- dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
- year. 2016
- country. Brazil
- run-time. 146 mins
- rating. 18
£5.00 (£3.50 conc.)
Doors 5.00 Film 6:00PM
Sonia Braga delivers a tour-de-force performance as Dona Clara in Kleber Mendonça Filho's follow up to his audacious 2012 debut, Neighbouring Sounds, where, once again, the Brazilian film critic, turned director, examines human life in urban spaces in his home town of Recife. Clara's eclectic collection of LP's and her vintage French 3-sheet poster of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, the latter item belonging to the director, will delight lovers of packaged media and memorabilia, items that Clara herself calls 'special objects'
Clara, a 65 year old widow and retired music critic, was born into a wealthy and traditional family in Recife, Brazil. She is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-story building, built in the 1940s, in the upper-class, seaside Avenida Boa Viagem, Recife. All the neighbouring apartments have already been acquired by a company which has other plans for that plot. Clara has pledged to only leave her place upon her death, and will engage in a cold war of sorts with the company, a confrontation which is both mysterious, frightening and nerve wracking. This tension both disturbs Clara and gives her that edge on her daily routine. It also gets her thinking about her loved ones, her past and her future..
“Aquarius is a rich and complex character study..densely observed, scrupulously realised, and with a wonderful lead performance.”
“★★★★★
Everything happens at a human pace and all the characters have their own texture in this stunning film”