Monique Gardenberg's "Diário Noturno" ("Nocturnal Diary") presents the story of a simple woman (Marieta Severo) who has a typical routine every
single day. She goes to work and does her job quite well, returns home, prepares herself to sleep by making ritualistic acts of self-care with makeup
and wearing a sleeping clothes, a moment of her daily journey in which she's at her most liberated state. Then comes the nights of sleep where she has
some crazed dreams where everything looks okay at first but then it suddenly changes.
Some examples of those dreams. Typically she presents herself a lot different than her real version, so she's usually the sexy femme fatale
who seduces men all the time but whenever she's about to get close to them there's other characters who question her actions (usually it's other women).
So here we have a woman who wants to be sexually liberated but she gets punished just for having such thoughts - like when she's dressed as Marilyn
Monroe while riding on a wonder wheel teasing the man watching her, then during one of the turns they disappear and a group of critical nuns keep
pointing fingers at her saying she'll go to hell.
It's a humored and slightly dark short film with a memorable performance by Marieta, with some fun small roles from Tony Ramos, Chico Díaz (amazing as the Latin lover) and Vera Holtz, but
it's hard to find a real message about it. Is it a criticism on the subconcious or the inner conflict of a character who wanted more of life besides her
repetitive routine but she can't break the norms and her own conventions; is it a moral fable about sexual repression? There's so much stuff in here and it
ends without a proper conclusion to one can get easily lost in this experience. But it's quite gripping and fascinating to see. 9/10.
