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mrl218
Reviews
Quase Dois Irmãos (2004)
A More Realistic "City of God" with More Social Context
I saw this last night and thought it was brilliant and beautiful. It's like a deeper, more realistic version of "The City of God" with more social context. The audience applauded at the end of last night's showing, which hasn't happened too often at other festival showings I've been to.
Lucia Murat, the director, was there last night. She told us that both she and her husband were left-wing activists and political prisoners in the 1970s under the military rule. The prison part of the story is based partly on her and her husband's experience. She worked with the author of the book version of "City of God" to get nuances of the slum life right (Paulo Lins, author of "Cidade de Deus"). Many of the child actors in the movie actually live in the slums.
The use of non-linear narration, the interlacing of several stories from different time periods (like in "21 Grams"), is confusing at first. It's a little hard to keep track of who's who. But if you pay attention and bear with it for the first half hour, the confusion does clear up. I think this mixing of stories is done for more than just theatrics. It reminds us that these people from different worlds, rich and poor, black and white, are really related and interdependent.
Cha ma gu dao xi lie (2004)
The meaning of life
Delamu follows a trade caravan along the old trade route of the Tea-Horse Road (aka southern silk road) that connects the Chinese inland area with Tibet. We see interviews with local villager (Tibetan and various other ethnic minorities) and learn about their lives along the way. The beautiful landscape needs to be seen on the big screen to be fully appreciated. I loved the interviews with the local villagers, too.
My friends thought the movie was too slow. Maybe it's a cultural gap. I would guess that the locals aren't used to talking so much at length, so they tended to talk slowly and haltingly. But I appreciated their sincerity. What they said reaffirmed my belief that people everywhere share the same needs and desires, though their everyday lives may be very different.
Of the people we meet in the movie, I especially liked the old woman who kicked her lazy first husband out of the house and married a second more capable man, the man who cried over his mule that was killed by a falling rock during the journey, and the female school teacher at the end who revealed her "secret" wish of her wanting a man who she can talk to and love and her plan to leave home to look for him.
Miles Ahead (2004)
Too Many Cliches!
I went into the screening at the local film festival with great hope. I thought here might be a true indie film worthy of our support. I was wrong.
The story is that a teenager who aspires to be a writer and his struggles to deal with the death of a friend. That could make an interesting film, but this is not it. About thirty minutes of screen time is devoted to this kid typing out of ridiculous sentences like "He looks longingly at the memories of his past, unsure whether or not they existed because they have faded" and, get this, browsing books at the college library. Very subtle, guys. The directors need to read more good literature and stay away from the camera for a while.