BRAZIL FILM FESTIVAL at the Royal Cinema (608 College), from today (Thursday, October 22) to Sunday (October 25). brazilfilmfest.net. See movie listings. Rating: NNNN
The announcement that the 2016 Olympics are going to Rio de Janeiro couldn’t have come at a better time for this year’s Brazil Film Festival, adding an extra spike of publicity behind the fest’s overview of Brazilian cinema.[rssbreak]
A total of 11 features and documentaries, culled from the global festival circuit, are screening. (Regrettably, the opening and closing night galas, The Ballroom and Enchanted Word, were unavailable for preview at press time.)
Dramatic offerings include Matheus Souza’s That’s It (9 pm Saturday), a micro-budgeted digital video drama that follows a film student (Gregório Duvivier) and his girlfriend (Erika Mader) around a college campus in the hour before she walks out of his life. Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset is an obvious influence, but whereas there isn’t an ounce of fat on that lovely tale of lovers reconnecting in real time, Souza’s film has a little too much conversational padding, particularly when it dips into meta mode in the last reel.
By contrast, there aren’t many wasted moments in Roberto Santucci’s pulpy hostage thriller Riding High (9 pm Friday), which follows two thugs (Claudio Gabriel and Silvio Guindane) on a disastrous crime spree that culminates in the ill-advised carjacking of an upper-class woman (Mônica Martelli). There’s nothing exactly new here, but it’s skilfully assembled and deftly edited stuff.
The documentaries include a pair of musically oriented titles. Tom’s House (5:30 pm Friday 3:30 pm Saturday) is Ana Jobim’s loving portrait of her late husband, bossa nova artist Antonio Carlos Jobim, presented through a decade and a half of photos and footage, while Lírio Ferreira’s The Man Who Bottled Clouds (5 pm Saturday) looks at the life and legacy of Humberto Teixeira, a songwriter who brought the Baião style into the Brazilian mainstream – and then catapulted himself into a political career.
Some of the entries are less than fresh. Madame Satã (7 pm Friday) has been kicking around since 2002, but Karim Aïnouiz’s vivid biopic of cross-dressing cabaret performer João Francisco dos Santos still packs a punch. And if you’re a fan of the futbol, check out Luiz Carlos Barreto’s 1974 sports doc This Is Pelé (2 pm Friday and Saturday), which captures the soccer legend in his spry, dynamic prime. If a player of his calibre emerges at Rio’s Olympics, expect some serious fireworks.
normw@nowtoronto.com
