Film Review: Linha de passe, Cannes, In Competition
Twelve years after co-directing "Foreign Land", filmmakers Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas have returned to update their portrait of urban Brazil, which they left in the economic throes of president Fernando Collor. "Linha de passe" is a far more successful film, both as a drama and in depicting the reality of growing up poor without no future in sight.
Using a mainly non-pro cast and a deeply realist style, it relies on a strong screenplay and a hard-driving rhythm to keep viewers interested in the interwoven stories of four brothers and their single mom. Comparisons to Luchino Visconti's "Rocco and His Brothers" are inevitable, but without name actors in the cast, this is not going to be as easy a commercial ride as Salles' cultish "The Motorcycle Diaries".
On the plus side, "Linha de passe" (a soccer term) has a great deal of strength and sincerity going for it, which should attract the kind of audiences who admired the sociological line of "Central Station". Set on the poverty-stricken outskirts of the Sao Paulo megalopolis, it traces one summer in the lives of Cleuza (Sandra Corveloni), a pregnant housemaid, her three teenage sons and her young Reginaldo (Kaique de Jesus Santos), son of a black bus driver. If you think of this remarkable child actor as the transformed character of the young Alain Delon, you begin to see how radically Visconti's film has been rethought.
Most audiences won't make that connection, of course, but will be caught up in the psychological struggles of the brothers, each battling his own demons. Dario (Vinicius De Oliveira, who played the lead in "Central Station") is a good soccer player who wants to go pro; Dinho (Jose Geraldo Rodrigues) plies the dangerous profession of motorcycle courier on Sao Paulo highways and has a baby with one of his girlfriends. The born-again Christian Denis (Joao Baldasserini), meanwhile, escapes into the unreal optimism of religion, while plucky little Reginaldo rides buses all day and night in search of his unknown father. In this fatherless society, where violence lurks around every corner, brotherhood becomes a path to salvation.
A growing sense of anxiety accompanies the boys as they spin through the cycle of football tryouts, work, sex, drugs and robberies, against an apocalyptic background of burning buses and stadium mania. While the exciting camerawork stays close to the action, a reflective musical comment pulls viewers back into reflectiveness. Film's climactic scenes achieve real power as each of the five characters is tested in rapid cutaways, to an ambiguously suspended ending that is still satisfying. Hats off to the fine ensemble acting, which is never over-stated and renders each family member intensely individual.
Cast: Sandra Corveloni, Joao Baldasserini, Jose Geraldo Rodigues, Vinicius de Oliveira, Kaique de Jesus Santos. Directors: Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas. Screenwriters: George Moura, Daniela Thomas. Executive producer: Francois Ivernel. Producers: Mauricio Andrade Ramos, Rebecca Yeldham. Director of photography: Mauro Pinheiro Jr.
Sales Agent: Pathe International, London
No MPAA rating. 115 minutes.
Twelve years after co-directing "Foreign Land", filmmakers Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas have returned to update their portrait of urban Brazil, which they left in the economic throes of president Fernando Collor. "Linha de passe" is a far more successful film, both as a drama and in depicting the reality of growing up poor without no future in sight.
Using a mainly non-pro cast and a deeply realist style, it relies on a strong screenplay and a hard-driving rhythm to keep viewers interested in the interwoven stories of four brothers and their single mom. Comparisons to Luchino Visconti's "Rocco and His Brothers" are inevitable, but without name actors in the cast, this is not going to be as easy a commercial ride as Salles' cultish "The Motorcycle Diaries".
On the plus side, "Linha de passe" (a soccer term) has a great deal of strength and sincerity going for it, which should attract the kind of audiences who admired the sociological line of "Central Station". Set on the poverty-stricken outskirts of the Sao Paulo megalopolis, it traces one summer in the lives of Cleuza (Sandra Corveloni), a pregnant housemaid, her three teenage sons and her young Reginaldo (Kaique de Jesus Santos), son of a black bus driver. If you think of this remarkable child actor as the transformed character of the young Alain Delon, you begin to see how radically Visconti's film has been rethought.
Most audiences won't make that connection, of course, but will be caught up in the psychological struggles of the brothers, each battling his own demons. Dario (Vinicius De Oliveira, who played the lead in "Central Station") is a good soccer player who wants to go pro; Dinho (Jose Geraldo Rodrigues) plies the dangerous profession of motorcycle courier on Sao Paulo highways and has a baby with one of his girlfriends. The born-again Christian Denis (Joao Baldasserini), meanwhile, escapes into the unreal optimism of religion, while plucky little Reginaldo rides buses all day and night in search of his unknown father. In this fatherless society, where violence lurks around every corner, brotherhood becomes a path to salvation.
A growing sense of anxiety accompanies the boys as they spin through the cycle of football tryouts, work, sex, drugs and robberies, against an apocalyptic background of burning buses and stadium mania. While the exciting camerawork stays close to the action, a reflective musical comment pulls viewers back into reflectiveness. Film's climactic scenes achieve real power as each of the five characters is tested in rapid cutaways, to an ambiguously suspended ending that is still satisfying. Hats off to the fine ensemble acting, which is never over-stated and renders each family member intensely individual.
Cast: Sandra Corveloni, Joao Baldasserini, Jose Geraldo Rodigues, Vinicius de Oliveira, Kaique de Jesus Santos. Directors: Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas. Screenwriters: George Moura, Daniela Thomas. Executive producer: Francois Ivernel. Producers: Mauricio Andrade Ramos, Rebecca Yeldham. Director of photography: Mauro Pinheiro Jr.
Sales Agent: Pathe International, London
No MPAA rating. 115 minutes.
- 5/17/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
FiGa Films is a new distribution company specializing in films from Latin America. The company's mandate is intriguing, designed to appeal to a niche audience that is underserved in the U.S.
Unfortunately, their debut offering, Alice's House, is too undernourished dramatically to make much of a splash. While it should earn some respectful reviews, audiences won't come away satisfied.
Director Chico Teixeira has made a number of acclaimed documentaries in Brazil. This is his first dramatic feature, and he tries to apply the same unvarnished, naturalistic style to a fictional story.
The film is set in a working-class neighborhood in Sao Paulo, mainly in the home of Alice Carla Ribas), a manicurist who lives with her philandering husband, her aging mother, and her three sons. A number of crises explode at the same time. First, Alice learns about her husband's affair with a girl half his age. Then, Alice rekindles a romance with an old flame who turns up in the neighborhood. Her mother is gradually losing her eyesight, and her husband wants to ship her off to a nursing home.
The three sons have their own problems. The oldest son is in the army, but he moonlights as a hustler servicing older men. The middle son is a petty thief, and the youngest son is going through typical adolescent confusion.
While any one of these stories might have made for a compelling drama, or at least a juicy soap opera, Teixeira underplays everything. As a result, nothing takes on a sense of urgency. In fact, the director seems so terrified of melodrama that many of the plot points are thrown away or treated so obliquely that they barely register. While the director's rigorous approach might seem admirable to some critics, it's self-defeating because viewers are unlikely to become deeply involved in events treated so haphazardly.
The director's shooting style is also irritating. Much of the film unfolds in extreme close-ups that become maddeningly claustrophobic. While this might have been intended to suggest that the characters are trapped, we feel equally confined, longing for an opportunity to see a bit of the city beyond the four walls of the apartment. The spare approach extends to the soundtrack: There is no music in the film.
Performances are persuasive. Ribas brings a womanly dignity to her role, and the young actors who play her sons have definite magnetism. Perhaps the most affecting performance is given by Berta Zemel as Alice's mother, a woman who doesn't want to acknowledge her own infirmity. And yet the most dramatic moments seem to take place off camera. Despite all the crises brewing in this family, we never feel there's anything at stake.
ALICE'S HOUSE
FiGa Films
Superfilmes Prods.
Credits:
Director: Chico Teixeira
Screenwriters: Chico Teixeira, Julio Pessoa, Sabina Anzuategui, Marcelo Gomes
Producers: Patrick Leblanc, Zita Carvalhosa
Director of photography: Mauro Pinheiro Jr.
Production designer: Marcos Pedroso
Costume designer: Andre Simonetti
Editor: Vania Debs
Cast:
Alice: Carla Ribas
Lucas: Vinicius Zinn
Edinho: Ricardo Vilaca
Junior: Felipe Massuia
Dona Jacira: Berta Zemel
Lindomar: Zecarlos Machado
Carmen: Renata Zhaneta
Nilson: Luciano Quirino
Thais: Mariana Leighton
Vanessinha: Talita Craveiro
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Unfortunately, their debut offering, Alice's House, is too undernourished dramatically to make much of a splash. While it should earn some respectful reviews, audiences won't come away satisfied.
Director Chico Teixeira has made a number of acclaimed documentaries in Brazil. This is his first dramatic feature, and he tries to apply the same unvarnished, naturalistic style to a fictional story.
The film is set in a working-class neighborhood in Sao Paulo, mainly in the home of Alice Carla Ribas), a manicurist who lives with her philandering husband, her aging mother, and her three sons. A number of crises explode at the same time. First, Alice learns about her husband's affair with a girl half his age. Then, Alice rekindles a romance with an old flame who turns up in the neighborhood. Her mother is gradually losing her eyesight, and her husband wants to ship her off to a nursing home.
The three sons have their own problems. The oldest son is in the army, but he moonlights as a hustler servicing older men. The middle son is a petty thief, and the youngest son is going through typical adolescent confusion.
While any one of these stories might have made for a compelling drama, or at least a juicy soap opera, Teixeira underplays everything. As a result, nothing takes on a sense of urgency. In fact, the director seems so terrified of melodrama that many of the plot points are thrown away or treated so obliquely that they barely register. While the director's rigorous approach might seem admirable to some critics, it's self-defeating because viewers are unlikely to become deeply involved in events treated so haphazardly.
The director's shooting style is also irritating. Much of the film unfolds in extreme close-ups that become maddeningly claustrophobic. While this might have been intended to suggest that the characters are trapped, we feel equally confined, longing for an opportunity to see a bit of the city beyond the four walls of the apartment. The spare approach extends to the soundtrack: There is no music in the film.
Performances are persuasive. Ribas brings a womanly dignity to her role, and the young actors who play her sons have definite magnetism. Perhaps the most affecting performance is given by Berta Zemel as Alice's mother, a woman who doesn't want to acknowledge her own infirmity. And yet the most dramatic moments seem to take place off camera. Despite all the crises brewing in this family, we never feel there's anything at stake.
ALICE'S HOUSE
FiGa Films
Superfilmes Prods.
Credits:
Director: Chico Teixeira
Screenwriters: Chico Teixeira, Julio Pessoa, Sabina Anzuategui, Marcelo Gomes
Producers: Patrick Leblanc, Zita Carvalhosa
Director of photography: Mauro Pinheiro Jr.
Production designer: Marcos Pedroso
Costume designer: Andre Simonetti
Editor: Vania Debs
Cast:
Alice: Carla Ribas
Lucas: Vinicius Zinn
Edinho: Ricardo Vilaca
Junior: Felipe Massuia
Dona Jacira: Berta Zemel
Lindomar: Zecarlos Machado
Carmen: Renata Zhaneta
Nilson: Luciano Quirino
Thais: Mariana Leighton
Vanessinha: Talita Craveiro
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/24/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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