Jornal da Mostra
Nº 337 > 28ª Mostra > 19/05/2005
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Cannes 2005 - Images of Brazil other than through urban clichés in films by first-timers - film-lovers, in a tribute to François Truffaut and to Abbas Kiarostami
Two Brazilian films in the `Un Certain Regard` section of the 58th Cannes Film Festival - "Cidade Baixa/ Lower City" and "Cinema, Aspirina e Urubus/ Cinema, Aspirins, and Vultures" - are distant from the urban stereotypes of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and show us passionate images that are a far cry from urban clichés.The films were made, seen through the eyes of film lovers, as a tribute to masters of universal cinema such as François Truffaut and Iranian Abbas Kiarostami.With "Cidade Baixa/ Lower City", director Sergio Machado, from Bahia, admits he found inspiration in François Truffaut`s classic love triangle "Jules e Jim". Alice Braga, niece of diva Sonia Braga, Lazaro Ramos and Wagner Moura are excellent in acting out this passion unfolding between the sea and the degraded, poorer sites between Cachoeira and Salvador, in Bahia. A young prostitute cadges a lift in a trawler and becomes involved with the two sailors aboard - two lost cases that survive by petty swindling. All of the necessary elements are here to add a strong touch of color and contrast to an adventure that is all about human passion, friendship and squalor. We are aware of the hand of Karim Aïnouz, whose first film as director was the impacting "Madame Satã", and who co-authored the script of the two films selected. "Cinema, Aspirina e Urubus/ Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures", by Marcelo Gomes is altogether different, sweeping through the semi-arid northeast of Brazil with a hallucinating suggestion of an autobiography. Peter Ketnath and João Miguel are extraordinary as actors in the film. On a dusty road in 1942, a migrant meets up with a German traveling salesman, a fugitive from the Nazis, apt to hold forth on the wonders of a new medicine for the poor people in the small towns he comes to. He peddles a new product named Aspirin, but what he has to offer the population, that is best, are the short publicity films that he shows in the public square to gatherings of curious spectators.
Traveling the roadways of the uplands of Pernambuco state we are, as it were, in a road movie akin to the style of renowned film maker Abbas Kiarostami. "The film is also a tribute to Glauber Rocha", says Marcelo Gomes. The film was presented on the festival stage with much feeling and with producer Sara Silveira in tears, admitting that for years, she had been dreaming of an occasion such as this.Both films, each in their own distinctive style, open the horizons to original Brazilian cinema that is most certain to travel the world, precisely because they steer away from the many facilities that urban images allow. Successful "Cidade Baixa" and "Cinema, Aspirina e Urubus/ Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures" are assigned the important mission of exhausting this saturated cycle of urban films that foreign audiences will most certainly not wish to see. We must hope for this kind of film-making that travels and that shows aspects of Brazil hidden for so very long - it would not be unfair to say, with a touch of exaggeration, since Glauber Rocha`s "Deus e Diabo na Terra do Sol", and "Vidas Secas", by Nelson Pereira dos Santos.
For further information:
www.festival-cannes.org
