O Uivo da Gaita

It would be a love triangle story, if there were a story. It is a sensorial quasi-silent (the first spoken line happens with 15 minutes of film) tediously sluggish ASMR arthouse lesbian nearly sexploitation movie in beautiful Rio de Janeiro. In the very beginning, after one of the numerous long scenes where a beautiful place with nature is on the screen with no character appearing but the sound of the wind or of the sea, two of the best Brazilian actresses ever, Mariana Ximenes and Leandra Leal, kiss each other and their characters have sex on the beach. In the following scene, Mariana Ximenes eats sushi with the man while the dishes melt. Eventually, all the three play cards; afterwards they blow and touch each other, with a bizarre song. When the movie lasted half an hour, there was the metaphor of the three glasses containing liquids with the very colours of their clothes, and they mixed and drank all the tree, symbolizing they had a fluid sexual affair together. That was the only thing to be understood in the whole movie, if I am not wrong, besides the ending. Then, Mariana Ximenes's character clearly makes her decision, in another symbolic sequence, and then have another love scene on the beach. The movie is supposed to be immersive, but it is not. Beautiful cinematography and the two great actresses do not save it from failure. Showing for a long time a white square, or using bizarre dissonant song and the sound of a table tennis ball also do not make the film more intelligent or sophisticated.

Two girls walk on the beach then make out and have sex. One of them is married to a guy, then the other girl shows up at their house. Then suddenly we get to hear the guy reading Don Quixote. They get drunk, they dance, make out. The next day they have to make tough decisions about the future. Either this takes place during a vacation or before a vacation because the couple is supposed to board a cruise ship the next day. The resolution of course is pretty expected.

Things tend to go wrong when Latin cinema gets all artsy. And by golly this movie tests the audience's patience. The first scene is of a cargo boat moving across the screen, in slo-mo. It's about 15 minutes into the movie when someone finally has something to say--3 or 4 lines maybe. The camera spends hours on something--food on a table, a white/empty painting on a wall. When the three drink and talk, we hear a camera reel spinning instead. I think there are 4 instances of someone talking for a minute or so, mainly the guy. 99% of the movie takes place without anyone saying anything. Music can get pretty weird when there is any.

The girls are attractive. Cinematography is nice. The movie is short, the end credits are ridiculously long for such a bare-bones movie. There's an after-credits scene which should have come before. It's worth watching for the girls, while you are doing something else and the movie is in the background since it doesn't require and thought, attention, or interpretation.