Aquarius

AQUARIUS               C+      

Brazil  France  (142 mi)  2016  d:  Kleber Mendonça Filho

A long, infuriating, and seemingly epic portrait of Brazilian strife, as seen through the eyes of an aging, iconic actress, the brilliant Sônia Braga, now age 66, who was the epitome of Brazilian films during the 70’s, with films like DONA FLOR AND HER TWO HUSBANDS (1976) and I LOVE YOU (Eu Ye Amo) (1981), where she seemed to rejoice in a liberated spirit that allowed her to display a healthy attitude towards nudity and sex (again here in her 60’s!), where without a doubt, she was always the most interesting person in the room.  Retaining that same rejuvenated spirit, she remains a life force, inhabiting the central character who dominates this film, where she is viewed with such love and adoration by her family and friends, not to mention the filmmaker, that she becomes synonymous with THE GODFATHER (1972), not from any ruthless tactics or unscrupulous business practices, but the way people come to worship her, as do many in the viewing audience as well.  While she gives a blistering performance, the film itself does not live up to its potential, remaining flat and indistinguished, with a story that never really goes anywhere, leaving an exasperated audience that wants so much more.  Outside of the lead, the rest are one-dimensional characters who are not really explored, where the interest in the excessively long journey dissipates over time, becoming more of a social portrait than a film, where the power of real estate developers target a lone hold-out in a building that is otherwise empty, who refuses to move, as her storied life took place in this building, yet the powers that be wish to demolish it in order to reconstruct something new, something very profitable.  In this case it’s not pitting the rich against the poor, but the super rich against an eccentric older lady who happens to be wealthy herself, who could easily move elsewhere but chooses to remain where she is, feeling more like an exploration of her personal memoirs.  The film has a storied past coinciding with its release at Cannes, as the director and cast denounced the coup d’état against the Brazilian government where Dilma Rousseff, the democratically elected president, was being impeached, where there is good reason to believe this was to stop a corruption investigation into the business practices of the country’s right wing faction, the very same who were initiating the impeachment and who would assume power afterwards.  The conflict of interest is staggering, yet there it is, that’s Brazilian politics.  

Dilma Rousseff's impeachment was led by the white, wealthy men who ...    Manuel Barcia from The Independent, May 15, 2016

Brazil minister ousted after secret tape reveals plot to topple President ...  Jonathan Watts from The Guardian, May 23, 2016

New Political Earthquake in Brazil: Is It Now Time for Media Outlets to ...   Glenn Greenwald from The Intercept, May 23, 2016

Additionally, Brazilian film critic Marcos Petrucelli, who was part of the special selection committee choosing Brazil's foreign-language submission for the 2017 Academy Awards, made negatively biased remarks on social media about director Mendonça Filho’s politics, which was viewed as an attempt to undermine the film’s potential in representing Brazil at the Oscars.  Many directors subsequently withdrew their films for nomination in protest, claiming the fairness of the selection process was violated, so a little unseen film Little Secret (2016) was chosen as the country’s submission, where its chances are basically null and void.  To be fair, however, this film is really not very good, despite its laudable intentions and a towering central performance by Braga, arguably the best in her career.  Part of the reason is that it seems the film was written exclusively with her in mind as a showcase for her wondrous talents, but they failed to create an equally compelling drama, as it’s filled with a supporting cast that all seem to be playing to this one central character, as if the moon and the stars revolve around her.  In the end it’s all too much, where there’s not enough of a developed story surrounding her, where it ends up being a one-note film, one woman pitted against sinister corporate interests wishing to make a quick buck at her expense, where the film tries in vain to provide something of a back story.  Told in three parts, set in Recife, the filmmaker’s hometown, in an apartment overlooking the lengthy beach, the film begins in 1980 with a family reunion, seen in flashback, where they all pay tribute to Aunt Lucía (Thaia Perez), the matriarch of the family who broke new grounds in literature and the law, serving time in prison during the 60’s for her beliefs, described in glowing terms as a “firecracker.”  While there is plenty of Brazilian music and dancing and tribute songs, including that oldie but goodie, “Another One Bites the Dust” by Freddie Mercury and Queen, Queen - Another One Bites the Dust (Official Video) - YouTube (3:42), in this segment, Clara (Lucía’s neice), Braga’s character, is a young girl played by Bárbara Colen.  While speeches and accolades compliment Lucía, Clara’s husband also pays tribute to Clara, who has survived a very rough year overcoming breast cancer.  By the second segment, Clara’s husband has died and she lives alone in the same apartment, attended to by her longtime housekeeper and cook Ladjane, Zoraide Coleto.  With a knock on her door, she is enticed by a small committee of men to accept a new proposal for selling her apartment to developers, as all the rest of the units in the building have been sold, though she is adamant about refusing to sell, indicating it is her intention to live the rest of her remaining years in this apartment, as it is filled with all her family memories, AQUARIUS - Kleber Mendonça Filho Film Clip YouTube (1:23).  That will not deter them, however, from resorting to unscrupulous methods in trying to wear her down.  

While there are glimpses of Clara’s day-to-day life in Recife, gossiping and going out with girlfriends, receiving loving visits from her adoring children, spending time with her grandchildren, occasional evenings with available men, going to the beach nearly every day, where she is repeatedly warned by the safety conscious lifeguard Roberval (Irandhir Santos) not to go further than waist deep, as there are ferocious rip currents, we also see her playing music at home, as she is a former music critic who prefers listening to LP records that line her living room, along with a hammock by the window where she naps, along with a large Barry Lyndon poster, where the film could easily be considered a musical for all the selections included in the film, where Braga has a memorable scene dancing alone in her apartment.  One of the more curious aspects is the picture of class divide, where the rich and poor are separated in Recife by a sewage drainoff that runs across the sands into the ocean, “This is where the rich part of the town ends and where the poor part of the town starts,” where we’re fortunate enough to visit Ladjane for a birthday celebration with her own family, which has an entirely different feel, as there’s less space and more people, creating a picture of congestion and claustrophobia, yet this is the everyday reality.  In a telling moment, as Clara is showing family photos in her spacious living room with her own family, Ladjane feels like one of them, pulling out a picture of her own child to share, where at least in Clara’s home this is not out of line, as there are no real boundaries between them.  While the developers try to make Clara’s life miserable, which is a concern to her children, she insists upon not letting it bother her anymore than the cultural shift from LP records to MP3’s, where she adjusts to the times, even if those around her don’t.  While she is a force of nature, as much the face of Brazil as Sophia Loren is Italy, the film becomes a study of a woman under duress, where more than just buildings are being stripped from the landscape, as Brazilian society is losing much of its traditional values in its race to the future, where money and expediency are changing not only the look but the values of a nation.  Brazil has always had a heartwarming charm, a country that embraces its beaches, its soccer team, and a quality of life, even as it experiences social turmoil, where Clara wants to stay in her apartment out of a sheer love of the place and all it represents to her, where that’s something you can’t replace.  She is a charismatic figure and a free soul that cannot be bought, yet the developers resort to egregious underhanded methods that seem to reflect what they’re willing to do for money.  Perhaps the divide between good and evil is simply too broad and exaggerated here, becoming something of a compressed time capsule of all that’s good in Brazilian society, as the moneyed interests of the future make plans to strip it all away.   

Once Upon a Time Verônica (Era uma vez eu, Verônica)

ONCE UPON A TIME VERÔNICA (Era uma vez eu, Verônica)        C                    

Brazil  France  (91 mi)  2012  d:  Marcelo Gomes   

The problems inherent with this film are reflective of the current lackluster state of malaise in the Brazilian film industry overall which seemingly lags behind the quality of other major Latin American cinema cultures at the moment, where Mexico (Carlos Reygadas, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Francisco Vargas, Fernando Eimbcke, and Amat Escalante) and Argentina (Lisandro Alonso, Lucretia Martel, Fabián Bielinsky, Adrián Caetano, Carlos Sorín, Albertina Carri, Martín Rejtman, and Pablo Trapero) in particular lead the way, but even the smaller film industries of Chile, and perhaps even Cuba, Uruguay, and Peru are producing more innovative films than Brazil, where the variance in quality is rather sizeable, subject to horrendously bad movies featuring “Telenova” actors, others copying the latest aesthetic of indie style films, while billionaire producer Walter Salles wields considerable power and influence after the critical success of CITY OF GOD (2002) over a decade ago, but the films he has written, directed or produced in the past ten years have often just been bad films, where he tends to choose topical issues but the focus is on artificiality and surface qualities, often relying upon nude scenes, rarely getting under the surface into complex character development.  CINEMA, ASPIRINS AND VULTURES (2005), an earlier film by Marcelo Gomes premiered at the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, but this film, despite a brave effort by lead actress Hermila Guedes as the title character Verônica, a psychologist working at a public hospital, is ridiculously simplistic and an insult to the mental health profession in its lackadaisical presentation.  Even the sitcom television comedy The Bob Newhart Show (1972 – 78) offered greater respect and in depth insight for patients showing signs of depression and various other psychological ailments than this film, even though a good part of it is realistically shot during treatment sessions. 

Opening and closing on a swirling montage of nude bathers at the beach, Verônica is seen as one of the party revelers, where the continual movement of bodies and camera are woven into an orgiastic frenzy of sexual freedom, becoming a dreamy image of personal liberation that may only be a fantasy, especially as the camera then moves indoors to a couple having sex, where the bodies exist in an impressionistic mosaic of nudity, but other than cliché’d verbal responses, it’s hard to find any real passion in the room.  Afterwards, as if sizing herself up in the mirror, Verônica speaks into a handheld tape recorder and offers detached, diary-like thoughts about her impassive state of mind, identifying herself in the third person, “Patient:  Verônica.  Had some great sex last night.  Or at least she thinks she did.”  This recurring motif describes the adolescent self-absorption of her thoughts, continually calling attention to herself, but also the lack of any real insight into her own character.  In a Grey’s Anatomy (2005 – present) moment, Verônica is seen celebrating with other members of her graduating class from medical school in Recife, where what’s immediately apparent is the difference between book knowledge and patient knowledge, as she’s thrust into the sprawling overcrowded population of patients waiting to be seen in a public hospital, where it’s hard to believe she’s actually “helping” anyone.  Nonetheless she walks past this ever expanding line of patients to get to her office each day, where a variety of ailments present themselves to her, but realistically she always feels like a fish out of water, as there’s little actual interaction with patients when all she does is sit there writing prescriptions all day.  Away from work, she spends the majority of her time with her elderly father (W.J. Solha), a retired banker with a love for listening to old Brazilian records, but whose declining health worries her, seen tenderly taking care of him even though his continual advice for his daughter is to head for the beach or go out with friends and live her own life instead of being stuck with him. 

The one constant throughout is Verônica resorting to sex as the only outlet for all her internal struggles, spending most of the time with her boyfriend Gustavo (João Miguel), but she continues to express self-doubts, offering vacuous comments like “I, patient Verônica, uncertain about life, like everybody else.”  She even seems to believe she has a heart of stone, as she freely has sex with others as well and has difficulty making emotional commitments.  You get the feeling that every aspect of her life is self-analyzed, that perhaps the only reason she became a psychiatrist was to analyze herself, as she remains indifferent to everyone else except her father, the one man she can depend on.  The dreary and downbeat tone at work and in her life feels monotonous and suffocating, growing even worse when she discovers her father is dying, but this is contrasted by street scenes of the two of them walking slowly through Recife recalling past memories while a blossoming vitality of life exists all around them.  When they’re forced to move to a new location, due to needed building repairs, it’s a rather overt metaphor for having to rebuild their own lives.  Real life is overly grim, where there’s simply nothing to lure the audience into this perpetual aloofness except the sensuousness of the music heard throughout, where in Verônica’s early onset midlife crisis she has thoughts of becoming a professional singer.  While this seems little more than a dream, it does give the director an excuse to film whatever passes through her head, resorting to multiple sex scenes as well as a nightclub singer singing one of those songs you can’t seem to get out of your head, that Verônica actually sings to one of her disgruntled patients, “It’s all standardized in our hearts/ Our way of loving doesn’t seem to be ours at all/ Forever moving love to a new address.”  This shifting focus of attention and inability to concentrate on anything except the sensuousness of the beach, sex, music, and dreams does reflect the Brazilian state of mind, as if stuck in a reverie, but in this film she’s imprisoned by it.