In the opening scenes of Waddington's new film we are flying over a vast and utterly unique landscape composed of small, nearly pure white sand dunes punctuated by gullies of rock and vegetation, and you imagine at once that a visually thrilling and strangely lyrical, fabulous movie may be in store. That hunch is well rewarded, for this is a surreal saga about three women, spanning 60 years, which takes place in a dazzling desert wilderness near a powerful open ocean. As in Teshigahara's classic, "Woman in the Dunes," the sand that surrounds and circumscribes the lives of these women is so omnipresent, so relentless in its power, so emblematic of the press of time and place upon people's lives, that the landscape itself looms as perhaps the most important character in the story.
A party of settlers arrives in this forsaken corner of northeast Brazil in 1910, but nearly everyone flees in fear of a small colony of descendants of former slaves that live nearby. Left behind are the leader, who soon dies, his pregnant wife, Aurea (Fernanda Torres), and her mother Maria (Fernanda Montenegro). The two women turn for assistance to one of the blacks, Massu (Seu Jorge), who more or less adopts them. The story skips ahead, often leaping forward many years in a single scene change. We go to 1919, then 1942, finally 1969, following the lives of these women and Aurea's daughter, another Maria.
This mythic tale very ably explores themes of adaptation, survival, courage, longing and fulfillment, within the context of time marching ever onwards. The screenplay was written (by Elena Soarez) specifically as a showcase for the two lead actresses (Ms. Torres is the wife of the director, and the daughter of Ms. Montenegro). The actresses play multiple roles as the three principal women age. Among all the actors, Ms. Torres is the most intriguing: her restlessness and sexual hunger are palpable. Mr. Jorge, whose singing of Portuguese ballads was arguably the best feature in the film, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," is a glowering presence.
Some will find this film too stylized, too full of artifice, overly reliant on the gimmick of actresses playing multiple roles, and thus pretentious. But then pretending is the stuff of fables, false stories that still give true meaning to human experience. And that's what we have here. (In Portuguese) My grade: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 09/07/06)
A party of settlers arrives in this forsaken corner of northeast Brazil in 1910, but nearly everyone flees in fear of a small colony of descendants of former slaves that live nearby. Left behind are the leader, who soon dies, his pregnant wife, Aurea (Fernanda Torres), and her mother Maria (Fernanda Montenegro). The two women turn for assistance to one of the blacks, Massu (Seu Jorge), who more or less adopts them. The story skips ahead, often leaping forward many years in a single scene change. We go to 1919, then 1942, finally 1969, following the lives of these women and Aurea's daughter, another Maria.
This mythic tale very ably explores themes of adaptation, survival, courage, longing and fulfillment, within the context of time marching ever onwards. The screenplay was written (by Elena Soarez) specifically as a showcase for the two lead actresses (Ms. Torres is the wife of the director, and the daughter of Ms. Montenegro). The actresses play multiple roles as the three principal women age. Among all the actors, Ms. Torres is the most intriguing: her restlessness and sexual hunger are palpable. Mr. Jorge, whose singing of Portuguese ballads was arguably the best feature in the film, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," is a glowering presence.
Some will find this film too stylized, too full of artifice, overly reliant on the gimmick of actresses playing multiple roles, and thus pretentious. But then pretending is the stuff of fables, false stories that still give true meaning to human experience. And that's what we have here. (In Portuguese) My grade: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 09/07/06)