LavourArcaica

Saw this at HIFF 2002, Helsinki, Finland. 2 hours and 40 minutes seemed a bit much to me too, as to this is no film to enchant and suck you into the story. Extremely beautiful, but literal, heavy, and in the end: boring. Reminds me of the finnish theater tradition... I haven't read the book. Perhaps I should, as to the story in itself seems strong and interesting enough. Only the writer of the screenplay doesn't seem to have thought about the audiences not familiar with the novel. Perhaps it's also a culture thing. Still, I can't say I regret watching this film.

This movie gained a cult-status because it won more than 30 international awards, received more praise from the Brazilian critics than any other feature of that year, but was never released on DVD or VHS until last week. But the waiting wasn't worthless: the movie is a masterpiece. Few films are so honest and love their characters so much as this one, and has so much faith in it's material. Carvalho's directing is clearly very elaborate, and makes every frame seems poetic... The baroque cinematography and the score reflects perfectly the mood of the characters, the sound mixing is nearly perfect, and the cast is, without exception, magnificent. Certainly one of the most overlooked films ever, but this time, the public cannot be blamed.

Well, I've actually seen this one in its entirety only once. First time around I gave up after 2 hours. Then I thought I might as well try again, as there could be some other great scenes in the last 40 minutes that I'd like to see on the big screen. It was worth it. It starts very well, and I like the ending, and there's lots of great stuff in between. But I have to say that 2 hours and 40 minutes was too long for this one. And a bunch of great scenes do not make a great movie just because they're put together, at least not in this case, I don't think so. Anyway, if you're in the mood for slow cinema, try this one.

This is, without a doubt, one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is a spectacular example of the new brazillian movie-making!

It is a technically perfect movie, with a brilliant cinematography and a masterful photography. The scenes are very well built and the director truly owns this movie. Of course, it derives from one of the masterpieces of recent literature, Raduan Nassar's impressive novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and have to disagree with Flavio Velames comment, complaining about it being too erudite. There's only such thing if a movie is pretensious, which is obviously not the case: this movie breathes honesty. There are already enough "common" movies being produced around the world to commit the crime of discarding this one for not being "common". Not all movies are supposed to be for the audience to have "fun". Some of them (the best ones) are supposed to enchant you, as this one does.

Keep up the extraordinary work, Luiz Fernando Carvalho! I had the opportunity of attending the screening of this movie at the Film Festival Rotterdam 2002, where Luiz Fernando spoke. Enlightening. True art and true artist. Thank you.

I read and heard many good comments about the cult "Lavoura Arcaica", and I have been waiting for the DVD for four years. I have just bought the "previously seen" DVD from a rental, and I have not finished watching the movie yet (I have just seen 122 minutes running time, and I am writing this review to rest before the next 50 minutes conclusion). This movie has great cinematography and music score, and an awesome and impressive performance of Selton Mello. Unfortunately the director and screenplay writer Luis Fernando Carvalho wrote a very boring screenplay, forgetting that cinema must have a suitable pace and language. Further, that the viewer not necessarily read the novel of Raduan Nassar before watching his movie. The poetic and erudite lines and dialogs are not adequate for cinema, but for theater. The movie is spoken in my native language, and I am completely tired with two hours of a very heavy and theatrical story. Imagine overseas viewers, trying to read the subtitles with this very unusual text! I have just checked the awards of "Lavoura Arcaica" and most of them refers to cinematography, lead actor, supporting actor and actress and other technical awards (art direction, editing, sound, music etc), which I totally agree. With a better screenplay and pace, "Lavoura Arcaica" could be an excellent movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Lavoura Arcaica" ("Archaic Field Work")