Rent The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão (2019)

A sad family saga set in 1950s Rio, in Brazil - The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão review by Philip in Paradiso

The film is set in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, in the 1950s. Two sisters, who are very close, Guida and Euridice, have their dreams as to what their lives are going to be. Guida, who is rebellious, falls in love with a Greek sailor. For her part, Euridice wants to become a classical pianist and to study as well as perform in Vienna, in Austria. The piano is her passion. Their family is a traditional Catholic family. The father, who is Portuguese, believes in traditional and conservative family values.

What is at the heart of the movie is, ultimately, the structure of the patriarchy in a Latin American country, 70 years ago, but similar conditions could have been found in Spain or Italy at the time - and, sometimes, still prevail up to today included. The dreams and wishes of the 2 sisters - reasonable and thought-through or not - are up against the family structure, the father's views, and the conventions of the time. Inevitably, this leads to tensions and drama.

There is no point pretending that the film is a happy tale, even though there are many happy moments depicted in it, and many uplifting characters. The weight of the social repression and the cultural norms is stifling, from start to finish. The film is never of a militant nature, however: it is a vast fresco, as it were, spanning generations, contrasting the life of the poor with the lifestyle of the middle class. Indeed, class issues and notions of social status also underpin many of the twists in the story.

It is a long film. At times, it is tough to watch. There are some startling and graphic scenes, which can be raw (also of a sexual nature), including one close-up you will not forget, I suspect (and would never expect in such a film if it were British or American!). There is a lot of humour too. The film is about life, its highs and lows, and the relationship between the 2 sisters. The story is not that original and the movie develops in a classic sort of way. But it is a beautiful - and sad - film, and a significant one. It deserves the praise it has received.

Heartbreaking period family saga - The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão review by PD

Karim Aïnouz’s heartbreaking period family saga based in midcentury Rio de Janeiro is a real gem, with pointed feminist politics and sharp social truths neatly interwoven into an absorbing tale of two sisters separated for decades by deceit and shame. Stylistically it's also wonderful, being saturated in sound, music and colour to match its depth of feeling. Its length, at over two hours, may well put some people off, but I found it all thoroughly gripping, mainly because of the wonderful performances from the two leads - Carol Duarte as the initially stoic but steadily unhinged Eurídice and Julia Stockler as her initially tempestuous but progressively more zenlike elder sister Guida (although the supporting cast is also very strong). It's certainly not very subtle: the aching tragedy and dramatic irony of the sisters' situation is laid on with a trowel, assisted greatly by Benedikt Schiefer’s score — itself supported with evocatively chosen classical piano pieces by Chopin and Liszt. A few scenes stand out as worthy of some of the great directors: the lush, surreal opening scene immediately transports us into the sisters' bond and fears of separation, whilst by contrast Euridice's wedding night is shockingly explicit. And one superbly choreographed set piece, seeing the sisters miss each other by seconds in a Rio cafe, is totally agonising in a manner worthy of Thomas Hardy, and that's the highest compliment I can think of. But the film isn’t just a symphony of misery, with many flashes of joy and comradeship as Guida builds a new life for herself in Brazil’s slums, with wily, kindly prostitute Filomena (Bárbara Santos) as her new guardian angel; she may weather harder knocks than her sister, but finds her own kind of happiness. In this sense, Aïnouz has made both a testament to the resilience of women in a society stacked against them — there are no good men to be found in its vision of patriarchal oppression — and a moving celebration of the families we create when the ones we’re born into fall away. And just when you think you can't get any more heart-rending scenes, a final act involving 89-year-old Brazilian grande dame Fernanda Montenegro gathers all the film’s loose strands of feeling to powerful effect. Beautiful filmaking.