Another movie from Cinema Novo that I watch to follow Prof's class. Alisson Gutemberg in Cinema com Teoria.
Directed by Leon Hirszman, with the cast Fernanda Montenegro (Zulmira), Ivan Cândido (Toninho), Paulo Gracindo (João Guimarães), Nelson Xavier (Timbira), and Joel Barcellos (funeral partner).
Shot in black and white, away from the studios, the film follows Zulmira, a resident of the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, penniless, married to Toninho, unhappy in life, sick of the lung, wishing for death and a first-rate burial. Toninho is unemployed and has a very banal routine: bar, talking about Vasco, his favorite soccer team, and at home, where he doesn't usually interact with his wife. He eats, goes to bed, sleeps, gets up, without a dialogue with Zulmira. She plans her funeral, making the quotation at the funeral home, and, on her deathbed, asks Toninho to fulfill her wish. To pay for the funeral, she tells her husband to look for João Guimarães, when Toninho will discover the truth about his wife.
It could only be a text by Nelson Rodrigues, who knew, like no one else, how to portray the troubled relationships of people who lived on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
Following the Cinema Novo booklet, A Falecida brings the raw reality of Rio's lower class society, showing wooden huts, with moldy walls, and a bathroom outside the house, in addition to the small scams always present in Rio's trickery. In addition to putting the issue of unemployment, even if tangentially, in the plot. The political issue, unlike other Cinema Novo films, is not present, which may demonstrate that the underprivileged class did not have so much information or that they already had many problems to worry about.
Fernanda Montenegro debuts in theaters in this film and already delivers a breathtaking performance. The scene in which she takes a shower in the rain, revealing a small moment of happiness, is remarkable.
