What a stunning achievement in a leading actress role for Fernanda Montenegro! It's easy to see why, at 69, she is the most popular film and legitimate theatre actress in Brazil.
This is a story worth telling, lovingly and credibly told. I stopped waiting for the emotional manipulations so predictable in Hollywood films with this sort of theme -- after a half hour or so I relaxed, knowing I'd be allowed to witness a story unfold on the screen without heavy-handed moralizing or sugar-coated characterizations. This film was populated with human characters, not stereotypes. Because of this it was possible to stay emotionally in touch with the two main characters and those in smaller roles throughout -- as each faced crises or morally ambiguent choices unpredictably but true to the characters as they were developed by time spent with them.
Caught up in the tensions of the story line, I didn't fully appreciate the cinematography as much as on the second viewing. I'll bet it strikes a particularly deep chord in its Brazilian audience.
Such iconography so naturally blended into the film visually -- the reverse Madonna and child, the religious ecstasy of the celebrants, the barrenness yet stubborn hopefulness in the prefabricated barracks-style freshly created "communities" in the countryside, the older and younger brother at the lathe, the summary execution of the young thief in the rail line...
What a breath of fresh air this film was. Superior to all its Oscar competitors, and I certainly would have awarded Best Actress to Montenegro!
10 of 10. (only two films got that rating from me in '98)
This is a story worth telling, lovingly and credibly told. I stopped waiting for the emotional manipulations so predictable in Hollywood films with this sort of theme -- after a half hour or so I relaxed, knowing I'd be allowed to witness a story unfold on the screen without heavy-handed moralizing or sugar-coated characterizations. This film was populated with human characters, not stereotypes. Because of this it was possible to stay emotionally in touch with the two main characters and those in smaller roles throughout -- as each faced crises or morally ambiguent choices unpredictably but true to the characters as they were developed by time spent with them.
Caught up in the tensions of the story line, I didn't fully appreciate the cinematography as much as on the second viewing. I'll bet it strikes a particularly deep chord in its Brazilian audience.
Such iconography so naturally blended into the film visually -- the reverse Madonna and child, the religious ecstasy of the celebrants, the barrenness yet stubborn hopefulness in the prefabricated barracks-style freshly created "communities" in the countryside, the older and younger brother at the lathe, the summary execution of the young thief in the rail line...
What a breath of fresh air this film was. Superior to all its Oscar competitors, and I certainly would have awarded Best Actress to Montenegro!
10 of 10. (only two films got that rating from me in '98)