The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão (2019)
(A Vida Invisível)
Country: BRA/GER
Technical: col/2.39:1 139m
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Cast: Julia Stockler, Carol Duarte, António Fonseca, Bárbara Santos, Maria Manoella
Synopsis:
In Fifties Rio de Janeiro, two sisters are separated by marriage and held apart by lies when it goes wrong.
Review:
(Spoiler alert) This exquisitely crafted film (which has some of the most elegant titles seen since the 1960s) orbits around the enduring reality of sisterly affection, embodied by some beautifully played classics of the pianistic repertoire (one of the sisters nurses the ambition to be a musician); indeed, the most heartbreaking aspect of the story, which sustains itself around an unlikely deception for over two hours, is when this dream, no sooner than granted, withers on the vine in the face of grief. Patriarchy is seen as an omnipresent ill which stifles love, allowing a father to deprive a mother of her daughter, a daughter of her sister; even maternity is cast as an agent of female incarceration, a factor given state blessing by the protocol that forbids a wife from leaving the country without her husband's permission. The central performances are mesmerising portrayals of courage, but the epilogue is unnecessarily cruel. Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes.
(A Vida Invisível)
Country: BRA/GER
Technical: col/2.39:1 139m
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Cast: Julia Stockler, Carol Duarte, António Fonseca, Bárbara Santos, Maria Manoella
Synopsis:
In Fifties Rio de Janeiro, two sisters are separated by marriage and held apart by lies when it goes wrong.
Review:
(Spoiler alert) This exquisitely crafted film (which has some of the most elegant titles seen since the 1960s) orbits around the enduring reality of sisterly affection, embodied by some beautifully played classics of the pianistic repertoire (one of the sisters nurses the ambition to be a musician); indeed, the most heartbreaking aspect of the story, which sustains itself around an unlikely deception for over two hours, is when this dream, no sooner than granted, withers on the vine in the face of grief. Patriarchy is seen as an omnipresent ill which stifles love, allowing a father to deprive a mother of her daughter, a daughter of her sister; even maternity is cast as an agent of female incarceration, a factor given state blessing by the protocol that forbids a wife from leaving the country without her husband's permission. The central performances are mesmerising portrayals of courage, but the epilogue is unnecessarily cruel. Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes.
(A Vida Invisível)
Country: BRA/GER
Technical: col/2.39:1 139m
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Cast: Julia Stockler, Carol Duarte, António Fonseca, Bárbara Santos, Maria Manoella
Synopsis:
In Fifties Rio de Janeiro, two sisters are separated by marriage and held apart by lies when it goes wrong.
Review:
(Spoiler alert) This exquisitely crafted film (which has some of the most elegant titles seen since the 1960s) orbits around the enduring reality of sisterly affection, embodied by some beautifully played classics of the pianistic repertoire (one of the sisters nurses the ambition to be a musician); indeed, the most heartbreaking aspect of the story, which sustains itself around an unlikely deception for over two hours, is when this dream, no sooner than granted, withers on the vine in the face of grief. Patriarchy is seen as an omnipresent ill which stifles love, allowing a father to deprive a mother of her daughter, a daughter of her sister; even maternity is cast as an agent of female incarceration, a factor given state blessing by the protocol that forbids a wife from leaving the country without her husband's permission. The central performances are mesmerising portrayals of courage, but the epilogue is unnecessarily cruel. Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes.