Blindness (Brazil/Canada/Japan, 120 minutes)
Received with a standing ovation in its premiere at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival yesterday and polarized reviews by movie critics, Blindness is one of two movies directed by Brazilians running for the Palme d'Or.
Director Fernando Meirelles The Constant Garnener, City of God) worked with a stellar international cast led by Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo in the adaptation of Portuguese writer José Saramago's novel Ensaio sobre a cegueira, about a blindness epidemic and the dimensions of human nature it brings out.
The movie was shot partially shot in São Paulo.
Linha de Passe (Brazil, 108 minutes)
Co-directors Walter Salles (Motorcycle Diaries, Central Station) and Daniela Thomas run for the Palme d'Or with Linha de Passe, still untitled in English. Also shot in São Paulo, the movie centers on a struggling mother and her four sons. Vinicius de Oliveira (the young talent in Central Station) is in a central role as the son who wants to be a soccer player.
In an interview to journalist and movie critic Luiz Carlos Merten, Daniela Thomas said Vinicius de Oliveira practiced soccer for five years in preparation for his role. She and Walter Salles dedicated the selection of Linha de Passe for the Cannes Festival to the young actors making their debut in the movie, to Fátima Toledo, who coached them, and to the also young film crew.
Videofilmes, owned by Walter Salles, co-produced Argentinean Pablo Trapero’s Leonera, in which Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro is said to have a strong participation.
The Dead Girl's Feast (Brazil/Portugal, 115 minutes)
In Un Certain Regard, the Cannes Festival event which showcases emerging filmmakers, veteran Brazilian actor Mateus Nachtergaele makes his debut as a director with A Festa da Menina Morta (The Dead Girl's Feast).
A Festa da Menina Morta was shot in Barcelos, a town in the Negro River basin in Amazonas, about 250 miles from Manaus, with local actors such as Ednelza Sahdo alongside well-known Cássia Kiss and Dira Paes.
Daniel de Oliveira (Cazuza) plays Santinho, a young man who has been considered a saint in his riverside community since he miraculously found what was left of a missing girl's dress, after his mother committed suicide.
Every year the community gathers around the dress, turned into a relic and kept at Santinho ("Little Saint")'s house. The movie covers two days: the preparation for the ritual/feast and the day of the ritual itself, when the mysterious climax takes place.
In an interview to Fernanda Ezabella (Reuters/Brazil), published yesterday, Nachtergaele said the movie is permeated by his perplexity in face of the fact that we die and his awe of the human capacity to attribute meaning to life in spite of pain.
Inspiration for the screenplay and the movie came to Nachtergaele in 1999 when he was on location for O Auto da Compadecida in Cabaceiras, Paraíba (northeast Brazil). During a break, he witnessed the religious celebration some locals were hosting in memory of their missing daughter, who had, according to the family, miraculously sent them her dress in response to their many prayers and pilgrimages.
