Director: Walter Salles
Writers: Joao Emanuel Carneiro/Marcos Bernstein
Cinematographer: Walter Carvalho
Dora: Fernanda Montenegro
Josue: Vinicius de Oliveira
Irene: Marilia Pera |
A letter can change a person's life, but what if that letter never arrives? This is the question that Brazilian director Walter Salles explores in "Central Station" (Centro Do Brazil) setting his story against the backdrop of working-class urban life in Rio de Janeiro.
Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) is a retired primary teacher who ekes out her pension by writing letters for the illiterate. Every day she sets up her table in Rio's main train station, and writes letters to lovers, to family, to friends, for passing workers. At night Dora returns home with the letters and, she and her neighbour Irene, decide their fate. A few they post, others they consign to the wastepaper basket, like the impassioned love-letters of a man who sends the same letter to ten different women! The ones they can't agree on end up in "purgatory" - a drawer in Dora's flat. This is the fate of a letter written by the mother of nine-year-old Josue.
The very next day Josue's mother is killed and he is left alone in an indifferent city, fired only by the desire to find the father he has never seen. Initially Dora sees Josue as an opportunity to make some quick money. Soon however, almost against her will, she finds herself taking a maternal interest in Josue' s welfare. The unlikely pair team up and, leaving the familiarity of Rio behind them, journey into the remote northeast of Brazil in an effort to find Josue' s father.
"Central Station" is a story of heartbreak and of hope and represents a refreshing change from sugar-coated Hollywood fare. There are no easy answers and no perfectly happy ending. Dora and Josue struggle to develop a meaningful relationship, alternately drawn together and driven apart.
The performances, are fantastic, especially that of Fernanda Montenegro, one of Brazil's greatest actors. It is wonderful to see an older woman being allowed to look her age and yet, through her performance, become truly beautiful as her bitterness breaks down and she discovers that she still has a heart. Vinicius de Oliveira as Josue is a delight. At the age of ten this is his first film role, and a giant step up from working as a shoeshine boy at Rio Airport. He manages to convey both innocence and a cynical toughness that has come from his life experience.
Conveying its messages in images as much as words, "Central Station" is a film that gives a sense of real people struggling to survive and even to love in a harsh world. It justly deserves its Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
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