jgcorrea Review of Entranced Earth

Entranced Earth (1967)

¨Ride, boldly ride, the shade replied, if you seek for Eldorado!¨ (Edgar A. Poe)

[1/10 · 27 November 2017]

This one is incredibly listed in the popular reference book ¨1001 Movies you should see before you die.¨ Eldorado was, of course, Brazil. Director Rocha had some talent, although no sense of humor, which might have helped him in this particular instance. Drama, after all, is simply a serious way of being comic and - like the Romans used to say - ¨castigat ridendo mores¨ - punishing morals via laughter. Ironically, however, Mr. Rocha anticipated in 1967 the Brazil of nowadays, 32 years after the end of a military dictatorship regime: as of 2017 Brazil is a true... land in trance... full of corruption , populism & Tartuffe-like characters! In Rocha's 'fictional' Eldorado country, political power was challenged by an idealist-anarchist journalist-poet who opposed two corrupt politicians: a populist governor and a conservative president (suitably named Porfirio Diaz!). There is nothing wrong with politics-fiction provided there is some good story and some sound plot. But this film is ultra-tiring, irritatingly breathtaking as a kaleidoscopic satire on treacherous dictators who delight in cavorting while their naif electorate helps them to reach power. Filmed in the freestyle of the French Nouvelle Vague, Twisted Earth is approximately a hot mess. Its hand-held camera kinematics made it impossible to understand exactly what was happening in its convoluted plot. In 2017, it is a kind of time capsule, no more than a dated experimental-subversive production article with a leftist vision that advocated the 1960's counter-cultural posture.