set in some beautiful and meaningful places in Rio de Janeiro, and the recording is clear and well-defined in tone and timbre. About the performers, the Radamés Gnatalli String Quartet is formed by very committed musicians, especially dedicated to spread the output of Brazilian composers. Their performance is tight and inspiring, leaded by the superb Carla Rincón at the first violin. Commentaries by the legendary guitarist and former director of Museu Villa-Lobos, Turibio Santos, are insightful and grounded in the remarkable book written in Portuguese by Arnaldo Estrella in 1970. These works deserve a special place in the string quartet literature and fortunately seems that there is a sort of revival about them. Villa-Lobos's music is compelling, starting from the earlier quartets, in which one can hear the influence from Cesar Franck's school, since SQ2 and 3 are actually written in cyclic style. The quartets no. 5 and no. 6 are the most openly Brazilian, if one looks for elements related to folk music. But Villa-Lobos's style is very eclectic, and one can find extreme chromaticism, even close to Berg's Lyric Suite or Bartók's no.3, especially in no. 9 and no. 10. The Brazilian composer was very fond about symmetry and there is a lot of musical structures that reveals his particular mode of organizing form, phrase, and interval structure from this perspective. Remarkable music, in an amazing DVD!
Kings & Rats
(2012)
A bizarre comedy/film-noir
5 August 2013
Reis e Ratos (Kings and Rats) is a bizarre crossing between black-comedy, cold War, and film- noir settled in Rio De Janeiro in the days before the 1964 coup. An infiltrated agent of CIA (Selton Mello, as Troy Somerset), disguised like a shoes salesman, plans to murder Brazil's president, with the help of a military friend. All his plans fail because a radio-speaker with paranormal powers, whose visions seems to be connected with preserving the life of the beautiful night-singer Amelia Castanho (performed by Rafaela Mandelli), who is involved in a sexual scandal with the president. The plot exploits the strangeness from the theatrical overacting and clichés. Its ridiculous dialogs mimics the dubbing of American thrillers mistranslated to Portuguese. Rodrigo Santoro has a remarkable performance as Roni Rato, as well Cauã Raymond is priceless in the role of the paranormal gay radio-announcer that falls in love for Amelia. The film has neat picture, a complex script typical of thrillers from the 50s and his humor does not make laugh, rather criticizes metaphorically the absurd scam that led to the Coup. People who enjoys independent movies will probably like this one.
Tell Your Friends