The first post.

For some time, I have had a private blog that is basically only visible to four real-world friends. There is nothing wrong with this, but I have a number of online contacts from flickr who might possibly be interested in my thoughts. or not. There's also my family, which doesn't know about the other blog.

My idea is to have several linked blogs that address different interests: film, brazilian news and politics and other random shit.

I thought I would start out with a post that I put elsewhere.

Top Brazilian Films of 2005
When House of Sand was the Brazilian film selected for Sundance 2006, I was very disappointed: not only was Casa de Areia not the best Brazilian film from 2005; it wasn´t the fifth-best from the last three months of 2005. It was selected, I suspect, because of the director (Andrucha Waddington) who made a very successful film a few years back (Eu Tu Eles) and because of its stars, who included Fernanda Montenegro (Oscar Nominee for Central do Brasil) and her daughter Fernanda Torres.

Still, in an extraordinary beginning for the 2006 Oscar year, here are my top 10 Brazilian films--a top 10 list that should be the envy of any country in the world.

1. Crime delicado
Beto Brant´s beautiful(ly disturbing), very internal story of a theatre critic and a woman with only one leg, the photography is elegant and the lighting is sublime. It also captures São Paulo wonderfully, which brings us to why none of you will ever see it: it is just an independent film. There are no oppressed black people or exotic northeasterners or social consciousness or anything else that foreigners want in Latin American film. It is just a quirky little independent film that could be from any country in the world even as it is terribly paulistano.

2. Cinema, aspirinas e urubus
Possibly destined to be Brazil´s entry for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film (even though it isn´t colorful enough for foreign audiences) and the first national film ever selected by the foreign press as the best film at the São Paulo International Film Festival, this is the story of a German asprin salesman in northeastern Brazil during WWII. The landscape is dry and colorless yet breathtaking; the northeastern language is rhythmic and mesmerising; the writing and acting are both fab. My reservations include a few too many mirror shots--it got old fairly quickly.

3. O signo do caos
Somehow, Rogério Sganzerla´s last film was completed and released nearly 18 months after his death. A pointedly obtuse film, I found myself laughing near the beginning at the unabashed cinema novo aspects of the film. O signo do caos is a very cerebral and abstract film; it took me most of the film to "get it" (more-or-less) and I would hazard to guess that you have to both know a lot about Brazilian cinema and be an egomaniacal asshole to even think that you understood the film. I´ll place myself firmly in that latter category and on the fringes of the former.

4. O princípio e o fim
A fabulous documentary that involves director Eduardo Coutinho and a crew of filmmakers who take their equipment into the interior of Brazil without knowing what they are making a film about. It seems bizarre at first: the film shows the filmmakers simply talking to people with no particular questions to ask. In the end, however, they paint a beautiful portrait of the older members of a couple of small agricultural communities. The cinematography is excellent and the interviews are sometimes funny, quirky and touching.

5. Cidade Baixa
The first (and possibly the only) film on this list that will get wide release outside of Brazil, Cidade Baixa has everything that makes a Brazilian film popular in the exterior: it is colorful, exotic and has a social conscience that appeals to Europeans and North Americans who attend non-Hollywood films. By the way, it also happens to star three of the great young actors in Brazil: Lázaro Ramos who really is the man of the hour in Brazil (after his breakthrough roles in Carandiru and O homen que copiava, he was in 4 feature-length films in 2005 and one short--that I know of); Alice Braga, The Next Diva in Brazilian cinema (and a fine actress); and Wagner Moura (also the star of numerous films that have had some success in the exterior). The writing isn´t perfect and the film frankly rubs many Brazilians the wrong way; also, there is nothing groundbreaking about the filmmaking. Further, I think that the chemistry between the actors isn´t so good at the end as at the beginning (I assume they filmed the end first). Still, it is rich eyecandy and there is one stunningly beautiful and tender scene toward the beginning when Moura´s character is injured and Ramos is caring for him. And as I said, Machado understands the formula for a film that will have success in the exterior. This will turn Braga into an international star and will be Brazil´s entry for the 2007 Oscars if they go for the "safe" choice.

6. A máquina
Glossy, with a very silly story, this film is on my list for aural aesthetics alone. "A máquina" features what is perhaps 2005´s greatest acting performance in the entire world at the hands of Paulo Autran; this wouldn´t have been possible without the writing of João and Adriana Falcão, who managed to capture northeastern storytelling in a manner that is simply breathtaking.

7. Vida de menina
Helena Solberg manages to crystalize a diary into a coherent but not frustrating film; Ludmila Dayer´s acting is spot-on and the script is fairly well-written.

8. (tie) Casa de areia
Well-filmed in perhaps the most beautiful spot in all of Brazil and well-acted, the film falls short because the story is weak and the script doesn´t help it out any.

8. (tie) Vlado--30 anos depois
A nice, super low-budget documentary about the death of Vladimir Herzog; it would be in this spot even if it weren´t for a touching performance of "O bêbado e a equilibrista" by João Bosco and Aldir Blanc.

10. (tie) Vinícius
A fine documentary of a literary and musical idol, this probably wouldn´t make the top 10 if I had seen the documentary about Soy Cuba... Still, some of the interviews are revealing and the music is excellent (of course).

10. (tie) 2 Filhos de Francisco
Brazil´s entry for the 2006 Oscars, the top-grossing Brazilian film ever and the top-grossing film in Brazil this year (including Hollywood films), this is such a painfully local movie that it will never have success outside of Brazil. If you like sertanejo music, the soundtrack is amazing and if you don´t, it is jarring. Since the soundtrack dominates the film, this would kill the film for most non-Brazilians and many Brazilians. The film´s biggest flaw, however, is that it is one of those biopics that drags you around someone else´s life. Again, however, as a glossy mainstream film, it is perfectly fine.