ABRIL DESPEDAÇADO (Behind the Sun, 2001) ***1/2 This is a beautiful film, and one that takes many chances, every one of which works. The first things that really gets to you are Walter Salles' extraordinary motion poems, most obviously the fury of the (on foot) chase scene. I would have no idea where to even begin editing something into looking like that, and neither does anyone else or they would do it. Then it eventually dawns on you that the feud of the sugar cane families, while every bit as ridiculous and bizarre as it appeared at first glance, isn't necessarily that much stranger than our own culture, and in some ways perhaps even more honorable. Which is disconcerting, or should be. Salles was born with a magical eye-like Polanski or Torneur-that enables him to shoot absolutely any shot of anything in a way that is interesting. Flavia Marco Antonio and Rodrigo Santoro are spirited young star-crossed lovers to rival Oliva Hussey and Leonard Whiting in Romeo and Juliet, or Chen Chang and Ziyi Zhang in Wo Hu Cang Long. Only wonderful smiles and all the courage and hope in the cosmos as the Sword of Damocles is poised above their young necks. Salles obviously has a lot to say on a great many topics, but I don't believe that much of it is open to interpretation with the lone exception of the dénouement, and even that says something quite clearly--it's just that Salles leaves a loophole for those who lack the courage to address their own failures, and instead insist on worshipping at the altar of skepticism. For everyone else, begin from the radical premise that abject failure can lead to, can be a necessary prelude to, unrelated great personal victories. Then work tangents rather than concentric circles, as thoroughness is just another way to distract you from the things that really matter.
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