O Corpo Ardente

Just to make it clear: I don't mind slow-paced movies -- I'm a die-hard fan of Antonioni, the early Tsai Ming-Liang and the early Wim Wenders, to name but a few of the great slow-riders. But "O Corpo Ardente" HAS to be one of the most excruciatingly boring films ever made. It's a pseudo-existentialist embarrassment by highly irregular Brazilian filmmaker Walter Hugo Khouri (whose immediately previous film "Noite Vazia" was great). It consists of a HUNDRED close-ups of former French beauty Barbara Laage, here way past her prime and well into her 40s, wearing a ton of make-up on her one and only facial expression: blank!!

She plays Marcia, a rich, married socialite living in São Paulo going through middle-age crisis, throwing boring parties for her "artistic" friends (their conversation about "art" is a jaw-dropping collection of ludicrous pseudo-intellectual boutades; I hope they were meant to be sarcastic), dissatisfied with both her husband and her lover. She decides to spend some time in her country house with her young son, so she can be closer to "nature" and find her "roots" (we know that because she keeps rubbing her feet on the grass) and, once there, she's suddenly attracted to... a wild black horse on the loose! — but don't get excited, it's not half as interesting as it sounds.

Always esthetically on his own in Brazilian cinema, Khouri was too kinky to be mainstream, and too attracted to the bourgeoisie to be New Wave (Cinema Novo). It was very much the case of a filmmaker seriously interested in his own navel, as he used his "intellectual"-playboy-womanizer alter ego character "Marcelo" in a least a dozen of his films (played by various actors), surrounded by beautiful women in trendy settings. Although made in 1966, when Brazil was under military regime and going through social/political turmoil, "O Corpo Ardente" is totally alienated from Brazilian reality -- it could have been made in Switzerland. The only fine thing about it must have been master DP Rudolf Icsey's b&w cinematography, but we'll never know: the DVD copy is AWFUL (it looks like a VERY bad VHS tape recorded as DVD).

Don't waste your time, this goes nowhere. On the other hand, if you're an insomniac, this might be your medicine. My vote: 2 out of 10 — couldn't give it the 1 it deserves because of the brief presence of the gorgeous and talented Dina Sfat in a minor, wasted part.

A rich woman, Marcia, is bored with her life divided among a husband, a lover, and parties. She feels her life has no meaning and then she decides to go with her son to her country house in the mountains. Later on she'll be joined by her husband. She wants peace and maybe she nurses the hope of finding herself in the solitude of nature.

Arriving there, she wanders around alone or together with her son. There's a ranch owner in the neighborhood riding around looking for an escaped horse. A black horse. He asks Marcia: "Have you seen my horse? It's black and wild". This black horse will be the film's symbol for freedom. The husband arrives, they film themselves with a camera, laugh and make jokes. Sometimes the black horse is seen running around and the ranch owner goes on looking for his horse. One notices that Marcia likes the black horse and roots for it. There's a scene in which she is driving a car, with her son sitting near her, and the horse is running beside the car - she takes the camera and films the horse. The scene is underlined by classical music. Two main shots: 1) The black horse running wild and free. 2) Marcia laughing happily holding her camera.

Near the end of the film, when she is back home, she sadly watches her film with the black horse running. The same classical piece underlines it. The End.

That is all the story is about. The main character is probably the black horse.

But jokes aside, I think that Walter Hugo Khouri was inspired by Antonioni's "Deserto Rosso", when he made "Corpo Ardente". There's the same bleak landscape. And the photography is a mystery to me - it is a black & white with shades of color, or rather a color film transmuted into black & white. The landscape seems to dissolve into a shining white and the black horse running free serves as a counterpoint.

Antonioni's "Deserto Rosso" is a powerful study about the shattered life of a woman (Monica Vitti), but "Corpo Ardente" sinks into nothingness in spite of its beautiful images and its several symbols. Visually speaking "Corpo Ardente" is a beautiful film. And the naiveté of its symbols is charming.

Márcia (Barbara Laage) is a married woman with a son. She finds that her husband has an affair. She cheats him too and decides to go to Itaipava (a Brazilian city on the hills) with her son. A black horse, free in the fields, attracts her. In the end, she comes back home and memories come back while watching the footage made by her son.

In my opinion, this movie is boring, specially because the characters are not well developed. I have not caught on the intention of the director in such plot. The soundtrack, with a jazz band, is very monotonous. Although being an expensive DVD, this film has not been restored. The Brazilian distributor Cinemagia has just release a box of Walter Hugo Khouri composed of three titles: 'As Amorosas' (which I watched two days ago), 'O Corpo Ardente' (which I watched yesterday) and 'Noite Vazia' (which I intend to watch today). Although having a terrible quality of sound and image, the photography in black & white is very beautiful, having beautiful actresses in the cast and showing beautiful landscapes. One situation is not clear for me: in accordance with the information on the cover of this DVD, its runtime would be 98 min. The DVD has 83:25 min. In accordance with the information of IMDb, it would be 85 min. And in accordance with the Brazilian video and DVD guide 'Guia de Video e DVD 2003', page 161, it would be 133 min. Therefore, this movie is polemical since its runtime. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Corpo Ardente" ("The Heat Body")