sabato 29 giugno 2013

Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (Pixote, la legge del più debole) - Hector Babenco

un film che ancora sconvolge, girato fra San Paulo e Rio de Janeiro.
bambini e ragazzi abbandonati che diventano ogni giorno che passa scarti umani, se non muoiono prima.
Pixote non te lo dimentichi più, in questo film unico - Ismaele



Then comes her last scene with Pixote, which is so sorrowful and cruel it is barely watchable. He is still, after everything, a little boy. Sueli has recently performed an abortion on herself (she explains it in cruel detail to Pixote), but now, just for a moment, she imagines a life in which she will return to her town and family, and Pixote will be like her son. Pixote turns to her breast, not in a sexual way, but in need, and we see the child who has always hungered for a mother he never had.
It is a hushed, sacred moment, and in another film, it would be the last shot. A similar scene concludes John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath-- the novel, not the movie. But then Sueli hardens, and all the anger of her pitiful life focuses on Pixote. At this point the film fits the classical definition of tragedy, which requires the death of a hero. But Pixote is not a hero; his life has been a half-understood reaction to events. And he doesn't die, except in his heart and soul…

…But "Pixote" stands alone in his work, a rough, unblinking look at lives no human being should be required to lead. And the eyes of Fernando Ramos da Silva, his doomed young actor, regard us from the screen not in hurt, not in accusation, not in regret -- but simply in acceptance of a desolate daily reality.


…Les mineurs ne pouvant être inculpé par la justice – ils ne risquent que quelques mois en maison de redressement -, ceux qui se retrouvent plus ou moins sans familles deviennent bien évidemment les proies de gangs qui les utilisent pour diverses besognes à moindres frais. Au sein de cet enfer se crée bientôt un petit groupe autour de Pixote, des enfants aussi perdus que lui, mais plus âgés. Dito, Chico, Lillica, un travesti dont l’homosexualité n’est jamais questionnée par ses compagnons, se rassemblent naturellement ; en dépit des différences, il s’agit-là d’une tentative de reformer un semblant de famille, mais on y reviendra. On ne peut guère taxer le regard que porte la caméra de Babenco sur ces enfants incarcérés de complaisant, pourtant Pixotemérite sa réputation de film violent et dérangeant ; si le réalisateur ne s’attarde pas sur les séquences de meurtre et de viol, il montre de façon froide la réalité quotidienne de ces enfants dans ce qu’elle a de plus sordide…

…If your idea of homeless children and prostitutes are special episodes of "Baywatch" or the laughably awful "Pretty Woman," then this may not be the film for you. Pixote sees so much death and mayhem in his life, he is surviving by instinct. He is not a brilliant boy trying to better himself, he is just trying to stay vertical and keep breathing. The drug and sex scenes are rough, and Babenco does not turn these young addicts into heroes like "Trainspotting" or "Drugstore Cowboy."


The classic movie about criminal, exploited, nihilistic kids in peril that predates the much more stylized City of God and the spoiled Kids. Like Lilya 4-Ever and Christiane F., this goes for gritty realism, and even uses real children from the slums. Pixote is a 10 year old boy who is taken to a detention center along with other young delinquents, and witnesses brutal homosexual rape, murder, abuse, the criminal exploitation of boys by thugs and corrupt authorities. After an escape, he becomes involved with pimps and drug-dealers, then mugs men for a depressed alcoholic prostitute who just gave herself an abortion. Realistic, disturbing, and terribly pessimistic, with a tragic ending.

…The film seemed to capture the spirit of the ‘arthouse’ cinema of Hollywood of the late ’60s and early ’70s, itself influenced by European art films and Italian neo-realism. Incidents in Pixote don’t seem to be set up for the cameras; the film seems to follow the characters no matter what they do or say.
The ending is genuinely tragic, more so because in reality da Silva was actually killed by police bullets in 1988, when he was 19. And so the ending seems to foretell his real death – after being rejected by the mother figure of Sueli, Pixote/da Silva is walking along a railway line, gun in hand, away from the camera, his figure disappearing in the distance, out of the film (documentary or fiction), and out of our lives.


The film seemed to capture the spirit of the ‘arthouse’ cinema of Hollywood of the late ’60s and early ’70s, itself influenced by European art films and Italian neo-realism. Incidents in Pixote don’t seem to be set up for the cameras; the film seems to follow the characters no matter what they do or say.
The ending is genuinely tragic, more so because in reality da Silva was actually killed by police bullets in 1988, when he was 19. And so the ending seems to foretell his real death – after being rejected by the mother figure of Sueli, Pixote/da Silva is walking along a railway line, gun in hand, away from the camera, his figure disappearing in the distance, out of the film (documentary or fiction), and out of our lives.
da qui

Nessun commento:

Posta un commento