Going Nowhere, Going Home
Review of Central do Brasil (1998, a/k/a Central Station; Portuguese with English subtitles)
Seen on Christmas Eve 1998 with Linda at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas for $8.75
Big cities are renowned for grinding down the little people, and that goes triple for the third world. Much like the world of Bunuel's Mexico City in Los Olvidados, Rio de Janeiro is merciless. People are out for themselves and if you take a wrong turn, you are much more likely to be the victim of vigilante justice than police brutality.
Dora is a retired schoolteacher who supplements her pension by writing letters for illiterate peasants reporting home on their urban fortunes--sometimes lying, so no one will worry. They trust her to send the, but she often doesn't, playing God and judging which ones will reach their destination.
One of her patrons is killed by a bus, leaving her son Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira) to fend for himself on the streets. Dora takes pity on him and takes him in. Thinking she can get him adopted by rich foreigners, Dora sells him to a local thug, and she buys a new television.
Horrified to learn that he is more likely going to become an unwilling--and deceased--organ donor, she kidnaps him, and the two go on the run. Dora hopes to reunite him with his father in a remote rural outpost.
Fernanda Montenegro's Dora is both hard-bitten and vulnerable. It's easy to see the decent person underneath the her current cynical shell. De Oliveira, a nonactor, is wonderful as not just a helpless child, but as Dora's moral barometer. His outrage at her low ethics helps prompt her into better behavior.
What ensues is a journey "from nowhere to nowhere," as another critic put it; Josue's father has moved several times, and Dora pushes further into the frontier to find him. What happens is not predictable. Dora's metaphoric journey and inevitable decisions are selfless. Given the hopeless nature of Rio, her decisions are almost miraculous, as she gives back hope and faith despite crushing realities. It takes looking after a young boy for Dora to come to a major realization: "I long for my father; I long for everything." The letters dictated to her are more than messages; they are prayers.
Director Walter Salles Jr. takes us through the unfamiliar landscapes of urban and rural Brazil. Surrounded by natural splendors, we see the emptiness of the cramped tenement projects in Rio, and the fullness of the open valleys of the north. The further they go from Rio, the more blind faith and religious imagery fills the vacant rural landscape. In a way, the excesses of decadent greed and religious fervor both are seen as crazy, spinning out of control.
The Portuguese title (Central do Brasil) suggests that what is happening here is essentially what is happening in Brazil. Salles shows what's possible when cynicism and greed are dropped in favor of belief
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
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