- Year: 2019
- Country: Brazil
- Director: Karim Aïnouz
- Starring: Carol Duarte, Julia Stockler
Advertised as a “Tropical Melodrama”, Invisible Life does take place in 1950’s Rio De Janeiro but is much more than the tagline suggests. It’s the tale of two sisters who each mistakenly believe that the other is living a dream life on the other side of the world – we follow each of their lives, individually, as the two of them long for one another and try to find their place. It’s the stuff that great films are built upon: poetic and full of big, important ideas; with cinematography and music that puts you at that time and place; an inventive narrative and characters which are completely believable. There’s been a bit of controversy about this one due to the graphic sexual nature of a particular scene, but this type of controversy ultimately cheapens the film: it’s a powerful and insightful exploration of womanhood and the almost superhuman strength one needs to keep living with their head up, even when life never goes as planned and your dreams always seem a bit further away. Sadly, the film falls under its own awesome weight in the final act, giving us an unsatisfying/unrealistic conclusion (which to be fair may have been already the case in the novel by Martha Batalha which this was based on). Nevertheless, its strengths more than make up for its few faults and it is certainly head and shoulders above Aïnouz’s other film I saw this week, Madame Satã. Watch Invisible Life’s trailer here.
Cinema Del Peppel 