Cinema Wanderlust » Tumbleweeding

Cinema-inspired Wanderlust: Brazil via Adrift

May 222012

A few months ago I watched the Brazilian film “Adrift” by Heitor Dhalia. IMDb and Wikipedia will have you believe that it stars Camilla Belle and Vincent Cassel. The truth is, it does kind of star Vincent Cassel, it doesn’t really star Camilla Belle. She is in it, and she does a fantastic job, but she only has maybe 5 lines (I could be exaggerating), and yes– they are in Portuguese. I was happy; had they been in English the film may have lost a bit of integrity in my eyes.

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I had to revisit the film again and screen-grab some of the breathtaking exteriors. The photos I found online didn’t do it justice.

The real star is Laura Neiva, and she is incredible. Her acting is subtle, but moving. It looks like this is her first and only film, but I hope she continues to do more.

I want to ride my bike HERE.

What caught my eye–of course– was the beautiful landscape and the interiors. The film takes place in Búzios, a town in the state of Rio de Janeiro and apparently loved and adored by Brigitte Bardot. I can see why.

We follow Filipa, a 14-year-old girl on vacation with her father, mother, and two younger brothers. When Filipa discovers that her dad might be cheating on her mom with a young American tourist (enter Camilla Belle), she begins snooping in her dad’s office, keeping one eye on him as she frolics in the beautifully clear water, and following him to his young lover’s beach house nestled above a cliff.

The ending was a pleasant surprise. It was a twist that was extremely realistic. I anticipated a certain ending, I thought the film was building up to something in particular, and I wasn’t disappointed, but I wasn’t entirely correct. This is my terrible attempt at not giving away the ending but making it sound really mysterious and enticing you to watch it to find out. I’m doing a bad job, aren’t I? Yes.

I wanted to go to Brazil before. This movie made me want to go even more while also adding more pine needles and string to the huge love nest I am building for myself and Latin American cinema.

Not pictured: dance parties at dusk on patios decorated with candles and dimly glowing string lights.

I girl-ed out over Camilla Belle’s wardrobe, particularly her beach outfits.

I will leave you with the trailer. This film is highly recommended (that sounds so passive). Not only is the landscape beautiful and awe-inspiring, but the story itself is beautiful. Watch, watch, watch!

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Cinema-inspired Wanderlust: Mexico via Sin Nombre

Cinema Wanderlust 1 Response »

May 082012

You know how sometimes a glimpse of a landscape (or in this case a landscape and several hastily rolled burritos) from a movie gets you itching to travel off somewhere new and wonderful?

“Sin Nombre” did that to me a few years ago. No, I do not dream of encountering wayfaring gang members. Yes, the movie does depict poverty and violence, and is at times alarming. Please let me refer you to this article for details on why that won’t deter me from travelling to Mexico.

Now back to the wanderlust. Towards the beginning of the movie, when the main character Sayra is semi-arguing with her father about making the trip to the USA, my heart wrenched for her plight but my eyes stayed glued to the city landscape in the background. They were hanging out on what looked like a rooftop patio. I am obsessed with rooftop patios. My eyes continued to focus on what was behind people while they were talking in the film rather than the actors themselves. Maybe that’s why I’ve watched this film so many times, I always see something new, even if it’s what I was meant to see the first time.

It will come to a shock to no one that every wall in every room in this film was painted in colorful blues, reds, and oranges, and I love painted walls. The landscape around them was just as colorful. Since the movie spends a lot of time following people sitting on tops of train cars (see photo above), the audience was afforded beautiful views of the Mexican landscape for a decent portion of the film. Maybe beauty isn’t what director Cary Fukunaga was trying to convey, but I’d argue that it was. For one, who wants to watch an ugly movie? Even if the topic is gruesome. And then, of course, the bond that develops between main characters Sayra and her unlikely and begrudging savior, Willy, is the crux of the story.

Every time I watch this movie, I realize someone needs to light fire to my ass on this whole “learning Spanish” thing.

I’ll leave you with the trailer, which my mom will probably watch and decide I can never go to Mexico unless I’m at an all-inclusive, touristified “safe” resort, to which I’ll spend time reassuring her (hi mom!) but we’ll both realize I’m in my mid-20s now and she will eventually trust me:

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The movie was on Netflix last time I checked, so queue it! Adios!

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