To the Left of the Father

Saw this at HIFF 2002, Helsinki, Finland. 2 hours and 40 minutes seemed a bit much to me too, as to this is no film to enchant and suck you into the story. Extremely beautiful, but literal, heavy, and in the end: boring. Reminds me of the finnish theater tradition... I haven't read the book. Perhaps I should, as to the story in itself seems strong and interesting enough. Only the writer of the screenplay doesn't seem to have thought about the audiences not familiar with the novel. Perhaps it's also a culture thing. Still, I can't say I regret watching this film.

I read and heard many good comments about the cult "Lavoura Arcaica", and I have been waiting for the DVD for four years. I have just bought the "previously seen" DVD from a rental, and I have not finished watching the movie yet (I have just seen 122 minutes running time, and I am writing this review to rest before the next 50 minutes conclusion). This movie has great cinematography and music score, and an awesome and impressive performance of Selton Mello. Unfortunately the director and screenplay writer Luis Fernando Carvalho wrote a very boring screenplay, forgetting that cinema must have a suitable pace and language. Further, that the viewer not necessarily read the novel of Raduan Nassar before watching his movie. The poetic and erudite lines and dialogs are not adequate for cinema, but for theater. The movie is spoken in my native language, and I am completely tired with two hours of a very heavy and theatrical story. Imagine overseas viewers, trying to read the subtitles with this very unusual text! I have just checked the awards of "Lavoura Arcaica" and most of them refers to cinematography, lead actor, supporting actor and actress and other technical awards (art direction, editing, sound, music etc), which I totally agree. With a better screenplay and pace, "Lavoura Arcaica" could be an excellent movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Lavoura Arcaica" ("Archaic Field Work")

'Stunning' is not an exaggerated word to describe this film. The images are haunting, and I saw it on the small screen at home. I can only imagine what it must have looked like in a theatre.

Director Luiz Fernando Carvalho is masterful in meticulously capturing the poetic word rhythms of novelist Raduan Nassar, who wrote this metaphysical, philosophical work. The largely verbatim prose-poetry (direct from Nasar's book), spoken improvisationally by the actors, is psychologically multi-layered. It is all brilliantly complemented by Walter Cavalho's multi-award-winning cinematography. Cavalho's disturbing and often sumptuous images linger long after the screen has turned dark. One is reminded of Sven Nykvist's haunting style of 'still-life-photography' in films, particularly those made with Ingmar Bergman.

Lavoura Carcaica is almost three hours long, and (isn't this always the way with great films?) it requires an almost immediate re-viewing. One just cannot absorb the language and imagery in one sitting.

The ensemble acting is first-rate. Sultan Mello is the tortured son in temporary self-imposed exile from his family, who yearns (shamefully) for the love and sensual heat of his sister Ana's body; Simone Spoladore is the innocent, sweet-faced Ana, who expresses her desire for love by dancing (the images are more erotic than 99% of the soft-core sex you see in mainstream movies these days); Juliana Carneiro da Cunha is the loving, long-suffering mother who is an exemplar of maternity, a woman who sacrifices everything to her children, and particularly her 'pet,' Andre (Mello); and Raul Cortez is simply astonishing to watch as the austere, evangelistic, hypocritical father who rages about the primacy of familial love but doesn't really understand its true meaning when it comes to his own children.

This is a film that well deserved its many nominations and awards. It is deeply challenging and demanding, and it almost certainly would never have been made in Hollywood.

Well, I've actually seen this one in its entirety only once. First time around I gave up after 2 hours. Then I thought I might as well try again, as there could be some other great scenes in the last 40 minutes that I'd like to see on the big screen. It was worth it. It starts very well, and I like the ending, and there's lots of great stuff in between. But I have to say that 2 hours and 40 minutes was too long for this one. And a bunch of great scenes do not make a great movie just because they're put together, at least not in this case, I don't think so. Anyway, if you're in the mood for slow cinema, try this one.

Raduan Nassar is that kind of guy that has a totally different vision of the world. His books are always in surreal language, which is good but this time didn´t work at all. The story itself is weak. A man has to take his brother back home to his family because eveyone is suffering and nobody can take anymore, not even his father. The thing is "Lavoura Arcaica" is a excelent book but doesn´t work on the screen. This movie is brought to life as a Brazillian contemporary classic and in fact is not that much. People get excited and all, but they don´t really think what they are watching. It is true, Luiz Fernando Carvalho did a great job with the cast but that was all. He couldn´t put all the magic of the book to be present in this THREE HOUR movie that has a lots of good poetry that only Nassar can geniously write. Some sentences are said that touches you but are better written. Raul Cortez gives a normal performance that people insist that is remarkable but is not. The only thing remarkable in this movies is Selton Mello´s performance. One of the best of all time without a doubt. Worth a watch just to see this guy rock the screen taking all the poetry out.

"Lavoura Arcaica" is , of course, a good movie with a lot of beautiful stuff in it but is not all that people think. THREE HOURS are just too much boring but is worth to see a talent like Selton Mello giving everything he has and more. He steals every single scene he´s in. 7 out of 10.