Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:14 am 
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Academic meets practical in the streets of Rio

Jorge Duran's story of three university students in Rio may sound a little like a TV hospital drama, but its location in an authentic-feeling Brazilian environment and deeply committed acting by Caio Blat, Maria Flor, and Alexandre Rodrigues, as the three principals, make all the difference. What makes this a terrific film is the way it handles important social issues while engaging us with personal, amorous stuff. The momentum is powerful and the way things are going is never obvious in this passionate but never preachy story.

The politically disillusioned medical student Carlos (soulful Che Guevara-lookalike Caio Blat) is lazy and smokes too much dope, but when he correctly identifies the illness of Rosalina (Edyr de Castro) as leukemia while interning at University Hospital, he begins to develop an intense bond with this lovely middle-aged lady from the favelas and eventually goes out to discover how her two young sons are doing. Not well, it seems. Cops allied with local gangsters have killed one of the sons for trying to make a living as an independent street vendor. The other one, Cacao, a witness to the murder, has gone into hiding.

Carlos' best pal and roommate is a black sociology undergraduate from Sao Paolo named Leon (Alexandre Rodrigues) whom Letitia (Maria Flor), an architecture student, is deeply in love with. Leon is a happy, hard-working guy, who as Letitia says may not be the best looking but has the most charm of anybody around, and is at the top of his class as well. When Carlos eventually meets Letitia (which doesn't happen right away), there's chemistry neither can long ignore. Carlos attempts to keep up Rosalina's morale, while Leon inevitably learns about her and then about Cacao. Since Leon has had the same thing happen to his own brother and comes from a world of poverty himself, he inevitably becomes deeply involved in the project to save Cacao.

Dialogue early on shows Carlos once was a student leader but has given up on demonstrations and social reform, but his cynicism fades in the face of physical suffering.

Proibido proibir (also title of a Caetano Veloso song--"É proibido proibir") or "(It's) forbidden to forbid," i.e., "everything is permitted, is Carlos' motto. It symbolizes his unwillingness to commit, or to be straight-laced in the interests of ideals. The film gets at a gut level sense of emotional values. Carlos and Leon truly love each other. But this undercuts our possible expectations of a menage a trois triangle of two boys and a girl. Leon and Carlos eventually both love Letitia, but their feeling for each other is a commitment to honesty and fairness. Carlos is deeply troubled by the idea of stealing away the girl of his best friend.

That becomes irrelevant but the three become more tightly entertwined than ever when Leon goes out and tries to get Cacao out of the favela and is attacked by the police himself and almost dies. Carlos saves him and the new focus is getting Leon to safety away from Rio. The confrontations during these later sequences are over Cacao, not the love triangle.

Proibido proibir vividly dramatizes the authenticity and vibrancy of Brazilian personalities along with the desperation of Brazilian poverty and the lingering death-squad tendencies of the cops in the favelas. A final scene symbolizes the attempt, passionate but perhaps doomed, of these three young people to rise above these overwhelming social issues. Wisely, Duran leaves things unresolved but doesn't settle for an easy pessimism either. Technically the film is smooth and seamless but unexceptional; Luis Abramo's cinematography however makes skillful and appropriate use of contrasting images of grand modern buildings and panoramic slums. There is also a vibrant soundtrack Where the movie most excels, however, is in the supple writing, the vivid sense of place, and excellent acting, particularly by the appealing Blat. The Chilean-born, Brazilian resident Duran achieves some of the complexity of Cuaron's Y tu mama tambien in this engaging second film. It won prizes at five festivals focused on Latin American films in 2006 and is in limited release in France, October 2007. Great stuff--and it will be surprising not to see more of Cao Blat.

Seen in Paris at the MK2 Beaubourg October 25, 2007.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


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