Carandiru
Carandiru is a fairly good movie. Currently showing in the UK, this Brazilian all-time blockbuster is one of those prison films built on the inmates' lives, with striking resemblances to other recent ones (just an italian name: Mery per sempre).
This time the scene is Carandiru, the infamous brazilian prison in São Paulo, the time the 1980's-90's, and the common middle-class narrator is a doctor. Prisoners take turn in telling their stories where no one is ever guilty, depicting a brazilian way of life made of common crimes and bad choices. Death can be quite ordinary outside, but inside it's even cheaper, and it's more common for an inmate to be killed or consumed by drugs than leaving Carandiru on his own feet. The stories are all true, including the final carnage operated by (guess who) the police, whose chicken-shooting left 111 unarmed prisoners dead.
The story is strong enough to live without many special effects or director's tricks, but all in all Cidade de Deus is a much better movie by comparison. There you had different connecting stories, and it was a bravura perfomance by the director to manage them all together, with special effects wisely used to emphasize emotions. City of God is a masterpiece, Carandiru is just a good film, and the better box-office performance by the latter is probably due to its being released a few months after the former.
Anyway, if you can, watch both of them; Brazil is not just about Ronaldo, carnival and beaches; it's a country where 1% of the population owns 50% of the land, and 70% of the population is extremely poor. It's getting better now, and the quality of these movies is a sign of (at least cultural) renaissance, but there's still an awful lot of work to do.
(as seen by Jack)
This time the scene is Carandiru, the infamous brazilian prison in São Paulo, the time the 1980's-90's, and the common middle-class narrator is a doctor. Prisoners take turn in telling their stories where no one is ever guilty, depicting a brazilian way of life made of common crimes and bad choices. Death can be quite ordinary outside, but inside it's even cheaper, and it's more common for an inmate to be killed or consumed by drugs than leaving Carandiru on his own feet. The stories are all true, including the final carnage operated by (guess who) the police, whose chicken-shooting left 111 unarmed prisoners dead.
The story is strong enough to live without many special effects or director's tricks, but all in all Cidade de Deus is a much better movie by comparison. There you had different connecting stories, and it was a bravura perfomance by the director to manage them all together, with special effects wisely used to emphasize emotions. City of God is a masterpiece, Carandiru is just a good film, and the better box-office performance by the latter is probably due to its being released a few months after the former.
Anyway, if you can, watch both of them; Brazil is not just about Ronaldo, carnival and beaches; it's a country where 1% of the population owns 50% of the land, and 70% of the population is extremely poor. It's getting better now, and the quality of these movies is a sign of (at least cultural) renaissance, but there's still an awful lot of work to do.
(as seen by Jack)