The torments of the young Aquaman...
Praia do Futuro opens under the sun of Brasil, and closes
in the mist of Northern Germany.
Beyond geography, this passage is quite meaningfull.
As at the end of this film by Karim
Aïnouz
– departing from some not very solid, but real promisses
– departing from some not very solid, but real promisses
- one remains
with the impression
of having assisted to an evanescent film,
with the impression
of having assisted to an evanescent film,
untouchable
but joyfull,
but joyfull,
just like that final mist...
If this film were born
on the times of Fassbinder,
it would have been a marvel.
Nowadays,
having to adapt
to the zero suffering policy
of the spirit of our time,
it can only pervade into a neither hot or cold...
having to adapt
to the zero suffering policy
of the spirit of our time,
it can only pervade into a neither hot or cold...
Praia do Futuro opens with
an event:
Brazilian lifeguard Donato (Wagner Moura)
manages to save German tourist Konrad (Clemens Schick)
from a ferocious undercurrent
on Brazil’s northern coast.
Brazilian lifeguard Donato (Wagner Moura)
manages to save German tourist Konrad (Clemens Schick)
from a ferocious undercurrent
on Brazil’s northern coast.
He saves Konrad, but not Konrad’s friend.
This film has the merit
of avoiding any didascalia
and any pointless explanation.
Its narrative proceeds
by lapses, allusions
and sous-entendus.
and sous-entendus.
Praia do
futuro is a beach with dangerous
waters,
deep and powerfull.
deep and powerfull.
Donato, nicknamed by his younger
brother “Aquaman”,
reads well
the rumour of those waves.
Water is his vital element
and the sea is his home.
It is
only when embraced by the sea
that he feels
in peace
with who he is.
brother “Aquaman”,
reads well
the rumour of those waves.
Water is his vital element
and the sea is his home.
It is
only when embraced by the sea
that he feels
in peace
with who he is.
With
Konrad,
Donato loses himself
in the unknown waters of love.
Donato loses himself
in the unknown waters of love.
As Konrad and Donato
immediately become lovers.
immediately become lovers.
They fuck and
fuck again,
with high mutual pleasure
and a certain grace.
with high mutual pleasure
and a certain grace.
When the German goes
back
to Berlin,
to Berlin,
he takes with
him his Brazilian boyfriend.
him his Brazilian boyfriend.
Their relationship
grows day after
day.
day.
There is little
tenderness, though,
or warm gestures between the two.
Konrad and Donato are always
fucking,
always rather hard,
in a sort of a very male variety of homosexuality...
... always like in a
sort of an untold male competition,
in order to conquer in the couple
the part
of the Alpha male...
...Gay sex
as a continuation
of the war
for the male supremacy...
don’t you think of one of these gay films
from Northern european countries,
mixing homosexuality and fetichistic images,
neonazi and neonibelungic or other...
Thank God,
even if this
film unfolds most of the time in Berlin,
the director spares us
the sex caves
and all the cheap folklore
that comes with it.
He only concentrates on
Konrad and Donato, and he is right.
As Berlin does not do
good to their story.
Donato feels he is lost, rootless,
he left his familly,
his beach,
his work,
and for what?
For love?
But is this love,
that
thing he has with Konrad?
Praia do Futuro touches here to sensitive matters...
It
obliges us all
to question ourselves
about what is the price
and which exactly
are the choices
made for/out of love...
...We do not know why or
how,
but Donato and Konrad drift apart...
...and it is in this new
kind of strangeness, in this big chill,
that lays the most noble,
and also the
thoughest part of this film.
But it is also here
that
the film does not dare
to go beyond certain limits.
The Director should have
deepened more the scalpel
on that feeling of being lost..
...on those love-affairs
based on flesh
that tend to soften out..
...on the volatillity
of a certain homosexual
desire...
But he does not do it.
He
does not want to do it,
or he just cannot succeed in doing it...
...As Fassbinder
does
not live here anymore,
for a while already...
... and this is the fast
cinema of nowadays, mindless,
that has no back thoughts
because thinking
is a
disregarded social category...
...so the Director
abandons the battlefield
and
takes his horses back to the stalls...
But whether the men at the center
of Praia do Futuro
of Praia do Futuro
are swimming,
running, dancing,
fighting or having vigorous sex,
fighting or having vigorous sex,
the physicality
of their
bodies
is mesmerizing.
The film can be
sensual,
liberating,
dangerous,
or all three…
Produced
with german and brazilian funds, Praia do Futuro waltzes
around the themes
that Aïnouz affectionates,
around the humanity on the move
that Aïnouz affectionates,
around the humanity on the move
(Love
for Sale,
I Travel Because I Have to see you,
I Come Back Because I
Love You...)...
Aïnouz works attentively
on the composition of his frames,
even
though some of his choices appear to be just
smashing aesthetics..
The film ends
with a scene
as a replica to the first.
with a scene
as a replica to the first.
The two main heroes
and Donato’s brother
drive furiously bikes on a
beach,
no more in Fortalezza,
but on the shore of the Baltic Sea.
A scene that confirms
the Director’s fetichism
for male homosexuality
in the biking
version:
fast wheels,
fetichistic overalls
and helmets,
and helmets,
as a
clin d’oeuil to the gay
cinema classic
cinema classic
Scorpio Rising by Kenneth
Anger
(accoladed also by Fellini in Roma).
It closes
with Heroes,
in
fact with Herden
by David Bowie,
by David Bowie,
shot at a maximum volume,
causinng a fast escape
to some film
critics
already irritated
by all they had to endure...
This is a massive
film,
failed partly
because of its inability of
narrating,
narrating,
partly for not
having dared.
But there
is also
a lot of good story telling here,
...and I am nonchalantly
electing it
as
my guilty pleasure
of this Berlinale 64...
by g d
