Film ReviewsBoy & the World
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Brazilian Director, Alê Abreu, has created a masterpiece. Boy & the World (O Menino e o Mundo, original Portuguese title) is a quiet film that tells a seemingly familiar and simple story, but by the time the viewer realizes the depth and breadth of the story, he or she has undertaken an unimagined journey through physical and mental spaces, and time. The Brazilian auteur has a handful of animated films to his name. His body of work consists of short and feature films that combine the use of animation with a dose of realistic images to link imagination with starkly difficult and unjust worlds. Abreu builds on the musical and cultural traditions of Brazil to bring to the screen an experience of synesthetic proportions.
Boy & the World is the story of Cuca, a boy in a rural area who experiences the world when it is fresh and new, like he is; but, everything changes, and the boy goes off to search for the magic and love that were the foundation of his home and family. Cuca's search for his father who has left to find work in the city, leads Cuca to worlds shaped by greed and fear. The magic of Boy & the World is that the sense of longing and exploration that unravels on the screen penetrates the mind of the adult viewer because it entices him or her to use personal memories and imagination to recognize universal conflicts between man and nature, rich and poor, masters and slaves.
Abreu's earlier works use full and rich colors to bring to life characters that interact with an equally, and often overly rich environment. Abreu has collaborated with the likes of Arnaldo Atunes from the former Brazilian rock band, "Titãs" and who has helped shape contemporary Brazilian music along with "Tribalistas" collaborators Marisa Monte and Carlinhos Brown. The use of colors and musical collaborations give Abreu's work a truly Brazilian flavor. But Boy & the World is very different from the director's previous works. In this film, Abreu takes many risks that pay off in terms of an aesthetic shift in styles and a masterful use of music, sounds and silences that are at once relevant and in harmony with the visual storytelling. This is especially germane because Boy & the World is wordless and language is mimicked by sounds.
Boy & the World opens with simple lines reminiscent of a place from which everyone starts before pursuing their respective directions in life-colored pencils and crayons, oddly shaped flowers and butterflies. The protagonists emerge on the screen from simple circles, dashes for eyes, squiggly or straight lines for hair. These simple geometric compositions form expressive countenances that exude wonder, fear, love, etc. Abreu uses the full width and the depth of the screen to push images forward and back, far and near, and thus is able to layer on different worlds, from Amazonian flora to the industrial belly and concrete peaks of Rio de Janeiro's favelas. The imagery is free-flowing, and so, tracks turn to rain, rain turns to oceans, and childhood, adulthood, and old age all occupy the same plane. Abreu's musical team provides sublime instrumentation that infuses scenes with the spirit of Carnival not unlike Black Orpheus, the 1959 film version of Vinicius de Moraes' play "Orfeu da Conceição". In Boy & the World, Abreu teams up with Naná Vasconcelos, a master of percussion, and probably one of the best berimbau players in the world. The berimbau is a single-string, gourde instrument that is used in capoeira; its roots go back to the African continent and thus is an integral part of Afro-Brazilian culture. Its deep tones reverberate to create tension and emotive shifts through tonal variations.
Boy & the World is an emotionally and intellectually passionate film, and so of course, it's cognizant of the struggles that have been part of Brazil for centuries. In particular, of the conflict of a Brazil that declares "Ordem e Progresso" ("Order and Progress") on its national flag, and a Brazil that finds its freedom in the art, music and humanity of its people and nature. Boy & the World illustrates that order and progress come at a price, but what is undeniable is that what is stronger still is saudades that are felt by many Brazilians, and those viewers who are lucky enough to know it. Saudades is an untranslatable emotion that forms part of Brazil's poetic and emotional language. The term encapsulates an unquantifiable sense of longing and melancholy, a bittersweet love that never dies for family, place, lovers-a timeless freedom of spirit that cannot be contained.
Boy & the World shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, January 25 at 5:30 p.m.
Boy & the World is the story of Cuca, a boy in a rural area who experiences the world when it is fresh and new, like he is; but, everything changes, and the boy goes off to search for the magic and love that were the foundation of his home and family. Cuca's search for his father who has left to find work in the city, leads Cuca to worlds shaped by greed and fear. The magic of Boy & the World is that the sense of longing and exploration that unravels on the screen penetrates the mind of the adult viewer because it entices him or her to use personal memories and imagination to recognize universal conflicts between man and nature, rich and poor, masters and slaves.
Abreu's earlier works use full and rich colors to bring to life characters that interact with an equally, and often overly rich environment. Abreu has collaborated with the likes of Arnaldo Atunes from the former Brazilian rock band, "Titãs" and who has helped shape contemporary Brazilian music along with "Tribalistas" collaborators Marisa Monte and Carlinhos Brown. The use of colors and musical collaborations give Abreu's work a truly Brazilian flavor. But Boy & the World is very different from the director's previous works. In this film, Abreu takes many risks that pay off in terms of an aesthetic shift in styles and a masterful use of music, sounds and silences that are at once relevant and in harmony with the visual storytelling. This is especially germane because Boy & the World is wordless and language is mimicked by sounds.
Boy & the World opens with simple lines reminiscent of a place from which everyone starts before pursuing their respective directions in life-colored pencils and crayons, oddly shaped flowers and butterflies. The protagonists emerge on the screen from simple circles, dashes for eyes, squiggly or straight lines for hair. These simple geometric compositions form expressive countenances that exude wonder, fear, love, etc. Abreu uses the full width and the depth of the screen to push images forward and back, far and near, and thus is able to layer on different worlds, from Amazonian flora to the industrial belly and concrete peaks of Rio de Janeiro's favelas. The imagery is free-flowing, and so, tracks turn to rain, rain turns to oceans, and childhood, adulthood, and old age all occupy the same plane. Abreu's musical team provides sublime instrumentation that infuses scenes with the spirit of Carnival not unlike Black Orpheus, the 1959 film version of Vinicius de Moraes' play "Orfeu da Conceição". In Boy & the World, Abreu teams up with Naná Vasconcelos, a master of percussion, and probably one of the best berimbau players in the world. The berimbau is a single-string, gourde instrument that is used in capoeira; its roots go back to the African continent and thus is an integral part of Afro-Brazilian culture. Its deep tones reverberate to create tension and emotive shifts through tonal variations.
Boy & the World is an emotionally and intellectually passionate film, and so of course, it's cognizant of the struggles that have been part of Brazil for centuries. In particular, of the conflict of a Brazil that declares "Ordem e Progresso" ("Order and Progress") on its national flag, and a Brazil that finds its freedom in the art, music and humanity of its people and nature. Boy & the World illustrates that order and progress come at a price, but what is undeniable is that what is stronger still is saudades that are felt by many Brazilians, and those viewers who are lucky enough to know it. Saudades is an untranslatable emotion that forms part of Brazil's poetic and emotional language. The term encapsulates an unquantifiable sense of longing and melancholy, a bittersweet love that never dies for family, place, lovers-a timeless freedom of spirit that cannot be contained.
Boy & the World shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, January 25 at 5:30 p.m.