Circuswereld Forum

Op dit moment uitsluitend nog te zien tijdens het Internationale Filmfestival van Cannes, maar binnenkort ongetwijfeld te bekijken in een aantal bioscopen in ons land: de nieuwe circusfilm 'The Great Mystical Circus (O Grande Circo Místico)' van de Braziliaanse regisseur Carlos Diegues.



De (internationale) trailer is er al en belooft prachtige sfeer- en actiebeelden. Weliswaar uit het (verre) verleden, de film vertelt de geschiedenis van een circus gedurende vijf generaties in een periode van 100 jaar.
Kritiek is er ook al: moest dat nou, dat de laatste directeur kort voor het definitieve einde zijn dochters prostitueerde teneinde in leven te blijven?
En al dat bloot, was dat nou nodig? Met de verzuchting dat daar vast wel een doelgroep voor zal bestaan.

We zullen het wel zien......

Een recensie vindt u hier: https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the ... 96.article

'The Great Mystical Circus (O Grande Circo Místico)': Cannes Review

Carlos Diegues plots the changing fortunes of a family-run circus



Dir: Carlos Diegues. Brazil. 2018. 105mins

The Great Mystical Circus (O Grande Circo Místico) tells the story of one family over five generations and 100 years, resulting in a silly soap opera stuffed with incidents — few of which are memorable.
Adapting a 1980s ballet, which itself was inspired by a 1930s poem, director Carlos Diegues has crafted a sprawling melodrama that feels badly compressed into a 105-minute running time, reducing whole lives to frothy plot points and shamelessly manipulative emotional beats.

Diegues keeps everything moving along at a fast clip

Premiering at Cannes, Circus has some international star power thanks to Vincent Cassel’s name amidst the large ensemble.
Because of its circus setting and musical numbers, the film bears a passing resemblance to The Greatest Showman ($431m worldwide), but comparable commercial success seems unlikely.

Starting in 1910, the film traces the shifting fortunes of the family-owned Great Mystical Circus, whose only constant presence is an apparently ageless master of ceremonies, Celavi (Jesuíta Barbosa).
As members of the Kieps clan grow old, their children take over the reins, navigating the three-ring spectacle through world wars, technological advancements and personal tragedies.

Based on a poem by Jorge de Lima, which was the basis for Chico Buarque and Edu Lobo’s 1983 ballet, Circus could fill a few seasons’ worth of a television series as we get to know one generation of this family — their dreams, their challenges — and then swiftly fast-forward decades in time to meet a new crop of Kieps characters.

To be sure, there’s cheesy pleasure in watching the family members indulge their base desires, often predictably leading to disaster. (Circus protagonists die while giving birth, having sex or performing on the trapeze, and that’s when they’re not being raped, hanging themselves or dabbling in heroin.)
Diegues (Bye Bye Brazil, Subway To The Stars) keeps everything moving along at a fast clip, giving the proceedings more than a dash of fantasy — especially when the Kieps saga reaches the 21st century.

But whether as a chronicle of a family’s rise and fall or as an accidental survey of a century of world history, Circus is simply too flimsy to invest much interest.
Instead of connecting thematic or emotional strands between eras, showing how one generation’s struggles echo across the years, Diegues tends to linger on the most sensationalistic aspects of each storyline, which makes even the more resonant characters feel like puppets in a lavish, libidinous odyssey of sex, drugs and betrayal.

Cassel creates an impression as a swaggering performer who tries to wrest control of the circus, while Barbosa overdoes the impish whimsy as the enchanted Celavi.
The songs, a mixture of pop and jazz, are pleasant if not particularly memorable, which could also be said of much of the cast.

Bruna Linzmeyer is, however, a striking contortionist early in the film, and Mariana Ximenes manages to deliver a soulful performance near the end as a woman who wants out of the family business.
But like so many of the film’s participants, these actors vanish from the narrative too quickly.
What fun is a circus if it doesn’t give you some dazzling feats to remember?

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Op de foto Vincent Cassel, een wereldwijd gelauwerde Franse filmacteur.

De officiële trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs1HoeD_p8E













En uiteraard ontkwamen we weer niet aan een oproep van de dierenactivisten om de film te boycotten omdat daar dieren in te zien zouden zijn.
Toegegeven: de dieren in de trailer lijken niet uit de animatiestudio te komen. Des te beter!

De regisseur en een deel van de cast, drie dagen geleden in Cannes:



Een samenvatting vanuit Cannes, met wat meer beelden uit de film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJaU6EasSgc

Bovenvermelde speelfilm -nog altijd niet te zien in ons land- is genomineerd als inzending van Brazilië voor de Oscar-uitreiking 2019 in de categorie 'Beste Film in een Buitenlandse Taal'. Bij ons vaak Beste Buitenlandse Film genoemd, maar die taal is wel essentieel.
Aldus lezen we in........China: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-0 ... 461611.htm

Movie "The Great Mystical Circus" to represent Brazil in the Oscars

BRASILIA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The movie "The Great Mystical Circus" by Brazilian director Carlos Diegues was chosen to represent Brazil in the Best Foreign Language Film category during the 2019 Oscars, the Ministry of Culture said on Tuesday.

The decision was made by a commission of professionals in the industry coordinated by the ministry.

The feature-length film, directed by one of the noted directors from the Cinema Novo era of the 1960s, was chosen from among 23 candidates.

According to the commission, the film was selected based on its poetic force and the presence of Brazilian music.

The movie, which mixes fantasy with reality, tells the story of five generations of a family who owns a circus under the watchful eyes of Celavi, the master of ceremonies who never ages.

The story begins with the encounter of a dancer and a doctor at the start of the 20th century.

The doctor, who falls in love with the dancer, gives her a circus that her family runs for decades. The story goes to present day.

The selection committee said it also took into consideration past awards won by the film, its impact and the criteria set by the Oscar committee.

For his part, the Ministry of Culture's audiovisual secretary, Frederico Mascarenhas said the film will receive 200,000 U.S. dollars to promote it outside of Brazil and to increase its chances in the Oscar competition.

Diegues, 78, was chosen to sit on the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazilian Academy of Letters), a Brazilian literary non-profit society more than a week ago.

The majority of the 18 films directed by Diegues have been chosen at one moment or another by the major international film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, New York and Toronto and were shown in Europe, the United States and Latin America.