Surrealist Brazilian gangster film by Italian director Andrea Tonacci with awesome black and white cinematography and art direction, besides intriguing characters and an appropriate soundtrack. While the lack of a more developped story may tire a bit, there are indeed great unique moments.
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guisreis24 December 2021
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souvikmeetszeus23 January 2014Effin' brilliant film! Whoa whoa whoa . Here is something with a bit of Godard, a bit of Carax, a bit of Bunuel, a bit of Tati, a bit of The Beatles, and a lot of staggering, enjoyable and groundbreaking originality. There is no story, ahh well, there is a faint idea of a story but I won't disclose it, rather leave it for you to figure out but thematically, I found similarities with Holy Motors, and I feel Carax must have been deeply inspired by this. This is a striking piece of work, introducing nonsense conversations, extended road trips, a strange group of bandits, a divine dancer, a wondrous bed scene (that'll leave you agape, literally :D), a few absurd taxi rides, and above all, a protagonist who almost floats through the narrative, leaving us no clue to what is real and what is not. The characters are devoid of introduction or history or perspectives, the film devoid of a conclusion, and yet the movie has been made with such beauty and hold over the technique and the aesthetics, that it will blow your mind. The camera is amazing, the way the landscapes are shot is breathtaking, and the crisp quality of images is great to savor. Tonacci's sound design is excellent too, as image-sound relationships are aggressively explored. In a strange manner the film entices the audience, drawing their participation, even as the actors look into the camera and talk, putting their role in the frame and the 'reality' of the event in question. Editing is taken to supreme heights, and takes us back to the magic era of silent films, where editing was the trick of the trade for comedies. Godard comes through the criticism of capitalism, the car becoming a burning symbol (Weekend ); Bunuel through the reluctance to move towards any ending, in fact reiterating the sequences; Tati through the rigorous composition of frames; The Beatles through "Day Tripper" and if that wasn't enough, there is a film within the film, and it is very very hard to separate the two. It will be criminal not to mention the extraordinary dance sequence that pops out of nowhere, gives the film an entirely new touch of class and audacity, and floods you again with the exciting, unconventional, rebel attitude that dominates Tonacci's ideas. Worth every second spent!