Mar de Rosas

Ana Carolina surprised everybody when, after many documentary shorts and a hit documentary feature about Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, she jumped into anarchist, surrealist crazy drama/black comedy with her first fiction film "Mar de Rosas". A non-sequitur, iconoclast portrait of middle-class family life, her protagonist Betinha (Cristina Pereira, perfectly cast) is a sort of teenage Mafalda (Quino's comic book anti-heroine): rambunctious, naughty, irrepressible, eager to be evil. She's on the run with her mother Felicidade (Norma Bengell, returning to Brazilian films after a long sojourn in European cinema and theater), who has killed husband Sergio (Hugo Carvana) in a hotel bathroom. Betinha and Felicidade are followed by suspicious character Bardi (Otávio Augusto) and, after terrible "accidents" -- Betinha sets fire on her mother at a gas station, Felicidade is hit by a bus while trying to escape from Bardi -- the 3 of them end up being "helped" by wacky couple Dirceu (Ary Fontoura) and Niobi (hilarious, wreck-voiced Myriam Muniz).

"Mar de Rosas" has some major lulls (especially toward the end) and is technically precarious, but the acting is inspired and, despite being ultimately a tragic film, you'll find yourself cracking with the loony dialog which is rather difficult to translate, as Ana Carolina uses a lot of Brazilian jeux de mots, adages and figures of speech in her trademark style of "free association". "Mar de Rosas" is refreshingly anti-cliché, and its critical and commercial success paved the way to Ana Carolina's very individual oeuvre that combines anti- conformism, feminism and social criticism with a delightful touch of surrealistic (black) humor.

When Ana Carolina made "Das Tripas Coração" I accepted its bizarrice, absurdity and abstract settings. It was funny, crazy and out of this world, specially in Brazilian films. But when I saw "Mar de Rosas" ("Sea of Roses") I was stunned and not in a good way because for a large portion of the film it all seem to play like a regular average movie and then after half an hour has passed weird things begin to pop without any explanation which made this movie idiotic all the halfway through. A movie to be avoided at all costs.

In it, Norma Bengell plays a disatisfied housewife with an annoying brat of a kid (Cristina Pereira) who tries to kill her husband (Hugo Carvana) after their many arguements during a trip to Rio de Janeiro. When she thinks she escaped the situation of a mysterious Beetle follow her all the way down to São Paulo. As its driver is the helpful Orlando Barde (Otávio Augusto), a man who works for her husband and he tries to take her back to authorities. But when she escapes him and almost gets hit by a bus, the trio is rescued by a failed poet/dentist (Ary Fontoura) and wife (Miriam Muniz) and a setback of self analysis and weird moments all happen with this strange quintet.

The level of absurdity in "Mar de Rosas" is beyond belief, specially concerning the teen character who goes on a rampage of sorts, going from making a truck throw land and sand on the dentist's bathroom almost burying her mom or putting razor blades on a bar of soap so whoever uses it will bleed profusely. And to think the film was almost going on a realistic and normal mode but when the trio meets the bizarre couple and they are stranded in that house things go all downhill and a whole movie was wasted with no chance of redemption. At first, I thought this was going to a nice drama with feminist touches with Norma's character being a very relatable character but then we only see the woman being humiliated to several degrees and her brat kid just doing one dumb act of rebellion after another. I was in pain watching all of that. Sure, there are some good scenes but they're all in the first half hour or so, then it's a mess of a movie. As a surrealistic movie, this is painfully bad and Ana Carolina shouldn't make this movie at all. It just wasted celluloid for nothing.

Skip this without remorse. You'll thank me later on. 3/10.

Sérgio (Hugo Carvana), Felicidade (Norma Bengell) and Betinha (Cristina Pereira) compose a dysfunctional family, and while traveling to Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio and Felicidade have another serious altercation, culminating with the aggression of Felicidade with a razor blade on Sergio's neck in a motel. Felicidade believes she has killed Sérgio and she decides to escape to São Paulo with Betinha in the family's car. In the highway, she notes that a black Volkswagen Beetle is following their car. After an incident in a gas station caused by Betinha, they are introduced to Orlando Barde (Otávio Augusto), the driver of the Beetle, and they decide to travel together in the small car to São Paulo. In a small town, Felicidade tries to get away from Orlando, but a bus hits her and Dona Niobi (Miriam Muniz) and Dr. Dirceu (Ary Fontoura), a pretentious poet and frustrated dentist, help Felicidade. In their house, the deranged Betinha provokes the most weird and surrealistic situations, when each character discloses innermost revelations.

Yesterday I saw 'Mar de Rosas' for the first time and honestly I did not like it. Norma Bengell gives an outstanding performance in the role of the frustrated and wounded Felicidade and is the best this movie offers to the viewer, since the screenplay is too much bizarre for my taste. Some surrealistic situations slightly recalled Buñuel style, but I am not daring to compare Ana Carolina with the master of the surrealism. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): 'Mar de Rosas' ('Sea of Roses' (literally); however, 'Mar de Rosas' in Portuguese is an idiomatic expression meaning 'everything is calm')

Shown as part of a two-day Public Cinema series of recent Brazilian films, Ana Carolina's 1977 pic, "Sea of Roses", is a devastating black comedy, attacking any and all institutions, including the family. Focusing on the bizarre and explosive behavior of her talented microcosmic cast, Carolina delivers a "comedy to offend everyone"; what MGM's all-star "The Loved One" only promised.

Film begins in a road movie format, with Felicidade (Norma Benguel) and her horrid adolescent daughter (Cristina Pereira) fleeing after her mom slashes her husband brutally with a razor blade during an argument in their motel room. They soon team up with a friendly pursuer (Otavio Augusto) sent by the husband, who has seemingly survived the bloodletting.

Fast pace of the opening reels bogs down when the trio stop off in a small town and rest at the home of a dentist while Felicidade recuperates from nearly being hit by a bus. Ensemble gabfest which ensues contains many highs and lows, but is kept lively by broad playing and explosive humor.

Symbolic climax has trio fleeing on a train and the murderous daughter pushing her mother and Augusto off to ride on alone.

Norma Benguel as the mother gives an intense, riveting performance, all the more effective than just playing for laughs. Otavio Augusto, sort of a latin John Belushi, is an excellent, mainly deadpan foil for her.

Standing out in the well-chosen ensemble is young actress Christina Pereira as the "bad seed" daughter. Whether playing violent practical jokes or merely flaring her dangerous looking teeth, Pereira is an unforgettable young monster and an expert scene-stealer. Her transition to an adult career is problematical.

Count Ana Carolina as a helmer to watch, with a great facility for handling actors, while giving them plenty of room for invention. Tech credits are good.

My review was written in September 1980 after a Greenwich Village screening.