A man and two women are in a boat drifting on the ocean. As the film progresses, we see events from their pasts.
You may, if you like, view this movie as a reflection on memory and how it affects the present. With its Academician-influenced editing and its Surrealistic visuals -- lots of Dutch angles, many shots of body parts, especially feet --clearly writer-director Mario Peixote intended to create a work of high art in the latest style, part of the movement that seemed on the point of engulfing Europe. Alas, it did not work, commercially at any rate. After a brief premiere, it went into the vault, taken out occasionally for festivals. Its reputation began to grow, aided by an article Peixote translated into Portuguese in which Eisenstein praised it; Peixote later admitted that he had written the article in Portuguese and invented its provenance.
The one copy of the movie began to degrade, and what is available now is not what it was in 1931; sections are missing, and others show degradation. In 1988, a Brazilian film magazine named it the country's best movie of all time. I suppose some movie had to come at the top of a poll, but I found it too slow and demanding for what is supposed to be a popular medium. Still, even for a Philistine such as me, it has its charms.
You may, if you like, view this movie as a reflection on memory and how it affects the present. With its Academician-influenced editing and its Surrealistic visuals -- lots of Dutch angles, many shots of body parts, especially feet --clearly writer-director Mario Peixote intended to create a work of high art in the latest style, part of the movement that seemed on the point of engulfing Europe. Alas, it did not work, commercially at any rate. After a brief premiere, it went into the vault, taken out occasionally for festivals. Its reputation began to grow, aided by an article Peixote translated into Portuguese in which Eisenstein praised it; Peixote later admitted that he had written the article in Portuguese and invented its provenance.
The one copy of the movie began to degrade, and what is available now is not what it was in 1931; sections are missing, and others show degradation. In 1988, a Brazilian film magazine named it the country's best movie of all time. I suppose some movie had to come at the top of a poll, but I found it too slow and demanding for what is supposed to be a popular medium. Still, even for a Philistine such as me, it has its charms.