Weatherman from a TV network goes back to his hometown, Vale da Rocha, a place in Northeast Brazil, devastated by the drought. He is forced to face the geographic elements and his own memories.

Jonas (Guilherme Weber), TV weather man working in São Paulo, returns to his native small village in the poor, desolate sertão (hinterland) of Pernambuco (Northeastern Brazil) to attend the funeral of his estranged father (Paulo César Peréio), murdered after having seducing young Native Indian girl Wedja (Suyane Moreira). Once there, Jonas becomes aware of the cultural clash between urban Southern Brazil and the “honorability” tradition of the sertão, which includes clan/family feuds, matriarchal power and a sort of Brazilian omertà. Side stories stretch to illegal marijuana crops, religious fanaticism, political corruption and racism against Native Indian Brazilians.

Eight years (!!) after his only feature film, the impressive “Baile Perfumado” (which he co- directed with Paulo Caldas), there were great expectations concerning Lírio Ferreira’s “Árido Movie” — after all, “Baile Perfumado” was the most important film produced in Brazil’s Northeast in a very long time and it singlehandedly resurrected the agonizing feature film production in Pernambuco, of irregular but powerful cinematic tradition. Unfortunately, these 8 years’ wait may have taken their toll: when a filmmaker has to wait THAT long to finally raise funds to make another movie — as is the rule among most Brazilian filmmakers — it’s understandable that he ends up packing his film with so many issues, characters, situations and side stories that he loses track of unity and focus, and putting all these different pieces together becomes a huge, very difficult task.

The film plays rather like a series of vignettes, with far too many characters and stories thrown in to be really impacting. But what “Árido Movie” ultimately lacks are two essential things: a strong central character and a “tone”. The protagonist Jonas — a cross between a prodigal son and Camus’ Meursault — is so bland and uninteresting we soon get tired of him (even considering he is a TV weather man, so he’s supposedly bland already) , especially in the way he is played by a miscast (what about that accent!!) and unimpressive Guilherme Weber (who, by the way, is a dead ringer for Tim Curry). The other actors have to struggle with their episodic parts, clashing between “intense” vs. “tongue-in-cheek” key, leaving them and the film toneless.

Arido Movie.2005.DVDRip.x264-mafalda.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 57mn
Size:	2.21 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	710x366 ~> 823x366
Aspect ratio:	2.25:1
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	2 450 kb/s
Audio
Portuguese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/564825C70EC79C2/Arido_Movie.2005.DVDRip.x264-mafalda.mkv

Language(s):Portuguese (Brazil)
Subtitles:English, Spanish and Portuguese (Brazil)

The post Lírio Ferreira – Árido Movie (2004) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

qUOTE:
Story with some autobiographical touches taken from director’s life. Miramar is a teenager raised by his parents to be an artist. But a tragedy occurs in his life: both his parents commit suicide. He then discovers the movies, and dreams of being a director.

qUOTE:
Like a Manoel de Oliveira pic with beaches, maverick Brazilian helmer Julio Bressane’s “Miramar” is a semi-abstract, fascinatingly modern story about the coming of age of a young film director. Pic is a series of highly evocative scenes from the hero’s life, set to music or poetry, sometimes running backward or intercut with other filmed material. This is a love-it-or-leave-it kind of movie, and most of those remaining in their seats when the lights come back on will belong to a small coterie of film buffs willing to enjoy Bressane’s sensual visuals and untrammeled imagination. It is a limited arthouse item, but a very good one.

Played by the teenage Joao Rebello as a curious, budding intellectual ready to learn from experience, Joao Miramar appears in various Rio de Janeiro settings, often with the sea as a backdrop. An attractive literature teacher (Bio Nunes) helps him discover the poetry of Camoes. An insatiable producer (Fernanda Torres) teaches him to be true to his own ideas. A glamorous actress (Giulia Gam) with whom he wants to make a film leads him into a passionate love affair. In a striking flashback, Miramar’s young father and mother make love and take poison, committing double suicide.

Intercut with these scenes are a plethora of other images, memories of childhood, shots from Eisenstein’s “Que Vive Mexico,” poetry readings, and long lists of Brazilian names and books that have apparently had an influence on Miramar (whom it is not hard to imagine as the alter ego for Bressane, born in 1946). Sometimes the soundtrack from a ’50s American B movie is used instead of music as a neutral backdrop to dialogue.

Citing top Portuguese helmer de Oliveira several times, the film is likewise laden with chatty characters who flit in and out of the story, discussing grand philosophical ideas in sensuous, down-to-earth Portuguese. Bressane, who has worked continuously since 1966 in short, medium-length and feature formats, and who has made several docus about the cinema, is sure-footed on this peculiar stylistic plane, which he developed in such films as his 1995 “The Mandarin.”

The dragged-out scenes, often shot from one fixed camera position, tend to lose interest long before they are over. Luckily, the visuals by cinematographer Jose Tadeu Ribeiro and art director Rosa Dias are works of art in themselves, lovingly composed in the bright reds, blues and acid greens of a lush seascape. Humorous images fill the pic with surprises, helping foreign audiences glide over a great deal of meaningless local references and just enjoy the ride. Deborah Young link

https://nitro.download/view/D6171EA8DB722B7/Miramar.1997.720p.HDTVRip.AVC-gooz.mkv
http://nitroflare.com/view/1DA36A8FA935954/Miramar.1997.720p.HDTVRip.AVC-gooz.srt

Language(s):Portuguese
Subtitles:eNGLİSH

The post Júlio Bressane – Miramar (1997) first appeared on Cinema of the World.