Um Copo de Cólera

Somewhere between Sartre and Buñuel, and an oblique approach of George Gilder's model of inter-gender relations, lies Aloísio Abranches' A Glass of Rage (Um Copo de Cólera). More of an existential debate than a film, the story is basically a savage tete-e-tete between a pair of lovers on an isolated rabbit ranch after an extended (and nearly explicit) night of sex, punctuated by aside comments by the man to the audience. After seeing the film this evening, most of the film festival audience gathered in the lobby collectively scratching their heads trying to make sense of it. I imagine much of the subtlety of the dialog may be lost in the English subtitles. Not an experience I will soon forget, but also not one safe from ridicule. Recommended for hardcore fans of the abstract, verbose, and existential only!

I didn't expect to see such a good movie when I rented it some time ago. I thought it would be about a couple and their love. All that made me got this video was the fact that it's Brazilian, like I am. But it really surprised me. The central theme is powerful: a young couple goes to a house in the countryside where they discuss their problems in a furious, animal way. The way they speak (and scream) and the things they say is kind of poetic. Their vocabulary goes beyond popular Portuguese and the actors move as they were in theatre. What differentiates this movie from many others of its genre is that after and before those arguments, they have hot sex. It's all shown openly, what makes this film just one step away from adult movies. The two stars, Alexandres Borges and Julia Lemmertz are married, what probably made their performances much easier.

My rate 7/10

I am really negatively surprised. I did not expect a so pretentious and not engaging text. I also did not know that it would be a softcore (indeed, almost hardcore!), more porn-like than 90% of pornochanchadas (Brazilian genre of B softcore comedies from the 70's and 80's). Then married Júlia Lemmertz and Alexandre Borges are good actors and were comfortable making those scenes together, but I am disappointed with so much overacting. Perhaps it would work in theatre (perhaps it would not!), but definitely not in cinema. Misogyny is also very present in the film, without a good reason. Quite bad (despite well filmed and with a good music score).

Alexandre Borges and Júlia Lemmertz are lovers. He lives like an eremite, isolated in a country house with a small creation of rabbits, and she is a journalist. The story begins with them meeting each other and without any words, going to a bedroom and having hot and almost explicit sex. On the next day, while having breakfast, he notes that ants have made a hole in his live fence. He poisons them and begin a very aggressive discussion with her. The analogy between the hole in the life fence and the `opening' the character of Júlia Lemmertz in doing in his private life is the trigger for the discussion. She lives the place, but in the night she is back to him. I myself did not like this movie. The excessive sex in the beginning, and the theatrical discussion along most part of the story are very boring. Nobody uses the vocabulary or the construction of the sentences like the central pair do along a hot discussion. The discussion is too much artificial for my taste. In a play of a theater, this text may work, but in a film, it does not. The DVD is excellent, containing many additional matters. Alexandre Borges and Júlia Lemmertz are married in real life, but they explain in the DVD that the sperm scene was made using a special liquid injected in a syringe. My vote is four.

Raduan Nassar´s "Um Copo de Colera" (A glass of rage) is a short but powerful book. Sexuality, political repression, alienation and instinct are some of the themes that emerge from a fight between a couple, after a wild sex night. Overall, a superb critic on middle-class values.

But the movie lacks the novel´s power. Julia Lemmertz and Alexandre Borges (who are also a couple in real life) put a lot of effort into their characters, but end up adding a comic approach which doesn´t exist in the book.

The sex scenes are impressive, fantastic-realistic maybe. But after that the movie fails to turn Nassar´s words into equally strong images.