What to Watch on Cinema Tropical This Week
This week, Sag Harbor Cinema is proud to host in their virtual theater a special double stream of Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho‘s smash hit Bacurau, co-directed with Juliano Dornelles (2019), alongside his widely acclaimed directorial debut Neighboring Sounds (2012). Both films will be available to stream nationwide starting this Friday, February 19.
With a story as stunningly told as it is shot, Bacurau is one of the most unique, genre-bending, weird western, political thrillers of all time. It was the recipient of the Jury Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and, in case you missed the headline, former President Obama even included the film on his Best of 2020 list. Not to be outshined, The New York Times listed Mendonça Filho’s
Neighboring Sounds, winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best Latin American Film, as one of the top ten movies of 2012.
In conjunction with this special program, Cinema Tropical and Sag Harbor Cinema are pleased to present a live conversation this Sunday, February 21 at 4:30pm ET with Brazilian writer-directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, moderated by SHC artistic director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan.
Premiering Online This Week:
Sag Harbor Cinema Presents:
NEIGHBORING SOUNDS
(O Som ao Redor, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2012, 131 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Life in a middle-class neighborhood in present day Recife, Brazil, takes an unexpected turn after the arrival of an independent private security firm. The presence of these men brings a sense of safety and a good deal of anxiety to a culture which runs on fear. Meanwhile, Bia, married and mother of two, must find a way to deal with the constant barking and howling of her neighbor’s dog. A slice of ‘Braziliana’, a reflection on history, violence and noise.
BACURAU
(Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, Brazil/France, 2019, 131 min. In Portuguese and English with English subtitles)
A few years from now… Bacurau, a small village in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their village has literally vanished from most maps and a UFO-shaped drone starts flying overhead. There are forces that want to expel them from their homes, and soon, in a genre-bending twist, a band of armed mercenaries arrive in town picking off the inhabitants one by one. A fierce confrontation takes place when the townspeople turn the tables on the villainous outsiders, banding together by any means necessary to protect and maintain their remote community.
Streaming Friday, February 19 through Thursday, February 25
Films Available to Stream Now:
Virtual Theatrical Release:
IDENTIFYING FEATURES
(Sin señas particulares, Fernanda Valadez, Mexico/Spain, 2020, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Middle-aged Magdalena (Mercedes Hernandez) has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend from their town of Guanajuato to cross the border into the U.S., hopeful to find work. Desperate to find out what happened to him—and to know whether or not he’s even alive—she embarks on an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous journey to discover the truth. At the same time, a young man named Miguel (David Illescas) has returned to Mexico after being deported from the U.S., and eventually his path converges with Magdalena’s. From this simple but urgent premise, director Fernanda Valadez has crafted a lyrical, suspenseful slow burn, equally constructed of moments of beauty and horror, and which leads to a startling, shattering conclusion. Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Audience and Screenplay Awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. A Kino Lorber release.
Daily Recommendation:
THE LIFEGUARD
(El salvavidas, Maite Alberdi, Chile, 2011, 64 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A new day dawns at the beach. Lifeguard Mauricio starts his daily routine: setting up his observation tower, checking the weather forecast and the tides, and updating his logbook. With his deep tan and dreadlocks, Mauricio looks like a chilled-out surfer dude, but in reality, this serious young man is anything but. Rules are rules, and he strictly enforces the ban on alcohol, unleashed dogs and barbecues on his beach. Also, prevention is better than cure: he keeps a watchful eye on the bathers, reprimanding them when necessary with a shrill blast on his whistle. But the vacationers really don’t appreciate being ordered around. Neither is Mauricio popular among his fellow lifeguards.
Daily Recommendation:
FAMILY LIFE
(Vida de familia, Alicia Scherson and Cristian Jiménez, Chile, 2017, 80 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A young family temporarily relocates for the father’s professorship, and an estranged cousin is recruited to house-sit. Martin, the cousin, is a peculiar, brooding, scruffy man. Eager to go, the family dismisses any doubts they have and leave the house in Martin’s care. Left to his own devices, Martin listlessly chain-smokes and goes through Bruno’s personal things. When Martin wanders out, he encounters an attractive single mother. He brings her to the house where he poses as a divorcee who doesn’t get to see his daughter. They get hot and heavy, and soon Martin starts to play father figure to her son, turning their casual fling into domestic bliss, all while seemingly oblivious to the family’s imminent return. Family Life intrepidly weaves together the perspectives of a couple nobly navigating their family doldrums, and Martin, a drifter seizing a short-term lease on family life. Chile’s most original filmmakers, director Alicia Scherson and co-director Christián Jiménez, team up to knock out an unconventional and profound study of living vicariously in this aloof, melancholy comedy.
Conversation With BACURAU Directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
Join us for a special conversation with Brazilian writer-directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles in conversation on their acclaimed film Bacurau with Sag Harbor Cinema’s artistic director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, co-presented by Cinema Tropical.
Sunday, February 21, 4:30pm EST – Register Here
Daily Recommendation:
REACHING FOR THE MOON
(Flores raras, Bruno Barreto, Brazil, 2013, 118 min. In Portuguese and English with English subtitles)
This sumptuous English-language ‘50s period piece recounts the mid-life years of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop (played by Miranda Otto, Lord of the Rings) when she left America to live and write in Rio de Janiero—where she would also fall in love with well-off architect Lota de Macedo Soares (butched up to the hilt by beautifully handsome Brazilian TV star Gloria Pires). Initial hostilities between the pair make way for a complicated yet long-lasting love affair that dramatically alters Bishop’s relationship to the world around her. From renowned Brazilian director Bruno Barreto (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands), Reaching for the Moon is an intimate snapshot of the search for inspiration, wherever and however you find it.
Daily Recommendation:
I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT
(De eso no se abla, María Luis Bemberg, Argentina/Italy, 1994, 105 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
The title of María Luisa Bemberg’s subtle, touching film refers to the determination expressed by the proud widow Leonor (Brando) regarding the condition of her daughter Charlotte (Podestá). Quite simply, Leonor will not accept the fact that the girl is a dwarf. Instead, she showers her beloved progeny with kindness and encourages her interest in the arts – an interest which forms the basis of a friendship between the teenager and Don Ludovico D’Andrea (Mastroianni), an elderly bachelor of mysterious origins who falls profoundly in love with the girl. Set in a small Argentinian town in the ’40s, Bemberg’s poignant fable succeeds largely through understatement and the principals’ superb performances. Mercifully, while there are a few faintly surreal touches, the magic here derives from the cool, unsentimental, down-to-earth appraisal of the trio’s tangled emotions. It’s a tender movie, but never needlessly romanticized, and not without its quiet cruelties.
Watch Now
Daily Recommendation:
TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG
(Tarde para morir joven, Dominga Sotomayor, Chile/Brazil/Argentina /Netherlands/Qatar, 2018, 110 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Starring trans actor Demian Hernández — who has formally transitioned since production — in the role of Sofía, and inspired by the director’s own childhood, the third feature by Sotomayor (Thursday till Sunday, Mar) is set in the summer of 1990, directly following Chile’s transition to democracy. Political change, however, seems a world away for 16-year-old Sofía, who lives far off the grid in a mountain enclave of artists and bohemians. Too Late to Die Young takes place during the hot, languorous days between Christmas and New Year’s, when the troubling realities of the adult world — and the elemental forces of nature — begin to intrude on her teenage idyll.