| Second celluloid blizzard from Brazil
 While the film buffs of Chennai
have not yet recovered from the first blizzard of celluloid from Brazil,
the second one has come. Even more powerful than the first one. And it will take
months to recover from the impact. It revealed the helplessness in our industry
in making films that is distinctly our own, and also set up standards how to be
socially relevant.
Thanks to the Embassy of Brazil
in India, the Federation
of Film Societies and the International
Cine Appreciation Foundation, the Chennai film buffs had three days of
hectic activity. The attendance was very large and some of the late comers had
to sit in the aisles. The good flowers
need not invite the bees.
In
all, six films were shown over the three days, and they were so tightly packed
in each evening, there was no chance of taking a respite, even to go to the loo.
For fear of missing some important sequence of the other.
While one can go on extended
lectures on the sheer power of the movies, it would suffice to say that they
were nothing short of brilliant. The term 'movie' is more appropriate to these
films as they were something profoundly moving.
What is particularly remarkable
about these films, and the directors, is each director's work; his individuality
can be easily spotted. They hit you with their aesthetics and power. And, one
does not repeat the formula of the earlier successes or others. And, one can see
a thorough going honesty, and involvement in the work. No compromise whatever.
And whatever the story or experience they wanted to say, there was an absence of
exhibitionism. Nothing was padded on either to pander to the audience, or to the
box office. They remain as pure celluloid exercises. The honesty of purpose and
to the medium cold be felt.
Genre wise, two films
were on the plague of marijuana
and Brazil being unfortunately reckoned as the international port of narcotics.
Sad. Two movies were examinations on love in its myriad manifestations. While
love as feelings are not available across a cash counter, one finds the ennui of
just the bodily relationship. A subtle bisexual relationship is counter pointed
against a heterosexual relationship. Even in the earlier bunch of movies some of
them dealt with this bisexuality. The resolution to this problem is not so
essential or dire as the problem itself. The focus. Is this typically a problem
for Brazil or a universal one brought into focus by the Brazilian directors.
 The two movies under discussion
are AMORES POSSIVEIS (2000) directed by Sandra
Werneck and LISBELA directed by Guel
Arraes. A juggler wins his way to get the hand of Lisbela, a movie
addict. Here the director plays illusion and reality at multiple levels for
multiple effects. And, what is really striking the heroine is lost in illusion
while the hero creates illusion. Interspersed is the story of a hired assassin
who ends his life as began ending the lives of others. To his horror he
discovers his wife cheats on him. There is tremendous discretion in showing the
love making scenes.
How do children become
criminals? This is a morality tale as seen in CITY
OF GOD (2003). Pushed. Bullies, indoctrinated right trom their infancy
into committing crimes, carrying and selling narcotics, the film is a shocking,
horrid, sometimes nauseating account of violence. Bullets to these children are
like lollypops. The perpetrators change, but violence continues. Seen through
the eyes of a press photographer who graduated from violence to photography,
the film has several sides to violence. And, there is no redemption. The
photographer gets a permanent job as a photo journalist. This reassures that
positive living is possible. It is sad that children are made into gang leaders,
to kill, to sell, but not to live. Pathetic. The film is made based on facts. It
is not violence per se. The film has
a majority of black cast.
 NETTO LOSES HIS SOUL (2001)
directed by Tabajara Ruas and Beto Souza set
in a period is about the romantic relationship between a while soldier (major?)
and a society woman
and another with a soldier who is a black. What is war worth after all? Who
keeps the promises made during the war? Do words like patriotism, love, honesty,
loyalty, fair-mindedness have any value? After the war, especially? Often people
in power work only by their prejudices. The film is beautifully shot.
 CARAMARU-BRAZIL RE-INVENTED
(2001) directed by Guel Arraes is also
set in a period. The film has more of what is known as magic realism. What
splendid photography!
BRAINSTORM (2001) directed
by Laiz Bodansky is the cream of this
festival. How parents unable to understand their children can be directly
responsible for bringing hell upon their children is the central idea. The
parents literally push the children into living hell called society, government,
hospital and human beings. This is particularly true in the middle class
families. A father sends his son to a mental institution after finding marijuana
in the son's pocket. The mental institution is pure, unadulterated hell. How
Neto lives through this odyssey, gets out and brings public conscious to this
appalling horror, called mental institutions is the film. The mental
institutions drive patients berserk, deprive them of all their humane feelings,
reduce them to automatons. They reduce the patients to utterly irredeemable
conditions.
The
film is based on a book
written by one the 'trapped' patients who fought his way to freedom and write
about it. Here it is worth recalling the films, 'The One Who Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest' and The Brutalisation of X, a German
film that was shown some two decades ago. Every frame is classic. Words are
not adequate to match up with the beauty of the shots and sequences. The
performance of the actor who plays the young man Neto has many lessons to offer
to our actors.
This is precisely the film the NFDC
should exhibit with suitable sub-titles in regional languages. It would be nice
if it is shown on national channels, even as it is.
The film
will rank as one of the ten best movies in the world for many decades to come.
A request to His Excellency,
the Ambassador. Where can one buy the DVD and also your rich music either in CDs
or tapes?
An unforgettable festival.
Thank you very much indeed.
Dr S Gopalie
email: gopalie@vsnl.com
| 
