The Kids Are All Right: Barbosa Explores Brazil’s Class Fissures in Evenhanded Debut
Familiar dramatic conflicts are elevated by strong performances and astute characterizations in Brazilian director Fellipe Barbosa’s directorial debut, Casa Grande. An exploration of significant class issues, a recurrent trope in many recent socially minded offerings from an increasingly exciting and prolific new generation of filmmakers in Brazil, Barbosa’s film premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival about a year before Anna Muylaert’s Sundance debut, The Second Mother, a similar economically tinged drama from the perspective of the working class characters.
Barbosa captures the shameful downfall of a well-to-do white family on their initial descent into financial ruin as witnessed by their 17-year-old son as he grows from clueless, privileged teen to rebellious, outspoken personality who discovers how to speak for himself. Though its subject matter might seem a bit too by the book,...
Familiar dramatic conflicts are elevated by strong performances and astute characterizations in Brazilian director Fellipe Barbosa’s directorial debut, Casa Grande. An exploration of significant class issues, a recurrent trope in many recent socially minded offerings from an increasingly exciting and prolific new generation of filmmakers in Brazil, Barbosa’s film premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival about a year before Anna Muylaert’s Sundance debut, The Second Mother, a similar economically tinged drama from the perspective of the working class characters.
Barbosa captures the shameful downfall of a well-to-do white family on their initial descent into financial ruin as witnessed by their 17-year-old son as he grows from clueless, privileged teen to rebellious, outspoken personality who discovers how to speak for himself. Though its subject matter might seem a bit too by the book,...
- 11/13/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Seems like the Brazilian gems keep on coming. Cinema Slate's latest release, Fellipe Barbosa's "Casa Grande," offers yet another perspective on the complicated relationship between Brazilians and class divide. In this occasion the privileged life of an adolescent is confronted with a much more real world when his family's financial stability is about to come to an end. For American audiences this might feel like a companion piece to another Brazilian film, "The Second Mother," but Barbosa's take on the issues was actually released before in its homeland. While "Mother" looks at inequality from the maid's point of view, "Casa Grande" faces those in the elite to the very inequality they have helped create.
"Casa Grande" opens in NYC on Friday November 13th at the Cinema Village
Here is Cinema Slate's official synopsis and take a look at the trailer above:
Coming-of-age as rude awakening: one high school senior’s dawning sexuality is shadowed by the discovery of his upper-class white family’s looming financial ruin. Polished and penetrating, "Casa Grande" renders a sharp social canvas of contemporary Brazil through the eyes of young Jean (Thales Cavalcanti), who struggles with newfound knowledge of his racial and class privilege as he sweetly courts a mixed-race girl from a lower-ranked school than his, and sows his oats with the family’s nubile cinnamon-skinned maid. Jean’s parents, meanwhile, clutch at straws merely to survive. His father (Brazilian screen staple Marcello Novaes), a failed hedge-fund baron, tries vainly to conceal the true extent of the damage, as his formerly sheltered wife resorts to peddling cosmetics. An international audience favorite, "Casa Grande" has stirred lively, searching discussion among Brazilians of the often repressed realities of stubborn racial bias and stark income inequality.
"Casa Grande" opens in NYC on Friday November 13th at the Cinema Village
Here is Cinema Slate's official synopsis and take a look at the trailer above:
Coming-of-age as rude awakening: one high school senior’s dawning sexuality is shadowed by the discovery of his upper-class white family’s looming financial ruin. Polished and penetrating, "Casa Grande" renders a sharp social canvas of contemporary Brazil through the eyes of young Jean (Thales Cavalcanti), who struggles with newfound knowledge of his racial and class privilege as he sweetly courts a mixed-race girl from a lower-ranked school than his, and sows his oats with the family’s nubile cinnamon-skinned maid. Jean’s parents, meanwhile, clutch at straws merely to survive. His father (Brazilian screen staple Marcello Novaes), a failed hedge-fund baron, tries vainly to conceal the true extent of the damage, as his formerly sheltered wife resorts to peddling cosmetics. An international audience favorite, "Casa Grande" has stirred lively, searching discussion among Brazilians of the often repressed realities of stubborn racial bias and stark income inequality.
- 11/12/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
What measure of true grit does it take to interweave separate worlds? In truth, how do we imagine to know that what is set apart does not belong together? Delving into the haphazardly changing depths of identity, a noteworthy trio of cinematic graces is up to the task of responding, even if forming their own questions in reply. As quintessences perform a number of feats, teasingly flickering before our eyes in Eskil Vogt's Blind, meandering through the seemingly shallow waters of Fellipe Barbosa's Casa Grande, and burning to death in overbearing doubt culminating Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh), the rollercoaster of human frailty never once pulls to a stop.
Deftly swishing the t(r)ail of the narrative's many endings and beginnings, Vogt's feature debut eloquently embodies his screenwriting skills as previously witnessed in hushed, attentive collaborations with director Joachim Trier.
Deftly swishing the t(r)ail of the narrative's many endings and beginnings, Vogt's feature debut eloquently embodies his screenwriting skills as previously witnessed in hushed, attentive collaborations with director Joachim Trier.
- 1/8/2015
- by Ivana Miloš
- MUBI
With the advent of this year’s LatinBeat (July 11-20), The Film Society of Lincoln continues on its quest to unearth the best and most challenging of Latin American cinema, including the product of Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, and Ecuador.
For some of these countries, having a national cinema at all is a near miracle. According to Wikipedia, Uruguay averages eleven films a year. In Paraguay, that figure drops to five. As for Peru, in 2011, only .8% of box office attendance was for national product. How can one battle Scarlett Johansson and the Transformers for a Friday night date, especially when you’re trying to showcase the political and economic realities of your country?
Having viewed five of the sixteen offerings, severable notable motifs kept popping up: broken homes, searches for fathers, the difficulties of finding employment, poverty, the indifference of the government and media, and the restorative powers of music.
For some of these countries, having a national cinema at all is a near miracle. According to Wikipedia, Uruguay averages eleven films a year. In Paraguay, that figure drops to five. As for Peru, in 2011, only .8% of box office attendance was for national product. How can one battle Scarlett Johansson and the Transformers for a Friday night date, especially when you’re trying to showcase the political and economic realities of your country?
Having viewed five of the sixteen offerings, severable notable motifs kept popping up: broken homes, searches for fathers, the difficulties of finding employment, poverty, the indifference of the government and media, and the restorative powers of music.
- 7/13/2014
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
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