Aquarius
(2016)Kleber Mendonça Filho's second feature stars Sonia Braga as a well-off woman in her 60s, fighting to hold on to an apartment that has been in her family for decades.... More
"Clara (Braga), 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." (Cannes Film Festival)Hide
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Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho ('Neighbouring Sounds', 'Critico')
Starring Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Irandhir Santos, Humberto Carrão, Zoraide Coleto, Fernando Teixeira, Buda Lira, Paula De Renor
Written by Kleber Mendonça Filho
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 3 providers
Flicks Review
BY Aaron Yap Flicks Writer
The David vs Goliath battle at the centre of Aquarius cries out for a politically-impassioned work of righteous indignation. But Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film, controversially excluded from its home country Brazil’s submissions to the 2016 Academy Awards, tempers its anti-capitalist rage and bitter class-conscious narrative with a fittingly languid reflection on the temporal soulfulness of physical space and objects. It’s about the warm, human connection we have hearing someone’s voice over the phone, taking an LP out of its sleeve and cueing it up on the turntable, and surrounding ourselves with furniture and framed pictures infused with memories accumulated over a lifetime.... More
Sonia Braga is so good as widowed music critic Dona Clora — like Isabelle-Huppert-level so-good — I have to question why my last recollection of seeing her on screen was in Clint Eastwood’s 1990 action flick The Rookie. Reminiscent of Paulina García’s superlative turn in Sebastián Lelio’s Gloria, she delivers a wholly-invested, subtly riveting character study that’s still uncommon these days: a vibrant, dignified, willful woman in her 60s who refuses to let the ravages of age hinder her desire to simply live on her own terms.
Aquarius clocks in at a long 140 minutes, but every second is justified. Under Filho’s patient, watchful eye, we’re given time to intimately soak up her surroundings — her family, her acquaintances, her leisurely routines. We come to understand that her defiance in the face of corporate pressure isn’t just borne out of some misplaced stubbornness, but the preservation of her very being and identity.Hide
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Aquarius
The Press Reviews
93%
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Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Sonia Braga shines in this rather classic portrait of a woman who won't let go. Full Review
A densely observed and superbly acted portrait of a woman of a certain age. Full Review
A drama that's credible, complex and very satisfying. Full Review
A character study as well as a shrewd meditation on the needless transience of place and the way physical space elides with our identity. Full Review
A marvelous and surprising act of portraiture, a long, unhurried encounter with a single, complicated person. Full Review
A film with an almost Proustian understanding of how a favorite song - or, for that matter, a sacred space or a cherished piece of furniture - can become a repository of personal meaning. Full Review
Compelling story which boasts both a jaw-dropping twist and a satisfying denouement. Full Review
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