Marcelia Cartaxo ('Hour of the Star') redefines the meaning of crazy old lady in an on/off Brazilian first feature by Allan Deberton.
is a case in point. The first half is such a broad comedy that it will turn off many festival audiences, until quite suddenly the tone turns somber and meaningful for another half hour. The ending is unclassifiable, a vindication of difference as beauty that leaves a sense of wonder – and wondering what this film is all about.
Playing the title role of an eccentric ex-ballet dancer somewhere around 70 is Marcelia Cartaxo, who won the Berlinale best actress award for her mentally challenged secretary in Suzana Amaral’s. Here a cheerful opening dance number, in which she sings and cavorts with a broom on the front porch of her house while shouting obscenities at unseen passersby, is enough to disorient anybody.
The film’s tone is still lighthearted comedy when trouble begins brewing. Pacarrete waltzes into the office of the city’s hip head of cultural events and announces she has decided to give Russas a gift for its 200th anniversary: she will dust off her tutu and ballet slippers and perform a classical dance on stage during the celebrations. Brushing her off is not easy, and after a tussle in the car, the official kicks her out near a sinister abandoned factory.
This prepares the way for the astonishing third act, in which she reacts to the noise and confusion of the city’s celebrations outside her house with a moment of sheer imagination. And once again the filmmaker follows suit, pulling the rug out from under the audience. So it is a film that bears watching to the end, if nothing else for Cartaxo’s extraordinary ability to be fascinating and liberating, whatever her state of mind.
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