I’ve found this film season to be most fascinating. I’ve been so excited to see certain releases only to be left disappointed. And those I’ve only had a mild interest in viewing have blown me away. I missed Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) in Venice due to scheduling issues, but I am so grateful I was able to experience this powerful, absorbing, masterful piece of cinema as it’s a bracing, sobering reminder of how easily any type of totalitarian takeover can occur (a military dictatorship in this case) and the extreme and dire consequences it can have for so many.
Based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s account of the injustices that happened to his family in the early 1970s (screenplay by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega), I’m Still Here is set in Rio de Janeiro against the backdrop of a military takeover of the government that would last from 1964 to 1985. The family patriarch, Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), a former congressman and critic of the current regime, lives a seemingly cushy middle-class life in a rented home by the beach with his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) and their five children. But one grave day Rubens is ripped from his world and unknown men refuse to leave the Paiva home. From there things take a cruel and tragic turn and Eunice must figure out a way to continue her life and keep her children safe.
Salles’s genius storytelling is so intimate and so loving that late in the narrative when family members onscreen view photos and videos, we feel as if we know them—as if they’ve become our loved ones. It’s no surprise to read in the press notes that the filmmaker had a personal relationship with the Paiva children growing up. He also lived through the political turmoil which speaks to the film’s authenticity, empathy and urgency.
Torres is the mind, heart and soul of the film. Her Eunice is dignified and polite when she needs to be, yet also exerts a steely, heroic quality. She rarely shows how she’s suffering internally although we can sometimes glimpse the emotional devastation. It’s a raw, penetrating performance.
In the final quarter, the film leaps forth 25 years and then 20 more and we become privy to exactly what her steadfastness and dedication has yielded. The final portion is also a tribute to resilience—that of the Paiva family and the many people like them who refused to let others forget what occurred and who demanded the government acknowledge their past sins and make amends for them.
Salles has not made a movie in 12 years. His last, the unfairly maligned adaptation of Kerouac’s On the Road. No one attempting to bring that classic to the screen could have ever made everyone happy. It was a more than valiant effort.
I’m Still Here is Brazil’s International Feature Oscar submission. And it’s a strong one. The filmmaker’s last and only nomination in the category was for Central Station in 1998 which starred Fernanda Montenegro, who received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Montenegro’s daughter, Torres, could very well follow in her mother’s footsteps, although the Lead Actress field is currently outrageously overcrowded. How about 10 nominees this year, AMPAS? Please?
Montenegro, herself, has a brief but moving appearance near the film’s end, as a now nonverbal Eunice, suffering from Alzheimer’s but still able to react when she’s reminded of her bittersweet past.
This movie gutted me, in all the wonderful and horrific ways great films can and should wreck a person.
