Central Station - a film from Brazil - Directed by Walter Salles
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Central Station
(Central do Brasil)
Brazil - 1998 Brazil - 1998
Directed by Walter Salles
Rio de Janeiro’s main train station is Central do Brasil.
Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) makes her living by writing letters for illiterate
people passing through. In providing this service, Dora learns complicated
details of the lives of her clients. Some, desperately trying to communicate
with a lost lover or family member, pour out their hearts. Among her clients are
Ana (Sôia Lira) and her nine-year-old son Josué (Vinicius de Oliveira), whose
dream is to meet his father, whom he has never seen.
Little do Dora's clients realize that the letters she has written for them are
not always sent. She sits each evening with her lonely neighbor, Irene (Marilla
Pêra), and reads the letters aloud. Since Dora charges extra for mailing, she
makes an extra profit if she opts to not send the letter. She and Irene decide
which letters will be sent and which will be thrown away. Any that they are
unsure of, as with Ana and Josué's, are put in a drawer.
After dictating a second letter to Josué's father, Ana is struck and killed by a
bus. Leaving Josué alone and helpless, wandering aimlessly around the station.
His only connection to Rio de Janeiro is Dora.
Dora is ashamed of her initial reaction, which is to consider making a profit
off of the child. She determines to re-unite Josué with his father. The pair
embark upon a journey that covers far more than terrain. Dora finds her way back
to her heart by allowing herself to love Josué.
Walter Salles won the Audience Award and the Youth Jury Award from the San Sebastian International Film Festival (1998), he also won the Golden Bear Award from the Berlin International Film Festival, while Ferdanda Montenegro won the Silver Bear for Best Actress (1998). Fernanda Montenegro also won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Actress (1998) and the National Board of Review Award (USA - 1998). Central Station is nominated for a 1999 Golden Globe Award and for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Guest Comments
From: "Dave"
"I just saw this movie tonight in SFO. This movie recently won a best picture in
the recent emmy's on TV as the best foreign film, and it is excellent. It's
about this woman who works in the Central Rail station in Rio De Janiero, and
takes it upon herself to help a boy find his long lost father due to
circumstances that she connects herself to. A must see for foreign film lovers."
From: "Mariana Macinic"
"There is one thing on the ""negative"" side that I would like to say about this
film: The story starts losing its acclaimed realistic gist at the point where
Dora and Josua encounter one of the kid's two other brothers. It is a point from
which the story starts getting loaded with a discreet but distinct melodramatic
load whose nature is probably to be traced in the successful Brazilian mass
soap-operatic TV industry. After that point (when Dora and the kid ponder on
what to do next with their lives at the local bus station), the story seems to
lose its sense of ""exploration"" and becomes somehow ""predictable"". You
almost ""become to know"" what is going to happen next: the ""good"",
hard-working brothers and the imminent parting between the two companions. Their
parting could have been handled in a less spectacular fashion and more in the
realistic vein that characterized the journey of the two protagonists. This last
portion of the film -- maybe the most important one -- would have deserved a
more elaborate treatment."
From: "joao lucas"
"o oscar","eu sou brasileiro e tenho muito orgulho de que meu pais esteja
participando dessa premiassao explendida com o filme sentral do brasil"
From: "Dione Marques"
" Orgulho nacional"," Sou brasileira e quero registrar a minha emoção ao pensar
no filme Central do Brasil, em Fernanda Montenegro e em Walter Salles. O MEU
FILME, A MINHA ATRIZ E O MEU DIRETOR. Emoção por ter o primeiro como um
patrimônio cultural, a segunda por ser a atriz que é e dar vida à Dora e o
terceiro por ser capaz de, com uma câmera, me fazer sentir orgulho de ser filha
de um país que não pretende ser perfeito, mas anseia por dignidade. Obrigada
Fernanda. Obrigada Walter Salles. Vocês são o maior Oscar que um país poderia
ter!!!"
From: "Clifford Landers"
"Walter Salles Júnior has come into his own as a master filmaker with this
subtle and poignant exploration of the relationship between the alienated (Fernanda
Montenegro's character) and the lost (literally, in the case of the boy she
reluctantly takes undeer her wing). At the same time that the director presents
the gradual evolution (actually, a rebirth) of feeling in a woman who is
emotionally dead, he shows the audience a Brazil that, while familiar to those
for whom it is part of their own culture, will be a revelation for most viewers
outside the country, especially in the United States, where the image of Brazil
tends toward stereotypes of football, Carnaval, and string bikinis on the
beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. I am eager for the film to come out on
videotape so I can add it to my permanent library."
From: "Fred Wan"
"It has been a long time that I've seen a film with such deep characters.
Although at some point the attribution tear-jerker came to mind, the convincing
acting and the dramatic plot kept the tears that were dropped sincere. An
extraordinary road movie!"
From: "Marcin Kunz"
"It was a fascinating, riveting, heart-wrenching film. I've never cried so much
in my life (it was somewhat embarrassing, being the only guy crying in my
Spanish class.) I give it three
thumbs up."
From: "Peter Bronson"
"This film is quite amazing. I think everybody should watch it once. It gives us
a new view of our lives. The Oscar nominated Fernanda Montenegro is a really
good actress. i could cry everytime she cried an laugh everytime she laughed.
it's a film about feelings, lost feelings we should rescue. The little boy Josue
is a great actor too. Congrats, Brazil! You've made a really perfect job."
Item#:BRA021-1
Price: $24.95
All videos available from 1-World Festival of Foreign Films are in VHS-NTSC and Region 1 DVD formats
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