VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS * Originally written for a spoken introduction before the screening of Copacabana Mon Amour at Spectacle Theater, New York, November 6, 2019, and revised for this publication. Copacabana Mon Amour is, roughly, the fifth film directed by Rogério Sganzerla, following the shorts Documentary (Documentário, 1966) and HQ (1969), and the two brilliant features […]
Brazilian Cinema
Brazil: News from the Front
Signs of Chaos: the films of Rogério Sganzerla
On Friday, November 1, Spectacle Theater launches a two-month long retrospective of the great Rogério Sganzerla. It’s hard to stress enough the importance of Sganzerla’s work in Brazilian cinema – it would be no exaggeration to list him as one of our top-3 greatest filmmakers of all time, which I guess I just did – […]
Neighboring Sounds (O Som ao Redor, 2012), Kleber Mendonça Filho
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS * Originally published at Cinética in March 2013. Political movements Neighboring Sounds is a movie of exceptional adherence. Its actions stick to the world with a grip that finds few parallels in recent cinema – and not only in Brazil – and that explains part of its public resonance (a very significant part […]
“The Yellow Night” with other Brazilian films at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
The Yellow Night (A Noite Amarela, 2019), a “spiritual slasher” directed by Ramon Porto Mota that I had the joy of editing, will have its U.S. premiere this Sunday at Cobble Hill Cinema, 7:15pm, as part of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. The film premiered at the Bright Future Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam […]
Bacurau (2019), Juliano Dornelles & Kleber Mendonça Filho
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS Burying our living Halfway through the third story of Mariano Llinás’ wonderful composite-film La Flor (2019), Dreyfuss (Horacio Marassi), a kidnapped German scientist who finds himself tied in the backseat of a car in an unknown land, connects the dots of what he had gone through up until that point and tries […]
A post-colonial situation?
* Originally published at the catalog of Mostra CineBH in September 2019. Translation from original Portuguese by Victor Guimarães. VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS November 19, 1960: the film critic Paulo Emílio Sales Gomes publishes in his column at Suplemento Literário one of his most celebrated contributions to the thinking about Brazilian cinema. Titled “A colonial situation?” – […]
BFI London Film Festival
Two films I had the fortune of working on will be part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Eryk Rocha’s Burning Night (Breve Miragem de Sol) will have its world premiere at the festival. I had a terrific time working with the director on the screenplay of the film, setting up a dramatic foundation […]
Carlos Adriano’s “cinepoemas”
VERSÃO EM PORTUGUÊS Since 2014, the filmmaker Carlos Adriano has released a singular series titled Apontamentos para uma Autocinebiografia (em Regresso) – Sketch Notes for a Self Biopic (in Regress). Originally released as standalone films at both local and international film festivals, the entire series is now presented alongside Festejo Muito Pessoal (A Very Personal […]
A tribute to Luiz Rosemberg Filho
My friends at Cinema Tropical asked me to write a short tribute to the great Luiz Rosemberg Filho, who passed away 10 days ago. Here’s a Portuguese translation of the piece. Uma vida inconformada: Luiz Rosemberg Filho (1943-2019) A trajetória do cineasta Luiz Rosemberg Filho é marcada pelo ritmo de um passo que atravessa o compasso. […]