Mare: Nossa historia de amor & Second Saturday Star Sighting

My Canadian friend and I went to see a movie last night at the uber-artsy theater. It's a new Brazilian movie--a dance musical (!) called Mare: Nossa historia do amor (Mare: our love story), a self-proclaimed modern Romeo and Juliet story set in a Rio favela. It was my friend's idea and when she explained all that I was like WELL OF COURSE.

UPDATE: Spoiler alert. But considering it is a self-proclaimed Romeo and Juliet story, it's pretty obvious how it ends. It's like the Titanic. Anyway. You've been warned.

The story is actually a lot more West Side Story than Romeo and Juliet, other than using some scenes and music from the classical ballet in the movie. Analidia is the daughter of an imprisoned drug lord, and she falls in love Jonathan, the brother of a rival drug lord in the same favela. They both join the favela's dance troupe, run by a good-hearted Carioca dancer, and both find love and bliss in each other and in dancing. Soon, though, a war erupts between the rival drug factions, and the dance director tries to get the couple out by getting them dance scholarships "no exterior," somewhere NOT Brazil.

You can watch the trailer here.

So, in cinematic terms it was a bit juvenile: the story and the scenes were disjointed, and though the dancing and music was great, it was shot in a way that didn't allow you to appreciate the dancing. And some parts were just too cheesy. However, the music was probably the best thing--a very hip and smart mix of Brazilian hip-hop, funk, pop, and samba. You can listen to the soundtrack here -- click on TRILHA. Some of the acting wasn't up to par, with a few exceptions, including the main bad guys, Dudu and and Anjo. Maybe it's easier to play a bad guy than a good guy.

The director of the film is a trained classical ballet dancer, but most of the dancing was contemporary-jazzy-hip-hop, choreographed by the Uruguayan, Julliard-trained choreographer Graciela Figueroa. The dancers were chosen from an actual dance troupe in the Mare favela, as well as dancers from other groups around the city, including BST's rival group. In the end, the two main characters were very talented singers and dancers, especially Vinicius D'Black, the "Romeo" character, who has a gorgeous voice. And shall we take a peek at him? Also, check out a video of him auditioning from the Mare website.

 

Definitely a rising star.

So here was the best part about the movie: aside from some of the cheesy parts, the overall film was so real. My friend said she wanted to get the DVD because it was like having "Rio in a box." It plainly showed the reality of the slums, filming much of the movie in actual favelas, showing us what it looks like inside the home, with a curtain that separates the bathroom from the bedroom, or a bed shared by several sisters. It does what City of God doesn't: it showed us what favelas are like today, with all of the traffickers wielding their huge weapons in the streets and at funk parties, the electrical lines strung precariously between the cinderblock houses, the lingo, the hairstyles. It's all so incredibly real.

On the other hand, the realities of the teenagers was very very unsettling. The dance director was repeatedly threatened by the warring traffickers, basically in the cross hairs of a war she had nothing to do with while trying to help the community. When police invade the favela, several of the troupe's young dancers are killed. And then, at the end, the director tries to smuggle Jonathan out of the favela in a coffin, so that his evil brother can't stop him from leaving to dance abroad. People start spreading rumors that Jonathan has died, and so his brother and girlfriend (Analidia) come running over. The brother makes it there first, and in his grief starts shooting at the coffin. Analidia runs straight into a gun battle between the rival factions in the favela, and is instantly shot dead. The movie abruptly ends with a shot of blood seeping out of the coffin, and Analidia falling to the ground.

I was still trembling an hour later.

When we walked out of the theater, my friend stopped in her tracks, Roadrunner-style. "Oh my god. That guy was in the movie. Wasn't he??!" So I look over and sure enough it is Anjo Lopes, who played the evil trafficker-turned-dancer in the movie. I must admit I was kind of relieved to see him, since in the movie, despite leaving drug trafficking, he is brutally murdered by the rival drug trafficker.

My friend being ballsier than me, she headed right over to him, so I followed, and we started chatting with him. Unlike his cocky, obnoxious character, he was extremely sweet and down to earth, and told us he was a choreographer and ran a hip-hop dance group (not the same one as in Mare). It was his first movie. We told him we taught at BST. We felt really cool after that. But seriously--how random?!?!

 

The reason I was so unnerved by the movie was its parallels to the Ballet and everything we're doing there. If we ever lost a student, I'm not sure I would be able to deal with it. But at least, I feel comforted to know that other people are doing similar work, and that we are all doing a very, very good thing.

Comments

[Carin]

Way to go, Ms. Movie Reviewer!! Though I am shocked, SHOCKED, that it takes a CANADIAN (!!) to get a New York City Girl to approach a 'movie star.' Where is your city savvy???

Also, this movie sounds like the 3 million dance/romance American movies we've seen over the years, no???

[eu]

just a hint, next time don't give away the movie ending. :/

[jon]

Actually, its ok to give away the ending in a blog... you are supposed to have a
"SPOILER ALERT" right above the plot giveaways.

[Fabio]

Hello, and congratulations for the review. I've just seen that film at the local film festival here and your "spoiler" just cleared up my doubts I still had. It's though sometimes hard to understand for intermediate Portuguese speakers I think..warm regards, and interesting blog btw!