Brazilian Directors: Films In & Outside Brazil
Daniela Thomas
Midnight (DVD)
Midnight (VHS)
directed by Walter Salles
and Daniela Thomas
(1998)
Refusing to spend the last day of the 20th
century in prison, Joao (Luis Carlos Vasconcellos) agrees to murder his best
friend in return for his freedom. Out of desperation, Maria (Fernanda Torres), a
beautiful young speech thereapist looks to end her life after being abandoned by
the man she loves. The two meet on the rooftop of a
building overlooking Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach. As the new millennium
approaches and fireworks ignite around them, Joao and Maria make a commitment to
reclaim their hope and begin a new life.
Foreign Land
(DVD) A simple but superb little thriller. Aspiring
actor Paco (Fernando Alves Pinto) lives in a poor area of São Paolo, Brazil,
with his mother, who yearns to go back to her native Spain. When she dies
abruptly, Paco finds himself without direction and falls in with a man named
Igor, who asks him to carry an antique violin to Lisbon. There he finds himself
caught up in a black-market scam, from which his only hope of escape is a woman
named Alex (Fernanda Torres)--only Alex has an agenda of her own. Foreign
Land resembles a lean, low-budget film noir like Detour or The
Asphalt Jungle, only filmed with the spare yet beautiful visual aesthetic of
a director like Antonioni. The gritty black and white images are astoundingly
gorgeous, yet visual style never gets in the way of an engrossing, emotionally
compelling crime story. As Paco and Alex drive to the border of Spain, hoping to
escape the dangerous mess their lives have become, Foreign Land becomes
downright heartbreaking. Sexy, suspenseful, poetic, and shot through with dark,
ironic humor--basically, this is the movie just about every American director
wants to make but doesn't know how. A knockout. --Bret Fetzer 
Foreign Land
(VHS)
directed by Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas
(1995)