March 17, 2005
I know very little about Brazil. Possibly even less about Brazilian cinema. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm sort of Asia-centric. But I've seen a few things Brazil has to offer and I would argue, they were very worth seeing. So I will attempt to introduce you to something I've only barely been introduced to myself, but am becoming quite fascinated by...
Brazilian Cinema
My knowledge of Brazil consisted of the fact that they spoke Portuguese, not Spanish, it's where Rio De Janiro is and they are very, very good at soccer (Ronaldo and all that).
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Brazil first caught my attention when CENTRAL STATION was nominated for a couple of Academy awards in 1999. It was very good, but very emblematic of a number of various national cinemas and didn't stand out stylistically or narratively enough to get me interested in other Brazilian films. While I can't emphasize enough how good it was, a film whose IMDB synopsis is "An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who write letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, in search for the father he never knew." -- is exactly why most people don't watch foreign films. Another thing that discouraged me from looking further into Brazilian cinema was that it's director, Walter Salles, jumped the Brazilian/Portuguese ship to direct THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES so it didn't give me much faith in the industry.
But then I saw CITY OF GOD, in a class actually, and heard Fernando Meirelles talk. The film has massive amounts of style as well as massive amounts of substance and made me wonder -- what else is going on down there?
As it turns out, Brazil was a hotbed of artistic expression in the 60s and 70s -- a time known as Cinema Novo. Probably it's best known auteur and pioneer was Glauber Rocha. These films got international attention and were fueled by Brazil's tenuous political situation.
Well, in the 90s, Brazilian film experienced a bit of a Renaissance which has been often called a rebirth of Cinema Novo. It really began in 1993 due to a law being passed which gave incentives for supporting native film production. Subsequently, more investors were willing to invest in Brazilian film, more filmmakers got chances to make films and good films were being made. And of course, with a larger amount of films and a large amount of films of good quality, audiences drastically increased as well.
What most of these films have in common is an element of violence. It's pervasiveness in the national cinema would infer it's pervasiveness in the lives of the people. Brazil is still a country of change, of political uncertainties, of great class divide -- and all of this is represented in the fine films they have been producing.
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Meirelles: MAIDS and CITY OF GOD
In 2001, Meirelles co-directed the film Maids (Domesticas) with Nando Olival. The film is a comedy following the life of five maids in Brazil. At least in America, the film was largely maligned by critics for placing such a serious subject into the comedy genre and for misrepresenting the trials and travails of Brazilian maids. There is a great class divide in Brazil between the rich and the poor. And being a maid is often compared to indentured servitude. The film makes some points about the situation, for instance noting the lack of ability for social mobilization but mostly it did not portray these women realistically. I do not think you have to portray something realistically in a movie, that was not necessarily their intent. But in not entirely embracing the comedy genre and instead trying to make some points about these women's lives, they opened themselves up to this criticism. But for his next film, Meirelles took a serious subject, much more seriously and to much greater acclaim.
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Meirelles, interestingly enough, was a Commercial director first. With the new boom in the film industry, a number of Commercial and Music Video directors were given the chance to make Features -- subsequently making very stylized and hip looking films. After MAIDS, Meirelles decided to play on the safe side, choosing a popular novel based on true events. He took on another co-director for this project, Katia Lund. Together they created a film that was nominated for four Academy awards (Director, Cinematography, Editor and Writing).
CITY OF GOD is set in one of Brazil's worst slums. Though the story of the movie encompasses the story of these slums over two decades it's anchored by the lives of two young boys -- L'il Ze, and Rocket -- One who becomes the top crime boss and the other who attempts to get out by becoming a photographer. The narrative weaves in and out of drug deals, gun violence and even the happier moments of every day life in these slums.
The Commercial/Music Video influenced style makes what could be a depressing subject matter into a lively and engaging one. The slum seems alive and real. The documentary-style puts you right in the action. You get a very thorough sense of living in these places and knowing these people. Further, the naturalistic acting, owing much to the fact that these were local folks from the slums who were recruited to debut in this film and whose performances were crafted by an acting coach, also adds to the documentary realism feel of the film. Also, it was shot in real slums (called "favelas") where the crew needed to pay off the local gang leaders.
This film satisfies narratively and stylistically, giving you something new on both fronts and melding them together into a unique and powerful film.
VIVA VOZ
Fernando Meirelles' pictures were made by the same ad company that he also worked at as a commercial director. This company also produced several other films including the action-comedy ensemble VIVA VOZ.
Duda is an adulterer and a crook who has decided to go straight. In the process of breaking up with his mistress she accidently presses against the cellphone in his pocket which calls the last person he talked to -- his wife. Therefore, his wife Mari, who is out with her friend Deia, hears not only Duda's conversation with his mistress, but also everyone else he subsequently talks to -- learning all about his affair and his illegal deeds. But Duda is betrayed by his business partner and also there are a couple of incompetent thieves who get involved in the action leading to kidnapping, murder, misunderstands and double crossings.
This film follows a number of characters whose lives intersect and diverge only to intersect again. As you would assume, this leads to an explosive finally of everyone ending up in the same place and finally understand what everyone else's intentions were. It's mostly a large scale comedy of errors and it really pulls off it's many plotlines and characters very well.
VIVA VOZ also works in a common technological gadget into a major plor device -- not unlike the Chinese hit comedy CELLULAR. Everytime I sing in the car, I check my phone to make sure it's not accidently dialing someone. This film is easy for international audiences, perhaps even made with an eye toward them. The characters seen here resemble middle/upper class Americans much more than the lower class Brazilians seen in CITY OF GOD. But it is light and entertaining. The performances fit the film very well. And even though it's a comedy, the complicated plot will keep you guessing until the end.
I don't believe this film is currently available in English, but I hope it eventually will be. For now, it can only be seen at Brazilian or International Film Festivals/Screening Series.
CARANDIRU
CARANDIRU was the highest grossing film in Brazil at the time, beating out LORD OF THE RINGS and it was released last May inthe U.S. The film is about the real Carandiru prison in Brazil, it's a haunting and violent tale of the prison system in that country. The prison hold twice as many prisoners as it is able, causing massive overcrowding and mere anarchy. But in the anarchy, there is a system of classes and laws that the inmates have made for themselves in order to survive in this place. It is based on the memoirs of a doctor who spent time in the prison and the stories of the prisoners and his interaction with them leads up to a cinematic retelling of a bloody showdown with the police.
While there are many problems with this film on a coherent narrative level, the strength is in the myriad of outlandish and interesting prison characters. For the most part very well acted, the backstory of many of these characters are shown in flashback in some of the more interesting scenes of the film. Before CITY OF GOD, I would have recommended this film to gain an understanding of the Brazilian plight, and while this film is still good in it's own right, I'd probably at this point recommend CITY OF GOD for it's accessibility to Americans and narrative coherency. But this true story is equally compelling and important, just not quite as well made.
As a point of interest, this film co-stars Rodrigo Santoro, a hunk in any language, as one of the inmates Lady Di -- a man on female hormones. He made a splash in Walter Salles' BEHIND THE SUN and has been making appearances in Hollywood films lately such as CHARLIES ANGEL'S: FULL THROTTLE and LOVE ACTUALLY.
IN TWO WEEKS: It's time for another round-up of films in theaters. There's a lot of great stuff out right now, I mean really five star films and I can't wait to highlight them for you!
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