BRAFF NY ’14: Never Too Old to Meow

Barbara Polk was once the Susan Sontag of Brazil, but it has been a long time since her last book. It is fair to say she has had issues during the intervening time. Viewers will learn them in dramatic detail when Polk reluctantly sits for an interview with a journalist neighbor in Rafael Primot’s Never Too Old to Meow (slightly too revealing trailer here), which screens during the 2014 Brazilian Film Festival in New York.

Polk is still a recognizable name in literary circles, but she no longer has the same cache as a public intellectual. With the expected publication of a long awaited follow-up novel looming, she agrees to an interview for a hipster magazine. Like a bitter old Lillian Hellman, Polk seems to do everything she can to make Carol uncomfortable. There is a reason for her icy hospitality. The two women are linked in extremely intimate ways. Let’s just say Polk used to live in the penthouse instead of Carol.

Nonetheless, Polk starts to warm to her guileless guest as the vino flows. Perhaps they can form some sort of alliance as fellow women of letters. And then the film turns into a completely different animal—one that makes more sense to be covered here. It is hard to avoid spoilery terms (although the ominous opening credit sequence foreshadows the big twist), but one might say Meow starts in the vein of a Mary McCarthy novel and then takes a detour into Joyce Carol Oates’ darker terrain.

Frankly, Meow just doesn’t know when to quit. There is an obvious concluding place that would serve as a much darker but more powerful exclamation point to their strange evening. Regardless, there is no question Primot pulls the audience into what is essentially a one-set two-hander. His disciplined approach is not overly showy, yet it is open enough to avoid staginess, much in the tradition of some of Polanski’s more grounded work.

It is also pretty clear Meow was intended as a showcase for Regina Duarte, who marked her fiftieth anniversary as a multiple-screen actor last year. She is ferocious as Polk, especially when chewing on her early acerbic one-liners. The entire film is stacked against Bárbara Paz’s Carol, but she holds on and guts it out admirably well, all things considered.

This is not the sort of Jill Clayburgh movie Meow originally presents itself to be. Frankly, you do not see such radically gear-shifting in film or television very often, which makes it quite cool, in a rude sort of way. Recommended for patient fans of sinister psychological thrillers (but not the cat lovers who might be accidentally drawn to it), Never Too Old to Meow screens tomorrow (6/3) and Thursday (6/5) as part of this year’s Brazilian Film Festival in New York at the Tribeca Cinemas.

BRAFF NY ’14: City of God—10 Years Later

It was a big deal in Brazil when Fernando Meirelles was nominated for best director, but Katia Lund never got her Oscar props, because the Academy has issues with the “co-director” credit. However, this is strictly a management controversy. It is the hopes and unrealized dreams of the favela kids who appeared in their art-house smash that concern Cavi Borges & Luciano Vidigal, who document fates of the cast’s winners and losers in City of God—10 Years Later (trailer here), which screens during the 2014 Brazilian Film Festival in New York.

Many of the nonprofessionals who appeared in City of God hoped it would be their golden ticket out of the favela. Not surprisingly, they were not particularly sophisticated when it came to negotiating back-end deals, but they did not have a lot of leverage in the process. Clearly, Meirelles did quite well for himself, but not a lot of the money trickled down. Hollywood would certainly approve.

Still, the television series and subsequent follow-up film, both titled City of Men provided steady work for many ensemble players. Nonetheless, Borges & Vidigal clearly suggest there is something rather arbitrary about the distribution of post-release success. Of course, it is pretty clear why Alice Braga advanced to a Hollywood career in films like I Am Legend, despite her limited screen time. Yet, it is harder to explain why some cast-members caught on and others did not.

If nothing else, 10 Years certainly re-establishes life is not fair. They bring this point home dramatically when they capture the reunion between Seu Jorge and the “kid who was shot in the foot,” who now works as a bellhop in the luxury hotel the actor-singer often patronizes. Ironically, he was offered a fair amount of work as a child actor during the immediate aftermath of City, but dropped out of the business due to family issues.

While Braga and Seu Jorge are each featured in their own segments, the absence of Lund and particularly Meirelles is conspicuous. Whether it is just or not, viewers are left with the impression he was something of an exploiter, but that gives 10 Years an edge and a point-of-view. As a result, it is hard to dismiss the film as a mere “DVD extra.”

As a sobering look behind the scenes of the Brazilian film industry, 10 Years demonstrates how good intentions can sometimes lead to unrealistic expectations. Even so, there is no question it will resonate more deeply with viewers who have substantially invested in the franchise. Surprisingly pointed but still not essential for general audiences, City of God—10 Years Later screens this coming Wednesday (6/4) and Friday (6/6) as part of this year’s Brazilian Film Festival in New York at the Tribeca Cinemas.

BRAFF NY ’14: The Invisible Collection

It was hyperinflation that laid once noble Saxon families low in Stefan Zweig’s short story. In Bernard Attal’s Brazilian adaptation, it is a fungal pestilence known as the “Witches Broom” that has ravaged plantations in Bahia. Yet collectors still collect, obsessively. A young art dealer will seek the rare prints his father sold to an eccentric customer, but the old man’s family will have none of him in Attal’s The Invisible Collection (trailer here), which screens during the 2014 Brazilian Film Festival in New York.

In a departure from Zweig, Beto is a former DJ, whose high flying party world came crashing down when an SUV full of his closest friends died in a traffic accident. As a strange attempt to rouse her deflated son, Dona Iolanda suddenly reveals the precarious state of their finances. Yet, it sort of works, especially when an old colleague drops by with word an American curator will pay top dollar for a formerly obscure artist’s work. It turns out his father sold several such pieces to Samir Loedy, an eccentric cocoa plantation owner in Itajuípe.

Having faith in his charm, Beto sets out to reacquire the prints and flip them to the American, but Loedy’s wife Dona Clara and daughter Saada are not taken in. A game of wits ensues, as Beto struggles to make contact with Don Samir, scrambling to evade the strong, forceful women of the plantation.

Considering the original source material is a brief O. Henryesque tale, Attal’s feature treatment (co-written with Sérgio Machado and Iziane Mascarenhas) nicely expands and Brazilianizes the story in ways that feel natural and logical. Even though it sounds like a cliché on paper, the halting attraction between the urban hipster and the earthy, gun-toting Saada is particularly well turned by Vladimir Brichta and Ludmila Rosa, respectively.

Frankly, Brichta is a bit of a bland playboy in his scenes without Rosa, but he is evidently quite the thing with teenage Brazilian girls, so here he is. As Dona Clara, Clarisse Abujamra brings real grace and dignity to the film, while Walmor Chagas deftly avoids overplaying the blind and somewhat muddled Loedy. Still, we really did not need the plucky shanty kid who appoints himself Beto’s personal tour guide (that is one overused convention Attal and company are not able to appreciably freshen up).

Attal, the French transplant, has documented the very real Witches Broom outbreak in a previous film, so he is highly attuned to its devastating effects. As a result, he strikingly captures the beauty and the blight of the Bahia region. Still, the vibe is not radically different from that of Zweig (who took his own life while living as a political émigré in Brazil).

Attal’s take also comes amid the blossoming of a mini-cinematic renaissance for Zweig’s work. In addition to Patrice Leconte’s faithful but bloodless adaptation of A Promise, Zweig’s oeuvre was an inspiration for the Grand Budapest Hotel. More than a footnote to this trend, Attal’s Collection is a rather thoughtful blend of old and new world sensibilities. Recommended for literate audiences, The Invisible Collection screens this coming Tuesday (6/2) and next Friday (6/6) as part of this year’s Brazilian Film Festival in New York.

BRAFF NY ’14: Casimiro Effect (short)

They appreciate an excuse to party in Brazil, especially when it comes hot on the heels of the military regime’s fall from power. First contact would certainly fit the bill. Clarice Saliby chronicles the would-have been close encounter that turned into a gathering in the short documentary, The Casimiro Effect (trailer here), which screens during the 2014 Brazilian Film Festival in New York.

After years of military authority, the Brazilian media apparently threw out their filters and ran any story that caught their fancy. As a result, a rather rustic gentleman in Casimiro de Abreu got tremendous pick-ups claiming his was the aliens’ advance man. Supposedly, they were coming to Casimiro at an appointed hour. He could even predict some cosmic activity, claiming it was alien reconnoitering.

So what happened? Every Brazilian with a guitar packed up their VW van and headed to Casimiro. Obviously, the aliens never came but it was a heck of a party. Saliby tracks some of the leading witnesses of the party-slash-hoax, who try to keep the extraterrestrial dream alive, but give us a break. Who needs aliens if you have good music?

Even if it takes itself a tad too seriously, Effect is entertaining time capsule, capturing a moment in Brazilian history when hope and joie de vivre were looking for any old outlet. The alien mythology will also interest genre diehards, adding another incident to their grand conspiracy theories. Recommended for fans of UFO Hunters and wild parties in general, The Casimiro Effect screens this coming Monday (6/2), before the feature The Invisible Collection, at the Tribeca Cinemas, as part of this year’s Brazilian Film Festival in New York.