Midnight

This film takes place in Rio de Janeiro from December 30 1999 to January 1, 2000. It takes the stories of two people who's lives are about to totally change, and throws them into a universe which has no intention of changing despite the ostensible significance of the new calendar year.

The film is furiously shot and travels deep into the poverty stricken edges of Rio's mountainous terrain. It's a visceral visual experience (try to say that five times fast) and a must see for all cinema fans.

"Midnight" is a powerful Brazilian drak drama with a minimal script and a gritty shoot in the slums of Rio which tells a man and a woman on a collision course with destiny. The film does not explain itself and leaves the audience to voyeuristically witness the the plight of the characters while not bothering with the "why" of it all. Artfully done, technically sound, "Midnight" is an intense 70 minute watch which will be most appreciated by foreign film fans.

When I heard about the premise for "O Primeiro Dia" I was intrigued and decided to see the movie. After seeing it, I was disappointed. A plot of opposite, troubled, and interweaving lives is always interesting to me, but I found the very end to be quite anti-climatic.

O Primeiro Dia (The First Day) is the long version, edited for cinema, of the short film Meia Noite (Midnight), produced by Daniela Thomas and Walter Salles for the series "2000 seem by", created by the French cultural broadcast television Art and the producer Haut et Court , in order to collect different views, from 10 distinct countries, concerning the end of the millennium.

With a powerful and dramatic story, full of great performances, extraordinary cinematographic takes and metaphors, O Primeiro Dia represents the obscure but hopeful view of two young, but experienced, Brazilian film makers: Daniela Thomas and Walter Salles. In their new motion picture the destiny brings two different people, from two distinct "worlds", together, as the fireworks fall over Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach and the new millennium approachs bringing hope to everyone. The first day of the new millennium is presented as a hope for a new life, for a new world, in which there won't be no more violence, poverty or even sadness. But this hope can die as soon as it is born, revealing a first day as obscure and sad as the last day , proving that all the years are and will ever be the same, unless we change. Here, in Brazil, we have a saying "don't leave for tomorrow what you can do today". This is the great message of the film. As one of the characters says in the movie "If there is one day to decide something in life, this day is today".

A strong drama on the passage from year 1999 to 2000. Will the new year be the same or something completely different? Beautifully filmed (predictably, as it is a movie by Walter Salles!), with many great actors, it will show, between lights and darkness, the extremes in Rio de Janeiro: slum and beach, labour and party, prision and Christ the Redeemer, violence and love.