O Cheiro do Ralo

Most of the times, when we see a movie, we do not see it, we not feel it like a vivid fact, but we see it as a thing that is "out of us", apart of what we experiment each second of our lives.

Cinema is life, vivid experience, you and it, dialog, and not a standard of stimuli that we feel the necessity of fitting and of comparing, it is there to be lived!

Yesterday I began to realize better that, while watching "O cheiro do ralo" of Heitor Dhalia. The movie is brilliant, and the character of Selton Mello even more. Cynical, arrogant, shy and lonely. Lost in the middle of so many objects, which serves to try to provide this 'lack', the lack of something, of feeling, with the other, of contact..."I do not like you and I never liked nobody". The obsession, the money, the ' assumption controls of everything and of all '. Before so many losses he buys, it is the only weapon that he has.

It makes us think about all the nuances that wrap the human life, in all the bizarres thoughts that " we want not to have thought ", or for shame, for fear or for disapproval. It makes us understand that the life is desire, want of living, of feeling, of " being there ".

"O cheiro do ralo" manages with expertise to expose the strange and bizarre daily life of a character that is there on the screen, which is very different from us, but on the same time he manages to say very much of ourselves.

To laugh .... to think ... to get emotional ...to get bothersome ... for me this is life!

I just saw the movie few days ago on the Festival De Guadalajara. I saw it and it got me going. The acting is fabulous,every actor takes his part to a great level. And the first sequence is a delight for the eyes, and also the main actor. The irreverence of the movie, from the funny to the disgusting (And all in between) remind us that aesthetic doesn't necessarily means beautiful. With this wicked game of the aesthetic on art department, acting, screenplay and photo, you can't do anything but fall in love, and identify with the main character. I must say that I haven't read the book, but the writer must to be very pleased if he act on the movie (Find him out!) I just hope that it finds a good distributor, because I wanna have it on my collection, and I hope you too.

This movie is very uncommon for Brazilian productions. It is based on a very interesting plot, regarding a man and his obsessions (the smell of a sewer, the butt of a restaurant waitress), and how he deals with different people who want to sell all kind of crazy things.

Although the movie may seem superficial and shallow at first, it actually has subtle messages portraying a desperate and lonely man, who tries to find relief in the material world, but realizes that the problem is within himself.

Finally, I would recommend this movie to everyone who wants to see another kind of Brazilian films, one which is not pure drama or pure comedy, and which tells a story in a very different way.

Lourenço (Selton Mello) is a dealer that buys belongings of needy people by a lower price to profit reselling them. He is a deranged, cold and selfish man that sees people like objects for sale, exploiting their needs. When he meets the waitress of a cheap diner, he falls in love for her butt and does not know what to do when she shows affection for him. He believes that the smell of the sewer strainer of his bathroom is blurring his mind and is a gateway to hell, but refuses to pay for its repair. When a junkie client abused by the power of his money reacts, the world of the controller Lourenço begins to fall apart.

"O Cheiro do Ralo" is a weird and unpleasant tale of the insanity process of a man completely obsessed by the power of his money. The Kafkaesque story is intriguing but unfortunately goes nowhere and has a pointless end. Selton Mello, as usual, has a magnificent performance but the situations are repetitive and this low-budget Brazilian movie is too long. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Cheiro do Ralo" ("The Smell of the Sewer Strainer")

Just saw the movie here in São Paulo - Brazil.

I gotta say the movie is daring, Selton Melo is brilliant in the role of Lourenço, still different from what I imagined of the character, but keeping the acid and sharp irony we can find in the book.

The book seems to "go faster", smoother, it keeps the pace and your attention in a way the movie fails in some punctual moments.

It's hard to find flaws in this film, it's extremely good, we learn to love, hate and feel disgust for the main character as we see a lot of ourselves in his sick perception of reality and how it changes through time.

It's interesting to notice the presence of the "bitch in pink", the character of the aerobics instructor, from the book "Jesus Kid" also by Lourenço Mutarelli.

I'm still impressed by the movie, it's a must, and I'll get it in DVD when it'll be released, but still ... there is something about the book I couldn't get with the film.

Anyway it deserves my score