Memórias de um Fantoche

A rare and forgotten short film of which I only took notice after hearing about actor Ilya São Paulo's passing and finding out he directed a few shorts and documentaries, and this very first film of his as a director was the only I could find. While the thematic is quite simple, the film manages to involve its audience with plenty of humor and some romance.

It tells the story of a couple of puppets who appear in a play revolving a love triangle where the woman trades her usual companion for another male puppet.

When the show (presented to kids) is over the couple begins a real argument questioning and complaining about their roles in the play, meaning the man is tired of always playing the rejected guy since he actually loves the girl. That's when he decides to change things and proposes the girl in marriage so they can finally live their romance. All goes well until their puppeteer comes along and tries to stop this marriage creating a crazed atmosphere where the toys try to escape him.

It's an interesting concept almost as if being a "Toy Story" made decades before, a setting of toys living a secret life outside of the living world where they are controlled by countless hands but instead of an animation we have the real toys, the real humans and two actors playing the puppets. It's quite funny.

A pity that the version available that I saw was in a terrible aspect both visually and sonorous - the images are muddy and grainy, it's almost impossible to see things; the audio works here and there, it's less problematic. If ignoring such issues, one can enjoy a simple, amusing story about this powerful force of nature called love. 8/10.