Central Station part 10

Film: Central Station
Directed by Walter Salles Jr.
Brazil (1998)
Road Movie
11 parts/105 mins

In Portuguese with English subtitles (default)
Please be sure to turn on the CC (closed captions) button to view subtitles
Subtitles are translatable to any language and can be moved by clicking and dragging the subtitles.

Synopsis:

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress, Central Station is the story of an unlikely friendship between the 67-year-old Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) and a 10-year-old boy Josue (Vinicius de Oliviera). Dora works as a letter writer (employed by the illiterate) in the busy Rio de Janeiro train station. Josué's mother pays Dora to write a letter to Josué's long-missing father, only to be run over by a bus moments later. Out of guilt she takes Josué into her home and eventually on a difficult journey to a remote section of Brazil to find Josue's father.

Review:

An interesting aspect of this picture is that it presents a rare look at non-tourist locales in Brazil. If one of the functions of a motion picture is to take us to new places, Central Station accomplishes that goal admirably. Salles grants us views of densely-populated cities where the houses are little more than shanties, where illiteracy is an epidemic, and where an obsession with religion dominates nearly every facet of life (people pay hard-earned money to have their picture taken with the statue of a saint). Nevertheless, as intriguing as the road trip element is, the characters (more than the setting) keep us involved.

As in the best of this sub-genre of movies, the two change each other in profound ways. Dora fills the maternal role left vacant in the boy's life by the unexpected demise of his mother. In turn, her cynicism melts away and she discovers that she still retains the capacity to love, and, in the service of love, to sacrifice. Salles develops the relationship perfectly. It is certainly a familiar story but, in this context, it seems fresh.

Central Station is such a modest-seeming, well-made little movie that it seems unsporting not to join the chorus of critical voices shouting hosannas — but Montenegro's highly praised performance (she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar) is merely low-key and professional, not revelatory. Reminiscent of both the DeSica classic and of the writing of Charles Dickens, Salles' film is a tale of spiritual reawakening that calls, like many nostalgic American films, for both a new identity and a return to a place and sense of self that has been lost.

Category:

Film & Animation

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