Change Your Image
asmgodoy
Arnaldo Sampaio de Moraes Godoy
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Rebecca (1940)
A classic by all means
Not always the title of a novel, or a movie, has to do with the main issue that is treated in the novel, or on the movie. It stands to The Name of Rose (there is no one called Rose in the novel), as well as to the Three Musketeers (Dumas tell us the story of D'Artagnan, and not the story of the musketeers, who are Athos, Porthos, and Aramis). It goes quite perfectly well to Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca. A classic, by all means, Rebecca has been challenging its viewers since 1940, the year it was released. Throughout the movie Rebecca is the main character, she is everywhere, she is in everyone's minds and thoughts, but she never appears. We have no idea of how she was, yet she remains at the core of this charming movie. Sir Lawrence Oliver (by then very you'd and handsome) is a millionaire who marries a humble girl, played by Joan Fontaine. They live in a castle, owned by the sometimes irksome millionaire. But Rebecca, to whom the millionaire was firstly married, seems to be everywhere. To impose herself in this new and aggressive milieu the humble girl has to face Rebecca's ghost. Amazing, and not arguably up to date, due to the mystery Hitchcock carries on.
O Som ao Redor (2012)
Decipher or be devoured
As for the naturality and the intimacy of the dialogues, one feels as if one is watching a reality show. One has the feeling of watching the private life of the characters. There is a sort of an insinuation of voyeurism, quite telling in the scene in which Bia (Maeve Jenkings, a constant actress in Kleber Mendonças' movies) get excited by the washing machine sound and movements. The whole neighborhood is portraited, with quite an intense amount of realism. There is almost every feasible character in such places: a doorman who sleeps on duty, a drug dealer, a drug addict, an arrogant grandson of a decadent landowner. The director advances, digress, cut the narrative path, regain terrain, give false hints, inserts characters who surprise a good behavior viewer, used to the common north-American paradigm of begin-tension-happy end. It might be a hard movie to understand if the viewer demands a conventional plot. Not everything is explained, although almost every scene makes us think. However, it can be an easy movie if the central tension is understood at the beginning. Where is the main problem? The movie was shot in 2002 when the Brazilian problem of the militias was already into discussion Clodoaldo, a militiaman, and his brother, take care, they surprise the viewer. The 20 Brazilian reais they charge from every neighbor to protect them suggests some more profound thoughts. This is the mystery of this intriguing movie. Either you decipher or you will be devoured.
Die Welle (2008)
The phantom of the totalitarianism
"The wave", directed by Dennis Gansel, pose us a question: are there conditions for the return of Nazism in Germany? In the movie, a bored German professor teaches Political Science. Nonetheless totally against any form of historical revisionism, he was chosen to teach a course on totalitarianism. He does not accept the task and decided to prove that Germany had all the conditions for the return of the totalitarianism phantom, for it was a condition that he assumed intrinsic to the cultural and historical identity of the students he was working with. His educational methods were similar to Goebbels's propaganda technics. He trickery involved the students, with symbols and subtle technics of intimidation. The swastika was replaced by a wave. The situation could be out of control. Dennis Gansel, the director, seems to remind us that freedom charges the price of eternal vigilance.
El pasado (2007)
Forgerfulness as a way of healing our evils
"El pasado" is an introspective and provocative movie that asks us the scope of liberty that we have towards our history. Until which point can we forget what we have been through? Or yet, how do we build our narratives? Forgetfulness is a way of healing our evils. In "El pasado" Rimini (Gael Garcia Bernal) is a young translator who lives a torment when getting a divorce from Sofia (Analia Couceyro), with whom he was married for 12 years. Sofia did not accept the separation. Rimini was a translator and he started forgetting some English and French words, languages he mastered quite well up to them. It adds some more suffering to his life. Hector Babenco, the director, who was born in Argentina. He conducted well-commented movies, such as "Playing in the fields of the Lord". As Hitchcock use to do in his films, Babenco plays a short scene in the movie. Try to find when.
A Vida Invisível (2019)
The father's wounded proud
Two sisters. One in Athens, and the other one in Wien. Both, however, actually in Rio de Janeiro. The meeting might be problematic, as if in Athens and in Wien they were, just because in Athens and in Wien they reciprocally believed they could be indeed. In "Invisible Life" the vertex of the plot is the father's wounded proud. The father is a despot. In the edges, one daughter who did not give up her liberty and the other one who did not give up her carrier as pianist. Did they fail? As for the tensions, "Invisible Life" strongly touches chauvinism, indifference, women's social insertion, as well as the systematic limitation to the expansion of women's condition. From the ethical point of view "Invisible Life" is a movie that denounces the feminine oppression. Albeit slightly melodramatic it is movie that enhances the desire of changing life. Arnaldo Godoy (Brazil).
Omaret yakobean (2006)
The conflicts of a secularized society
Do not bother the fact that a movie with an Egyptian outlook does not feature pharaohs, pyramids, looted tombs and camels on a desert parade. In "The Yacoubian building" the viewer does not visit this recurrent image of a heroic Egypt, whose exoticism is one the keystones of orientalism, a thesis defended by the late Edward Said. This interesting movie unfolds its script within the boundaries and the conflicts of a secularized society. The inhabitants of the building share the same urban problems that we presently face, it does not matter where. It is not necessary to understand Arabic or to have a profound knowledge of the Muslim culture in order to comprehend the plot. The building itself, once glamorous, seems to be decadent. Perhaps a metaphor for the Egyptian history. "The Yacoubian building" shows a society divided in eastern and western values. Indeed, it is not a movie about Egypt. It is an Egyptian movie. That is main appeal.
The Good German (2006)
The struggle for the right of writing war memories
Filmed in black and white, with scenes and dialogues that somewhat recall us Casablanca, and as electricizing as, "The good German" is an ultimate proof that every era tells us its own history. Starting with an unexpected encounter between two lovers Steven Soderbergh fixed a realist picture of the struggle regarding the privilege of writing about the war with the benefit of forgetting bad reminiscences. The Americans and the Russians dispute a new war: who will possess the memory of the losers. "The good German" remind us that History can be much less a report of what happened than the result of our world visions.
Aquarius (2016)
Real state speculation and the struggle for the past
Aquarius pictures a seeming conflict between real state speculation and a stubborn Brazilian lady. However, a more profound battle enhances the plot's backbone: the resistance towards the present through the appeal of the past. A certain obsession with the past might be an interpretative key to this charming movie. Clara, the main character, played by Sonia Braga (a Brazilian paramount star) on a certain moment proudly shows a John Lennon's LP, Double Fantasy, in which there is a Los Angeles Times old clipping commenting the plans that Lennon had for the future. He was murdered just a month after. She says: a message in the battle, which is another reference to the past. One has in mind the infamous Police's tune. Clara resists the present for perhaps she cannot accept her failures. Aquarius captures real life characters, on a glowing Brazilian language. A fascinating movie.
Bacurau (2019)
A fragment of Brazil's history
Bacurau is a fragment and a witness of Brazil's history. It is imbibed in a heavy heritage of slavery, exploitation, State neglect and a patrimonialism that has been not solved so far. Bacurau also is a narrative that retakes the romanticism of "cangaço", a Brazilian's hinterland sort of a social bandit. In Bacurau there is a strange character that do not speak, albeit it has seen everything: Bacurau's historical museum. The resistance towards the cleaning of the walls, right after the final battle, might be a museum's clear remark that history is written with fight, for only struggle has the power of changing life. A great movie, that worth seeing with care.