A not-so-impressive final week of the Brazilian film fest

The first week of the Brazilian Film Festival held at the UP Film Institute (Sept. 26-27) served up impressive samples of social realist cinema, with films like "Carandiru" by Hector Babenco, "The Twelve Labours" by Ricardo Elias and "Angels of the Sun" by Rudi Lagemann. Was the festival's third (and final) week (Oct. 11) of the same kind? Let's see. 

"Olga" by Jayme Monjardim 

This film presents themes not uncommon in cinema - a fallen heroine, an ill-fated romance, life during wartime, the Holocaust. No issue with that. Before seeing the film, this film junkie was somehow thinking of a deep character study and a subtle essay on the horrors and hardships of life under occupation. But the moment I heard the swelling score right at the film's beginning, I started to think, out of instinct, that such expectations might be for nought. Alas, it proved to be true! If Steven Spielberg was watching the movie, he could have been jumping from his seat with joy. This is the kind of film that the Prince of Hollywood is most inclined to make. To be fair, there are Spielberg films that we admire ("E.T.", "Empire of the Sun", "Schindler's List", "AI"). It's just that we don't need another Spielberg wannabe. While watching the film, we were actually seeing Spielberg written all over it. No stone is left unturned in reaching for the characters' emotional crescendo, in highlighting the "grandness" of the events and moments depicted, and in pitching out the "morality" of the tale. And to highlight the "majestic" feel of the movie even more, we are made to bear the burden of hearing the fever-pitch musical score at every possible moment. So we not only have a Spielberg wannabe here, but a John Williams impersonator as well. It's to the lead actress' credit (Camila Morgado as Olga) that in the midst of all the melodramatic swellings, she is almost able to maintain a modulated and composed delineation of her beleaguered character. I say almost, because in the film's later part, she finally gives in to the director's hyper tendencies in a truly hysterical dramatic sequence. This one made me almost recoil in my seat for all its cringe-worthiness. Perhaps, the film's true saving grace is Fernanda Montenegro (of "Central Station"). In the middle of this raging sea of emotions, the premier actress serves as the calm anchor of subtlety. Sadly, she only appears in two or three scenes.There are very few filmmakers who can get away with a heightened sense of reality in their films, like Luchino Visconti and Akira Kurosawa. But then, we realize that there's a difference between an opera and a melodrama. By the end of "Olga", we feel that we should have been uplifted by a noble feeling had we seen all throughout a tragic heroine's graceful entry into martyrdom. Rather, we end up with our senses being savagely assaulted by the director's blatantly dramatic arsenal that is only suited for a prime-time mini-series. 

"Hunter's Moon" (O Dia da Caca) by Alberto Graca 

I was close to liking this dark and violent crime tale that involves drug trafficking, murder and betrayal. If not only that it totally lacks sympathetic and admirable characters, someone whom we can root for amid all the grim proceedings. Not the once-reformed drug runner;not his sadistic gay buddy;not the mastermind police chief;not the drug lord's flirty mistress;not the drug lord himself. There could have been one - the honest news reporter - but unfortunately, he was offed by one of the bad guys along the way. In one way or another, we managed to care for the anti-heroes in Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Samourai" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". But this comparison may not even be justified, as the one in Alberto Graca's film is not even close to achieving the iconic status that Jef Costello and Norman Bates already have. Nevertheless, despite the lack of characters who have redeeming qualities, "Hunter's Moon" is still a compelling film. Amid the amoral atmosphere, the director, in some way, is able to bring across the notion that there's no getting around a fishy and shady business. In such, no one is ever to be trusted, friendships and partnerships are never for keeps, and life amounts to nothing more than a piece of dust ready to be blown off at any given moment. This is the kind of nihilist crime drama to watch on a cold, rainy night (and the weather couldn't have been more perfect when the movie was shown at UPFI that Friday night!). 

Thus said, if the first week of the Brazilian film fest offered gut-wrenching works, its final week was rather less impressive, with works that, given a choice, were not really worth risking one's limb for. Still, this film junkie is eagerly looking forward to the next year's edition of the fest, hopefully with more astounding films to see.