Free event: Mostra Brazilian Film Series

The Mostra Brazilian Film Series ends with this last screening. Era Uma Vez (Once Upon a Time in Rio) is a romantic drama. In Carra-Cega (The Blind Game), a man wounded in a fight with the police is sheltered by a woman.

Mostra Brazilian Film Series
Saturday, November 17, 2012
3:30 p.m. - Era Uma Vez (Once Upon a Time in Rio)
6 p.m. - Carra-Cega (The Blind Game)
Columbia College's Film Row
Wabash & 11th St., 8th Floor

Free event: Mostra Brazilian Film Series

The Mostra Brazilian Film Series is hosting a bunch of films around the Chicagoland area, taking place mostly at universities from as far down south as Urbana-Champaign to as local as Columbia College. There are two more free screenings this week, the first takes place tomorrow, a schedule of short films and two feature length films.

Besides the short fiction, there is also a documentary and a feature film. Each of screenings is accompanied by an additional short film. Paralelo 10 concerns the plight of indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest, located in the 10th parallel. Su Quando Eu Danco (Only When I Dance), another documetnary, is billed as " Mad Hot Ballroom meets Billy Elliot."

Mostra Brazilian Film Series
Thursday, November 15, 2012
3:30 p.m. - Short Fiction Program
6:00 p.m. - Paralelo 10 (The 10th Parallel)
8:00 p.m. - So Quando Eu Danco (Only When I Dance)
Columbia College's Film Row
Wabash & 11th St., 8th Floor

CIFF 2011: The Clown

This Brazilian film tells the story of Benjamin, a clown in a rag tag travelling circus who is hoping to discover his past. All Benjamin has of his history is a birth certificate and his father and fellow clown in the Circus Esperanca (Hope Circus). Their acts are well-worn but still tailored to each of the little towns they visit, creating happy distractions to the townsfolk.

Benjamin breaks away from his circus family to try to discover who his mother is (and for some reason, a portable fan). It's a sort of low rent Wizard of Oz quest, as Benjamin experiences the senseless outside world only to realize he belongs with the circus folk who valued him all along.

Many films about clowns portray the sentiment of "laughing on the outside, crying on the inside," and that is also the case here. When Benjamin is not performing, we see the despondency on his face, until his last realization that he should not be seeking something that doesn't want him, and instead go where he is wanted. There are slapstick clown routines which different members of the circus participate in, many of which feel like silent film humor, but through which we can see the circus' precarious existence. As a whole the film has a sensibility and visual style similar to that of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Amelie).

Halloween horror: Coffin Joe: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul

Did I grab you with that title? This is an early horror movie about Coffin Joe aka Ze, the charismatic but feared undertaker that serves a Brazilian town. Although he has his own woman Lenita, he lusts after Terezina because he has yet been unable to bear an heir through his wife. His disappointment in Lenita brings him to get rid of her, and he insinuates himself on Terezina after getting rid of her boyfriend. Terezina commits suicide, swearing to come back to haunt him. Once she is dead, Joe sets his eyes on the barmaid. None of the men in town are brave enough to stand up to him, allowing him to continue his lustful ways as well as his serial killing and maiming of citizens.