This film is a slow-starter but patient viewers will be rewarded with something quite magical and probably memorable. The 2 lead actresses are very famous in Brazil and their performances here are superb. The film brings to my mind Jane Campion's late 90s 'The Piano', which is similarly arty, demanding on the viewer and takes place years ago in a remote part of New Zealand. One tends to either like it a lot or not at all. I grade it 7.5 and recommend it with the disclaimer that, except for the star power of the actresses, it is not commercial. It's ambitious, arguably pretentious, but effective. If you let it get to you it will.
37 Reviews
Beautiful Scenery
Amandad18 January 2007
This is a beautiful, poignant movie that reminded me of "The English Patient'. Filmed in the deserts of the Brazilian state of Maranhao it has stunning scenery that brings a backdrop of authenticity to the story line. I recommend viewing 'the making of' featurette, which depicts the difficulties, encountered in filming in such a harsh environment. It is interesting to note that although there are relatively few characters, the story can still rivet. I was able to identify with the main characters and feel their emotions. I do admit that the story is slow at first but in the end, it will leave you smiling and clamoring for more.
The one negative comment I have is about the scene(s) that caused the film to be rated 'R'. Although I can understand the need for it, I think the producer could have use some restraint and toned it down a bit, this would have made for a different rating and permitted a broader audience to appreciate this gem.
The one negative comment I have is about the scene(s) that caused the film to be rated 'R'. Although I can understand the need for it, I think the producer could have use some restraint and toned it down a bit, this would have made for a different rating and permitted a broader audience to appreciate this gem.
Clever twist saves sinking pretensions
oneloveall17 December 2006
From Brazil begins this unusual tale taking place in their early 20th century's untamed deserts, leading a distraught man, his wife, with family and following, to the absurd notion of settling into the middle of an elusive waterhole, centered in the middle of an endless sandscape, into one eventual House of Sand. What transpires from the mysterious setup of this piece is captured with quite dignity, accentuated with the production values that would have any techie humbled by the tough shoot this crew must have undergone to balance the artsy direction to the harsh environment. It is to the film's detriment then, that the vast majority of time is spent milking the unique aesthetics involved here, insensitively editing many of the beautifully photographed shots which adds up to a whole that unwittingly imitates it's protagonist's plight a little too closely- that of sinking into the ground of nothingness. Fortunately a cleverly conceived, though questionably rendered plot device snaps the viewer's interest back late in the game, even rounding out the mostly one trick affair on a profound note. This extra dimension carved out in the third act does save this House from blowing away for the artistic excuse a lot of it seems to be.
Perspective Is Everything!
httpmom25 January 2007
Maybe it's a male/female perspective (the mother daughter relationships were so spot on), or an American/Brazilian difference in perspective, but I can not understand all the negative comments on the board regarding this movie! To me it is a haunting little masterpiece I will not soon forget. The standout acting, the stunning yet eerie landscape setting, the subtle plot, and the music are reminiscent of Kurosawa's deeply minimal but hugely philosophical dramas. Add to that, a brilliantly BIG viewfinder of a camera and a really superb space science sub plot this movie is almost epic. I was surprised by it's simplicity and astonished by it's depth. The director may be young but his soul is ever so old.
A masterpiece of dreams and passions unwillingly inherited
Chris_Docker17 August 2006
I kept the postcard. I had narrowly missed this film when I was in Brasil, where it went on to run for 14 consecutive weeks. They had those little free postcards they use to advertise just about anything these days. The House of Sand postcards were particularly beautiful, so I took them home and kept them.
More than a year later, the postcards are in a dusty folder somewhere, but the image remains in my mind, and leapt out at me when I saw the film advertised in the 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival. It's one of those exquisite photos, rivalling even The English Patient, and conveys stark beautiful lighting, a woman, and white desert dunes. Worth seeing for the cinematography alone surely, but it turns out to be one of those gems that every festival-goer prays for.
On the shimmering sandy plains of northern Maranhão, three generations of women live dreams and passions unwillingly inherited, experiencing profound depths of despair and fulfilment. Opening scenes of sweeping white sand dunes focus in to the wind and weather torn faces of a small stream of people, battling forward. Áurea has come to this wilderness at the will of her husband, who has some title deeds near a lagoon. Twists of fate soon leave her isolated in this desolate place with only her mother, Dona Maria, and pregnant. At first desperate to find a way out, Áurea gradually comes to realise she belongs here.
The scenery (shot in beautiful 2K widescreen) brings together the ferocity of nature and the elements, reflected in the passion of the leading character, her indomitable spirit, and her adaptability. Bringing together some of the finest talent in Brasil, House of Sand works on a visual and dramatic level that is heightened by an artistry that is almost metaphysical. In the wilderness, a person's relationship with themselves becomes different, as happens with Áurea. There is just you - no emergency services to fall back on. The senses are turned in on themselves and the workings of the 'real world' become less important. In the film, a long period of time is marked by various events, either astronomical (the solar eclipse photographed by scientists in Brasil in 1919 that led to the proof of Einstein's theory of relativity), or completely external (a war, and later the landing of a man on the moon) to the real world lived in by these women over a period of 60 years. The desert is the nothingness, the shifting sands to which all return. The relativity within their lives forms an ongoing story that moves from the woman to her daughter. This continuity is reflected symbolically by both lead actresses playing different women at different periods of those characters' lives - although the make-up is sufficient to maintain a straightforward, linear story (although as well as being two of the most renowned actresses in Brasil, they also happen to be real life mother and daughter).
Dialogue and background music are both pared down to enhance the images and scenes. Said scriptwriter Elena Soáres, "Dialogue is something dangerous because it is almost the opposite of cinema. One can fall into a trap. One tends to resolve everything through dialogue but cinema works with another peculiarity. It resolves itself with the image." Similarly music is an important theme, the thing that Áurea most misses, so is not added in the usual overt way just as background.
For Áurea, the wilderness she lives in, its nothingness, is the absence of all that is desired. Sand that even (at one point) covers her physical house. But, like the men who went to the moon - all that was there was nothing - in that search was found something that no physical prize could equate. House of Sand is one of those timeless masterpieces that occurs very infrequently. It is the jewel that makes worthwhile wading through an endless smorgasbord of lesser films to find.
More than a year later, the postcards are in a dusty folder somewhere, but the image remains in my mind, and leapt out at me when I saw the film advertised in the 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival. It's one of those exquisite photos, rivalling even The English Patient, and conveys stark beautiful lighting, a woman, and white desert dunes. Worth seeing for the cinematography alone surely, but it turns out to be one of those gems that every festival-goer prays for.
On the shimmering sandy plains of northern Maranhão, three generations of women live dreams and passions unwillingly inherited, experiencing profound depths of despair and fulfilment. Opening scenes of sweeping white sand dunes focus in to the wind and weather torn faces of a small stream of people, battling forward. Áurea has come to this wilderness at the will of her husband, who has some title deeds near a lagoon. Twists of fate soon leave her isolated in this desolate place with only her mother, Dona Maria, and pregnant. At first desperate to find a way out, Áurea gradually comes to realise she belongs here.
The scenery (shot in beautiful 2K widescreen) brings together the ferocity of nature and the elements, reflected in the passion of the leading character, her indomitable spirit, and her adaptability. Bringing together some of the finest talent in Brasil, House of Sand works on a visual and dramatic level that is heightened by an artistry that is almost metaphysical. In the wilderness, a person's relationship with themselves becomes different, as happens with Áurea. There is just you - no emergency services to fall back on. The senses are turned in on themselves and the workings of the 'real world' become less important. In the film, a long period of time is marked by various events, either astronomical (the solar eclipse photographed by scientists in Brasil in 1919 that led to the proof of Einstein's theory of relativity), or completely external (a war, and later the landing of a man on the moon) to the real world lived in by these women over a period of 60 years. The desert is the nothingness, the shifting sands to which all return. The relativity within their lives forms an ongoing story that moves from the woman to her daughter. This continuity is reflected symbolically by both lead actresses playing different women at different periods of those characters' lives - although the make-up is sufficient to maintain a straightforward, linear story (although as well as being two of the most renowned actresses in Brasil, they also happen to be real life mother and daughter).
Dialogue and background music are both pared down to enhance the images and scenes. Said scriptwriter Elena Soáres, "Dialogue is something dangerous because it is almost the opposite of cinema. One can fall into a trap. One tends to resolve everything through dialogue but cinema works with another peculiarity. It resolves itself with the image." Similarly music is an important theme, the thing that Áurea most misses, so is not added in the usual overt way just as background.
For Áurea, the wilderness she lives in, its nothingness, is the absence of all that is desired. Sand that even (at one point) covers her physical house. But, like the men who went to the moon - all that was there was nothing - in that search was found something that no physical prize could equate. House of Sand is one of those timeless masterpieces that occurs very infrequently. It is the jewel that makes worthwhile wading through an endless smorgasbord of lesser films to find.
Visually dazzling fable about the press of time and place on people's lives
roland-1049 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
In the opening scenes of Waddington's new film we are flying over a vast and utterly unique landscape composed of small, nearly pure white sand dunes punctuated by gullies of rock and vegetation, and you imagine at once that a visually thrilling and strangely lyrical, fabulous movie may be in store. That hunch is well rewarded, for this is a surreal saga about three women, spanning 60 years, which takes place in a dazzling desert wilderness near a powerful open ocean. As in Teshigahara's classic, "Woman in the Dunes," the sand that surrounds and circumscribes the lives of these women is so omnipresent, so relentless in its power, so emblematic of the press of time and place upon people's lives, that the landscape itself looms as perhaps the most important character in the story.
A party of settlers arrives in this forsaken corner of northeast Brazil in 1910, but nearly everyone flees in fear of a small colony of descendants of former slaves that live nearby. Left behind are the leader, who soon dies, his pregnant wife, Aurea (Fernanda Torres), and her mother Maria (Fernanda Montenegro). The two women turn for assistance to one of the blacks, Massu (Seu Jorge), who more or less adopts them. The story skips ahead, often leaping forward many years in a single scene change. We go to 1919, then 1942, finally 1969, following the lives of these women and Aurea's daughter, another Maria.
This mythic tale very ably explores themes of adaptation, survival, courage, longing and fulfillment, within the context of time marching ever onwards. The screenplay was written (by Elena Soarez) specifically as a showcase for the two lead actresses (Ms. Torres is the wife of the director, and the daughter of Ms. Montenegro). The actresses play multiple roles as the three principal women age. Among all the actors, Ms. Torres is the most intriguing: her restlessness and sexual hunger are palpable. Mr. Jorge, whose singing of Portuguese ballads was arguably the best feature in the film, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," is a glowering presence.
Some will find this film too stylized, too full of artifice, overly reliant on the gimmick of actresses playing multiple roles, and thus pretentious. But then pretending is the stuff of fables, false stories that still give true meaning to human experience. And that's what we have here. (In Portuguese) My grade: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 09/07/06)
A party of settlers arrives in this forsaken corner of northeast Brazil in 1910, but nearly everyone flees in fear of a small colony of descendants of former slaves that live nearby. Left behind are the leader, who soon dies, his pregnant wife, Aurea (Fernanda Torres), and her mother Maria (Fernanda Montenegro). The two women turn for assistance to one of the blacks, Massu (Seu Jorge), who more or less adopts them. The story skips ahead, often leaping forward many years in a single scene change. We go to 1919, then 1942, finally 1969, following the lives of these women and Aurea's daughter, another Maria.
This mythic tale very ably explores themes of adaptation, survival, courage, longing and fulfillment, within the context of time marching ever onwards. The screenplay was written (by Elena Soarez) specifically as a showcase for the two lead actresses (Ms. Torres is the wife of the director, and the daughter of Ms. Montenegro). The actresses play multiple roles as the three principal women age. Among all the actors, Ms. Torres is the most intriguing: her restlessness and sexual hunger are palpable. Mr. Jorge, whose singing of Portuguese ballads was arguably the best feature in the film, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," is a glowering presence.
Some will find this film too stylized, too full of artifice, overly reliant on the gimmick of actresses playing multiple roles, and thus pretentious. But then pretending is the stuff of fables, false stories that still give true meaning to human experience. And that's what we have here. (In Portuguese) My grade: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 09/07/06)
Foreign film at its best.
clg2382 September 2006
This is a stunning film, visually and emotionally. Although rooted in a forsaken sandy wasteland, the film is a metaphor for how circumstance locates us and how we can or cannot get out of the place in which we find ourselves. House of Sand MUST be seen on the big screen--never has landscape been more compelling! It's a literary film, which is to say that it is not full of exciting, unrealistic events. How the film manages a shift of time is briefly disconcerting and then brilliant. The story deals with the ramifications of an accident, the damaged psyche of a man, and takes us through what his survivor does to cope. This is definitely foreign film at its best!
Apart from the visuals, the film has little to say
howard.schumann20 August 2007
Set in the white desert of Maranhao in Northern Brazil where drifting sands can ruthlessly bury an entire house in a matter of minutes, Audrucha Waddington's House of Sand is reminiscent of Teshigahara's great 1964 film Woman in the Dunes but without its dramatic tension or emotional involvement. In House of Sand, there is no struggle for survival against nature or a pervasive feeling of being trapped, only ennui and grudging acceptance, interrupted by casual sex. Based on a story co-written by Elena Soarez and Luiz Carlos Barreto, the film follows three generations of women but confuses the viewer with sudden, unannounced time shifts and interchanging roles played by the lead actresses.
In 1910, Aurea (Fernanda Torres), her husband Vasco de Sa (Ruy Guerra), and her mother Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro, the real mother of Ms. Torres) travel with other settlers to a remote desert outpost to set up camp on the land he had purchased. Aurea is pregnant and immediately wants to return home after they are approached by black slaves who carry machetes. The settlers soon depart in fear leaving the two women at the mercy of Vasco who has become increasingly brutal and unstable. After Vasco is killed by a falling roof, the two women try to adjust to the harsh life of the desert but look for a way to leave.
Their first ray of hope is from salt deliverer Chico (Emiliano Queiroz), from the neighboring area but he dies suddenly from a cough, As the years go by, Aurea's daughter (Camilla Facundes) named Maria after her mother, is now ten years old. The women have been helped to survive by a former slave named Massu (Seu Jorge), now a widower, who teaches them how to get food. Another chance to leave occurs when Luis (Enrique Díaz), a soldier who has come to the desert with a group of scientists to photograph the solar eclipse of 1919, tells Aurea that he will take them out of the desert but fate intervenes. When Aurea returns to get her mother and daughter, she finds that her house has collapsed, killing her mother, though Massu has rescued Maria.
Accepting their fate, the two abandon hope of ever leaving the desert, though the story does have a surprise in store for us at the end. House of Sand's camera-work is astonishing with gorgeous shots by cinematographer Ricardo Della Rosa not only of the white sand but also of the pristine sky and the blue sea but the characters never seem to notice the world around them and express no relationship, either emotional or spiritual, to their surroundings. Apart from the visuals, the film has little to say other than -- time goes by and it's not too interesting when you're alone but you can get used to anything and anyway, men come and go but the strength of women endures. All we need is an ersatz ghost to put us in Almodovar territory.
In 1910, Aurea (Fernanda Torres), her husband Vasco de Sa (Ruy Guerra), and her mother Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro, the real mother of Ms. Torres) travel with other settlers to a remote desert outpost to set up camp on the land he had purchased. Aurea is pregnant and immediately wants to return home after they are approached by black slaves who carry machetes. The settlers soon depart in fear leaving the two women at the mercy of Vasco who has become increasingly brutal and unstable. After Vasco is killed by a falling roof, the two women try to adjust to the harsh life of the desert but look for a way to leave.
Their first ray of hope is from salt deliverer Chico (Emiliano Queiroz), from the neighboring area but he dies suddenly from a cough, As the years go by, Aurea's daughter (Camilla Facundes) named Maria after her mother, is now ten years old. The women have been helped to survive by a former slave named Massu (Seu Jorge), now a widower, who teaches them how to get food. Another chance to leave occurs when Luis (Enrique Díaz), a soldier who has come to the desert with a group of scientists to photograph the solar eclipse of 1919, tells Aurea that he will take them out of the desert but fate intervenes. When Aurea returns to get her mother and daughter, she finds that her house has collapsed, killing her mother, though Massu has rescued Maria.
Accepting their fate, the two abandon hope of ever leaving the desert, though the story does have a surprise in store for us at the end. House of Sand's camera-work is astonishing with gorgeous shots by cinematographer Ricardo Della Rosa not only of the white sand but also of the pristine sky and the blue sea but the characters never seem to notice the world around them and express no relationship, either emotional or spiritual, to their surroundings. Apart from the visuals, the film has little to say other than -- time goes by and it's not too interesting when you're alone but you can get used to anything and anyway, men come and go but the strength of women endures. All we need is an ersatz ghost to put us in Almodovar territory.
Staggeringly Beautiful Cinematic Epic
gradyharp17 December 2006
CASA DE AREIA ('HOUSE OF SAND) is a masterpiece of film-making from Brazil. Written by Elena Soarez and Luis Carlos Barreto the story seems more a magical metaphor than a tale of real life - until the film concludes and the immediacy and universality of the messages haunt the viewer's mind for hours. It is a film directed by Andrucha Waddington with a cast of superb actors but the focus of the film, the films central character, is the bleak isolation of the sweeping desert of Northern Brazil.
The film opens in 1910 with a caravan of wind swept characters appearing in the distance of the dunes of the desert, a group of wayfarers apparently escaping the poverty of the bog city to find a home of their own, land that can be called something that belongs to them. They are led by Vasco de Sá (Ruy Guerra) and his wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro), both of whom plead with Vasco to let them return to the poverty of the city instead of being forced to attempt to exist in the sands of the windy desert. Vasco is determined, builds a house, forces the women to live there and the others to pitch tents to exist. Áurea becomes pregnant, Vasco is confronted by the real owners of the land led by Massu (Seu Jorge), and must trade his possessions to remain in his 'home', a home which crashes around him leaving Vasco dead and Áurea and Dona Maria to fend for themselves. The others desert the two women and the women find their only help in Massu.
Time passes slowly (to 1919) and the changing sands begin to bury the house. Áurea, now a mother of a daughter Maria (Camilla Facundes), finds a telescope and sets out to see if she can find its owner and a way out of the desert. She encounters a group of scientists photographing the solar eclipse, a group protected by Luiz (Enrique Díaz) who bonds with Áurea, has a night affair with her, and then promises to take Áurea, her old mother Dona Maria, and her young daughter Maria to the city. Áurea sets out for her house only to find it now covered with a dune, her mother dead and her daughter Maria traumatized: the chance for escape is gone.
We move to 1942 and daughter Maria is now a woman (played by Fernanda Montenegro) who has bonded with Massu (now played by Luiz Melodia) and her sensual daughter Maria (played by Fernanda Torres) are still waiting for the return of Luiz. The older Luiz (Stênio Garcia) returns and Maria seduces him, even though Luiz knows she is his old lover's daughter. He returns to the house, meets the 'Áurea/Maria' he loved and ultimately agrees to take the younger Maria to the city: the older Maria elects to stay with Massu. Again time leaps to 1970 and the younger Maria in hippie outfit drives out to see her mother (both Marias are now played by Fernanda Montenegro) and the reunion of hopes and dreams of over 60 years are realized in a manner that brings the film to a haunting conclusion.
The cast is extraordinarily fine, blending into the movement of nature and symbolizing the elements of love, longing, loneliness, destiny, and survival. The repeated use of the two major actresses is a stroke of genius: we are caught up in the intuitive understanding of all the manifestations of these two women over time as they change roles not only as actresses but also as blending characters.
In a fine touch of genius, the films credits are rolled as Brazilian pianist Nelson Friere plays the Chopin 'Raindrop Prelude'. It is a moving ending to a magnificent film. Highly recommended. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Grady Harp
The film opens in 1910 with a caravan of wind swept characters appearing in the distance of the dunes of the desert, a group of wayfarers apparently escaping the poverty of the bog city to find a home of their own, land that can be called something that belongs to them. They are led by Vasco de Sá (Ruy Guerra) and his wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro), both of whom plead with Vasco to let them return to the poverty of the city instead of being forced to attempt to exist in the sands of the windy desert. Vasco is determined, builds a house, forces the women to live there and the others to pitch tents to exist. Áurea becomes pregnant, Vasco is confronted by the real owners of the land led by Massu (Seu Jorge), and must trade his possessions to remain in his 'home', a home which crashes around him leaving Vasco dead and Áurea and Dona Maria to fend for themselves. The others desert the two women and the women find their only help in Massu.
Time passes slowly (to 1919) and the changing sands begin to bury the house. Áurea, now a mother of a daughter Maria (Camilla Facundes), finds a telescope and sets out to see if she can find its owner and a way out of the desert. She encounters a group of scientists photographing the solar eclipse, a group protected by Luiz (Enrique Díaz) who bonds with Áurea, has a night affair with her, and then promises to take Áurea, her old mother Dona Maria, and her young daughter Maria to the city. Áurea sets out for her house only to find it now covered with a dune, her mother dead and her daughter Maria traumatized: the chance for escape is gone.
We move to 1942 and daughter Maria is now a woman (played by Fernanda Montenegro) who has bonded with Massu (now played by Luiz Melodia) and her sensual daughter Maria (played by Fernanda Torres) are still waiting for the return of Luiz. The older Luiz (Stênio Garcia) returns and Maria seduces him, even though Luiz knows she is his old lover's daughter. He returns to the house, meets the 'Áurea/Maria' he loved and ultimately agrees to take the younger Maria to the city: the older Maria elects to stay with Massu. Again time leaps to 1970 and the younger Maria in hippie outfit drives out to see her mother (both Marias are now played by Fernanda Montenegro) and the reunion of hopes and dreams of over 60 years are realized in a manner that brings the film to a haunting conclusion.
The cast is extraordinarily fine, blending into the movement of nature and symbolizing the elements of love, longing, loneliness, destiny, and survival. The repeated use of the two major actresses is a stroke of genius: we are caught up in the intuitive understanding of all the manifestations of these two women over time as they change roles not only as actresses but also as blending characters.
In a fine touch of genius, the films credits are rolled as Brazilian pianist Nelson Friere plays the Chopin 'Raindrop Prelude'. It is a moving ending to a magnificent film. Highly recommended. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Grady Harp
I've got sand in my eye and sand on my brain
jeuneidiot4 January 2007
Aurea (Fernanda Torres), heads with her visionary husband, her feeble mother and a few deluded colonists through sand dune after sand dune to some marshy land near the sea, hundreds of miles from civilization. Shortly after arriving, the rest of the colonists decide this was a bad idea and take off. Aurea's husband, angry at the quitters, tries to finish his hut himself and within minutes knocks some poles over on his head and dies. Now Aurea, several months pregnant, and her old mother are left pretty much to themselves in the absolute middle of nowhere. They find the remnants of a fugitive slave camp nearby and get a few meager supplies there. They plan on leaving, 10 years later, they are still planning on leaving. Aurea finally hooks up with one of the dudes from the colony and decides it isn't so bad. 20 more years pass, Aurea has transformed into her mother who died earlier in a sand accident and is now played by Fernanda Montenegro and Maria the daughter born in the desert in now played by Fernanda Torres. Maria is a carefree, lazy girl, drinking and hooking up with the local youth. But what can you expect when you live in the sand without civilization.
This movie is like eating a picnic on the beach. You've got some egg salad sandwiches, some apple slices and some chocolate chip cookies, but as you eat, you notice a particular crunch. Yes, there is sand in the egg salad, yes there is sand on the apples, yes there is sand in the cookies. But it's not so bad, it's still pretty good. What's more there's sand in your ear and even in your butt crack (where there should never be sand). You have been invaded by sand, but what can you do but lay back and let it take over, it's part of the beach experience. 7/10
http://blog.myspace.com/locoformovies
This movie is like eating a picnic on the beach. You've got some egg salad sandwiches, some apple slices and some chocolate chip cookies, but as you eat, you notice a particular crunch. Yes, there is sand in the egg salad, yes there is sand on the apples, yes there is sand in the cookies. But it's not so bad, it's still pretty good. What's more there's sand in your ear and even in your butt crack (where there should never be sand). You have been invaded by sand, but what can you do but lay back and let it take over, it's part of the beach experience. 7/10
http://blog.myspace.com/locoformovies
A cinema-graphic poem
gwlucca3 February 2007
Like "2001: A Space Odyssey", lots of people (critics included) are undoubtedly struggling to get a handle on this film. Here is an odyssey of another dimension, through shifting sands of time and perspective.
On one hand, the film is surrealistic -- it leaves many questions unanswered. It seems to purposely throw the unbelievable into our faces, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez in "100 Years of Solitude". For instance, how do the stranded women survive? What do they eat? It's a Robinson Crusoe epic without explanations.
On the other hand, the film is meticulously honest with fact and detail. The eclipse portrayed in the film was in fact observed in northern Brazil on 29 May 1919. The 7 successful photographic plates from the Brazilian expedition were fundamental in proving Einstein's theory of general (as opposed to special) relativity. Also, contrary to what another IMDb commenter has incorrectly characterized as "pseudo-scientific", one of the space-time implications of Einstein's theory is very accurately alluded to in the film.
We as viewers are left to sort out the broadly surreal from the minutely exact. We must decode the poetry of this film for ourselves. And, as with poetry, appreciation for this film will likely grow with reflection and repeated viewings.
"House of Sand" is a little jewel with hidden facets. See it on a wide screen with a good sound system to fully appreciate it.
On one hand, the film is surrealistic -- it leaves many questions unanswered. It seems to purposely throw the unbelievable into our faces, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez in "100 Years of Solitude". For instance, how do the stranded women survive? What do they eat? It's a Robinson Crusoe epic without explanations.
On the other hand, the film is meticulously honest with fact and detail. The eclipse portrayed in the film was in fact observed in northern Brazil on 29 May 1919. The 7 successful photographic plates from the Brazilian expedition were fundamental in proving Einstein's theory of general (as opposed to special) relativity. Also, contrary to what another IMDb commenter has incorrectly characterized as "pseudo-scientific", one of the space-time implications of Einstein's theory is very accurately alluded to in the film.
We as viewers are left to sort out the broadly surreal from the minutely exact. We must decode the poetry of this film for ourselves. And, as with poetry, appreciation for this film will likely grow with reflection and repeated viewings.
"House of Sand" is a little jewel with hidden facets. See it on a wide screen with a good sound system to fully appreciate it.
Enriches the Eyes, But Not The Heart and Spirit
ken55825 March 2015
This movie is frustrating to watch because it had such strong potential to be a sweeping drama that intertwines the wonders of nature and humanity through the passage of time.
It started out swimmingly in the waves of pastured wind blown sand and dunes. But slowly it gives way to lack of plausibility and stifled characters, focusing instead on the sweeping white-washed landscape to drive the movie.
While the actress playing the daughter is a competent actress, she is just not right for the role. This is the character which holds the thread of time throughout the entire movie, from the past (with her mother) to the present (herself) and future (her daughter), a parallel for the changes in the world (via Brazil) from the early 1900's to the 1960's. For this to work, this main character needs to have the ability to draw one in, such that one inadvertently has the emotional perspective of things through her eyes. This could not be achieved with this actress, hence one remains but simply an observer of an obstinate unlikeable woman plodding along a very uneven plot, too consciously framed by wonderful landscapes. It enriches the eyes, but not the heart and spirit.
The quick jump of time frame doesn't help, especially when no proper explanations are provided for improbable event.s Example: how did two woman with no farming resources nor skill amass a herd of goats? Or, how did they get an endless supply of clothing's for three woman if they are supposedly so far removed from civilization that they can't even leave the place? Or, why chop down a tree for no reason when she could enquire from nearby others where her daughter and mother was? Why suddenly have sex with the man (for the first time) in broad daylight when there was opportunities a plenty through the many many years? And on and on .
Utilizing the same two actresses to play each other in successive generations is a big mistake - they are so unalike in looks and characters, the ploy just make it jarring and disconnected dissociating the viewer further from these characters.
In the end, one has to just ignore the emotionally distant characters (except the mother/grandmother) and disconnectedness of it all and just enjoy the sceneries. It seems the director is trying hard to just string scenes together, and creating implausible situations and disjointed dialogue just to get some particular outcome, and hope the plot holds up it doesn't unfortunately.
Like the sand dunes, this one builds up early but get blown away in bits, and in the end remains just something visually 'nice' but only in temporary form, and from a distance.
It started out swimmingly in the waves of pastured wind blown sand and dunes. But slowly it gives way to lack of plausibility and stifled characters, focusing instead on the sweeping white-washed landscape to drive the movie.
While the actress playing the daughter is a competent actress, she is just not right for the role. This is the character which holds the thread of time throughout the entire movie, from the past (with her mother) to the present (herself) and future (her daughter), a parallel for the changes in the world (via Brazil) from the early 1900's to the 1960's. For this to work, this main character needs to have the ability to draw one in, such that one inadvertently has the emotional perspective of things through her eyes. This could not be achieved with this actress, hence one remains but simply an observer of an obstinate unlikeable woman plodding along a very uneven plot, too consciously framed by wonderful landscapes. It enriches the eyes, but not the heart and spirit.
The quick jump of time frame doesn't help, especially when no proper explanations are provided for improbable event.s Example: how did two woman with no farming resources nor skill amass a herd of goats? Or, how did they get an endless supply of clothing's for three woman if they are supposedly so far removed from civilization that they can't even leave the place? Or, why chop down a tree for no reason when she could enquire from nearby others where her daughter and mother was? Why suddenly have sex with the man (for the first time) in broad daylight when there was opportunities a plenty through the many many years? And on and on .
Utilizing the same two actresses to play each other in successive generations is a big mistake - they are so unalike in looks and characters, the ploy just make it jarring and disconnected dissociating the viewer further from these characters.
In the end, one has to just ignore the emotionally distant characters (except the mother/grandmother) and disconnectedness of it all and just enjoy the sceneries. It seems the director is trying hard to just string scenes together, and creating implausible situations and disjointed dialogue just to get some particular outcome, and hope the plot holds up it doesn't unfortunately.
Like the sand dunes, this one builds up early but get blown away in bits, and in the end remains just something visually 'nice' but only in temporary form, and from a distance.
A visually stunning waste of talent
debblyst21 April 2006
Brazilian Andrucha Waddington began his career a wunderkind director of publicity and video-clips in his early 20s. By his late 20s, he'd made a fine transition to movies with his medium-length "Gêmeas" (1999, based on a short story by Nelson Rodrigues), and especially his heart-warming feature "Eu Tu Eles" (2000). These two visually striking films had powerful plots, something his third fiction movie "Casa de Areia" (House of Sand) has only a frail thread of.
This film's pretentious, abstract, non-sequitur plot was probably inspired by the importance of Northeastern Brazil in Einstein's confirmation of his Theory of Relativity. Waddington and writer Elena Soarez seize the opportunity to tell a story about 3 generations of women, played by 2 of Brazil's finest actresses: Oscar-nominee Fernanda Montenegro ("Central Station") and her real-life daughter, Cannes winner Fernanda Torres ("Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar"). But the plot is as thin as the fine sand of the jaw-dropping desert lunar beauty of the region of Lençóis Maranhenses in Northern Brazil, filmed as a collection of slow, grandiloquent and vacuously exhibitionist shots. "Casa..." is a visually-oriented director's dream: it's all images -- landscapes, sand, storms, clothes, water, faces, bodies...like a National Geographic documentary. The music is sparse and under-used so it won't compete with the images (Waddington opts for a Fellini-like wind-blowing soundtrack). If the premises of the script weren't so esoteric, ambitious and pseudo-metaphysical, and the direction less on the exhibitionist side (there's a completely gratuitous love scene between Torres and Seu Jorge, for example, devoid of any dramatic purpose; it's there just as an aesthetic exercise), the film might have been more likable.
Wonderful actresses Montenegro and Torres (who's married to director Waddington) try with all their heart, but they seem embarrassingly aware that their characters are as fragile and inconsistent as the shack they built on the dunes. The rest of the cast appear in primary rough sketches of characters, with Enrique Díaz and Camila Facundes particularly contrived in their artificial roles. Waste, waste...
You can sit through "Casa..." with the sound off and it won't make much difference -- this film was made to inspire awe for director Waddington and his excellent DP Ricardo della Rosa, who fail, however, to convey genuine emotion or maintain our interest throughout the (seemingly endless) 103 minutes. This film particularly hard to endure on a TV screen, as it fully belongs to a big one. All things considered, it's a waste of talent for everyone involved, and a letdown by writer Elena Soarez, who implodes the philosophical ambition of the story with pedestrian dialog, and director Waddington, who favors technique and aestheticism over vibrancy, passion and emotional investigation of his characters.
This film's pretentious, abstract, non-sequitur plot was probably inspired by the importance of Northeastern Brazil in Einstein's confirmation of his Theory of Relativity. Waddington and writer Elena Soarez seize the opportunity to tell a story about 3 generations of women, played by 2 of Brazil's finest actresses: Oscar-nominee Fernanda Montenegro ("Central Station") and her real-life daughter, Cannes winner Fernanda Torres ("Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar"). But the plot is as thin as the fine sand of the jaw-dropping desert lunar beauty of the region of Lençóis Maranhenses in Northern Brazil, filmed as a collection of slow, grandiloquent and vacuously exhibitionist shots. "Casa..." is a visually-oriented director's dream: it's all images -- landscapes, sand, storms, clothes, water, faces, bodies...like a National Geographic documentary. The music is sparse and under-used so it won't compete with the images (Waddington opts for a Fellini-like wind-blowing soundtrack). If the premises of the script weren't so esoteric, ambitious and pseudo-metaphysical, and the direction less on the exhibitionist side (there's a completely gratuitous love scene between Torres and Seu Jorge, for example, devoid of any dramatic purpose; it's there just as an aesthetic exercise), the film might have been more likable.
Wonderful actresses Montenegro and Torres (who's married to director Waddington) try with all their heart, but they seem embarrassingly aware that their characters are as fragile and inconsistent as the shack they built on the dunes. The rest of the cast appear in primary rough sketches of characters, with Enrique Díaz and Camila Facundes particularly contrived in their artificial roles. Waste, waste...
You can sit through "Casa..." with the sound off and it won't make much difference -- this film was made to inspire awe for director Waddington and his excellent DP Ricardo della Rosa, who fail, however, to convey genuine emotion or maintain our interest throughout the (seemingly endless) 103 minutes. This film particularly hard to endure on a TV screen, as it fully belongs to a big one. All things considered, it's a waste of talent for everyone involved, and a letdown by writer Elena Soarez, who implodes the philosophical ambition of the story with pedestrian dialog, and director Waddington, who favors technique and aestheticism over vibrancy, passion and emotional investigation of his characters.
The sands of time
jotix10019 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
As the story opens on the screen we watch a desert-like landscape that seems uninhabitable, and yet, there is such beauty and serenity in the dunes being formed as the wind pounds on them mercilessly. As the camera rests on some dunes in the distance, we watch as a convoy of people and donkeys are moving slowly in the sand. Whatever possessed Vasco De Sa to buy this land, seems to be incomprehensible; that he tries to make a living out of civilization among the shifting sand is just folly!
Little by little we get to know a bit more about Vasco, his wife, Aurea, her mother Maria, as the men he has brought to help him leave them after experiencing the harsh elements in such an arid place. Things aren't made any better when a group of blacks come to see Vasco, who thinks they are going to rob him. He appeases them by giving them some of the things he has brought to this remote place, and we also learn about an island nearby where these former slaves have settled.
After Vasco's tragic death, Dona Maria and Aurea, who is pregnant, are left to deal with the elements. After ten years have passed and Aurea has given birth to her daughter, Maria, she goes exploring and discovers a camp where foreign scientists are making astronomy studies. After a night with Luiz, she goes back for her mother and daughter, but finds her house in ruins after the shifting sand has crushed part of it. Only the young Maria survives.
The kind Massu, on of the black men from the island, has loved Aurea from afar. Fate and circumstances bring them together by a bond that goes beyond all reason. After years have passed, Maria, who is now a grown woman discovers Luiz, who has returned to the area, not knowing what role he had played in her mother and her lives. Aurea tells her daughter to go with Luiz back to civilization, but Aurea has no desire to see a world she can't comprehend anymore.
This exquisitely told story by director Andrucha Waddington is one of the most beautiful films that have come from Brazil in quite a while. The screen play by the excellent Elena Soarez, whose work one has admired as well, collaborates with Mr. Waddington once more in this strange, but highly moving picture about isolation, loyalty and folly. The wonderful cinematography by Ricardo Della Rosa makes everything one sees even better, if that's possible. The magnificent desert location and even the eclipse his camera captures fills one's senses like no other film in recent memory. Joao Barone and Carlo Bertolini's music score is another element that works with all we are watching.
Of course, the film belongs to the two magnificent actresses at the center of the story. Fernanda Montenegro and her real life daughter, Fernanda Torres, make a great contribution to create these women of the desert. Fernanda Montenegro is seen as three different versions of the older women in the story and Fernanda Torres plays the young Aurea and the grown up Maria, the girl that was born in that remote area. Ruy Guerra, himself a distinguished director, plays Vasco with conviction. Seu Jorge, Stenio Garcia and the rest of the cast contribute to make this film work.
It's curious to note some negative comments mainly from postings by Brazilian contributors to IMDb. The film, which was received with bad reviews, in general, from the media in that country, deserved much better. It's also curious that viewers from other areas get a different message and pleasure after viewing this film.
Little by little we get to know a bit more about Vasco, his wife, Aurea, her mother Maria, as the men he has brought to help him leave them after experiencing the harsh elements in such an arid place. Things aren't made any better when a group of blacks come to see Vasco, who thinks they are going to rob him. He appeases them by giving them some of the things he has brought to this remote place, and we also learn about an island nearby where these former slaves have settled.
After Vasco's tragic death, Dona Maria and Aurea, who is pregnant, are left to deal with the elements. After ten years have passed and Aurea has given birth to her daughter, Maria, she goes exploring and discovers a camp where foreign scientists are making astronomy studies. After a night with Luiz, she goes back for her mother and daughter, but finds her house in ruins after the shifting sand has crushed part of it. Only the young Maria survives.
The kind Massu, on of the black men from the island, has loved Aurea from afar. Fate and circumstances bring them together by a bond that goes beyond all reason. After years have passed, Maria, who is now a grown woman discovers Luiz, who has returned to the area, not knowing what role he had played in her mother and her lives. Aurea tells her daughter to go with Luiz back to civilization, but Aurea has no desire to see a world she can't comprehend anymore.
This exquisitely told story by director Andrucha Waddington is one of the most beautiful films that have come from Brazil in quite a while. The screen play by the excellent Elena Soarez, whose work one has admired as well, collaborates with Mr. Waddington once more in this strange, but highly moving picture about isolation, loyalty and folly. The wonderful cinematography by Ricardo Della Rosa makes everything one sees even better, if that's possible. The magnificent desert location and even the eclipse his camera captures fills one's senses like no other film in recent memory. Joao Barone and Carlo Bertolini's music score is another element that works with all we are watching.
Of course, the film belongs to the two magnificent actresses at the center of the story. Fernanda Montenegro and her real life daughter, Fernanda Torres, make a great contribution to create these women of the desert. Fernanda Montenegro is seen as three different versions of the older women in the story and Fernanda Torres plays the young Aurea and the grown up Maria, the girl that was born in that remote area. Ruy Guerra, himself a distinguished director, plays Vasco with conviction. Seu Jorge, Stenio Garcia and the rest of the cast contribute to make this film work.
It's curious to note some negative comments mainly from postings by Brazilian contributors to IMDb. The film, which was received with bad reviews, in general, from the media in that country, deserved much better. It's also curious that viewers from other areas get a different message and pleasure after viewing this film.
fantastic and thoughtful
angel_a-22 November 2006
I loved this movie because it is fully of truthful contrasts. The larger story portrays the passing of time and immense global changes through war, scientific and technological advances. Everything changes, yet stays the same. Regardless of the generation, youth longs for excitement and change, while time brings calmness and acceptance of circumstance. The most amazing part is all is that the passing of time is portrayed from within an oasis in the middle of sand dunes where the sands of time pass slowly yet surely. This contrast, and the circumstances that bring the characters there, leave the audience wondering witch they would choose, the simple, calm, and relaxed life of the sand, or the stressful, competitive, yet object filled life in the city.
It's important to stay sharp to catch the change in generations because the actresses remain the same throughout, but this only adds to the story's message once you figure it out. I gave it a 10
It's important to stay sharp to catch the change in generations because the actresses remain the same throughout, but this only adds to the story's message once you figure it out. I gave it a 10
Loneliness, Survival, Hope, Anguish, Despair, Adaptation A Tale of Missed Dreams
claudio_carvalho20 August 2006
In 1910, in Maranhão, the insane Vasco de Sá moves with his pregnant urban wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother Maria (Fernanda Montenegro) to a wilderness land near a lagoon and surrounded by shifting dunes. Sooner his workers abandon the place, and Vasco dies, leaving the two women alone and without any resources. They are supported by a local son of a former slave, Massu (Seu Jorge), and they learn how to survive creating goats. Along the years, Áurea raises her daughter Maria (Camilla Facundes), hoping to move back to the capital someday. Her hope becomes anguish and despair as years go by, until her final adaptation to the place.
"Casa de Areia" is a beautiful story of hope and missed dreams. The first point to call the attention of the viewer is the wonderful landscape where the story takes place. The wind is so intense in the beginning that I need to put subtitles to understand the dialogs. The cast is leaded by two icons of the Brazilian cinema, the awesome Fernanda Montenegro and her daughter, Fernanda Torres. The story is engaging and depressive, showing the phases of loneliness, fight for survival, hope, anguish, despair and adaptation of Áurea. In the end, as a kind of consolation, she is informed by her daughter that the man reached the moon and found nothing but sand. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Casa de Areia" ("House of Sand")
"Casa de Areia" is a beautiful story of hope and missed dreams. The first point to call the attention of the viewer is the wonderful landscape where the story takes place. The wind is so intense in the beginning that I need to put subtitles to understand the dialogs. The cast is leaded by two icons of the Brazilian cinema, the awesome Fernanda Montenegro and her daughter, Fernanda Torres. The story is engaging and depressive, showing the phases of loneliness, fight for survival, hope, anguish, despair and adaptation of Áurea. In the end, as a kind of consolation, she is informed by her daughter that the man reached the moon and found nothing but sand. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Casa de Areia" ("House of Sand")
Impressive Work
celsogiusti12 July 2006
When the movie starts, is hard to foresee how the story will develop. Then, little by little, when the characters start to reveal themselves is easy to see there is a lot to come, but it is not action or big surprises. What comes is a profound lesson on every aspect of human life. Survival. Family. Women. Strength. Love. Society. Wherever there is at least two people, a lot can happen. The work of these two actress is amazing. They have multiple roles, as generations pass, and they really show the difference on each character. They even pass the characters from one to another in a way that makes easy to forget they were on different roles earlier on the movie. That's something that is generally badly done, but this case is totally an exception. I really recommend this movie. It is so rich in content and so beautiful visually that it can surely touch even the coldest soul.
News from afar, some details lacking
Chris Knipp6 January 2007
In Brazilian director Andrucha Waddington's House of Sand/Casa de Areia a mother and her grown daughter, Áurea, are brought into the desert in 1910 by Áurea's husband, an old man named Vasco de Sá (Ruy Guerra) leading a group of pioneers seeking a property and are forced to settle in a place where there's a little water but nothing save sand in every other direction. The opening sequence of the people and their animals seen from a distance struggling along in a dark line in the white landscape, with the clanging sounds of the troupe's carts and beasts disproportionately loud in our ears, is a starkly beautiful, if self-conscious one.
The daughter immediately discovers she's pregnant and wants to go home. She never does, though, and the film moves along depicting her wilderness existence in brief sequences, skipping forward by decades between them. A pair of Brazilian actresses who are in fact mother and daughter play the two women. They're Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres, respectively and they're a powerhouse team: Montenegro received an Oscar nomination for her starring role in Walter Salles' Central Station and Torres won the Best Actress Award at Cannes in 1986. House of Sand is a movie in which women play the heroic roles and men are, alternately, obstacles, temporary lovers, or recessive helpers. (Despite the feminine sound of his first name, the director is a man, but his screenplay was written by a woman, Elena Soárez.) If it's studiously lacking in such conventional palliatives as a David Lean soundtrack, House of Sand was nonetheless shot in a wide aspect ratio that emphatically sets off the harsh beauty of the landscape of a nature preserve in the Brazilian state of Maranhao where all the shooting was done. The print is so monochromatic you may forget it's in color but its special tonalities and ultra-sharp look make it eye-candy. The sound track of remixer Mark Berger is also striking and unusual, and in it music plays a tiny but enormously significant role for one of the main characters.
Soundtrack and image take the leading roles because Waddington emerges as more interested in setting and in his film's the formal elements, than in story. He's relatively careless with his characters, and with his audience's ability to follow his sudden time shifts these decade-long leaps forward that come on us unawares, without any titles or other guidelines by way of warning. This offhand approach to narrative becomes downright jarring when Waddington "ages" Torres' character by having her suddenly begin to be played by Montenegro. Mother and daughter the two actresses may be, but their faces are distinctive and dissimilar. You may feel the projectionist has gotten the reels switched around. It's a very telling piece of information that Waddington's starting point wasn't a story, but a photograph of a house buried in the sand somewhere. He didn't even see the shot himself, but the minute he heard about it the idea grabbed him. He decided he want to make a movie to explain how it came about. And there is a moment when a character returns from a trip and indeed finds a scene like that snapshot.
Situations are established visually rather than fully explored. It's hard to believe the two women are really even living in this place. Unlike the people of Zacharias Kunuk's Atanarjuat, for example to name another movie shot in a stark, remote place these women don't have an ancient culture that includes survival skills for the landscape they occupy. In a story not so unlike Robinson Crusoe, almost all the specific details of daily vicissitude and survival that enliven Defoe's famous narrative are omitted. We see one of the women rinse out a shirt; we see them listlessly bring pieces of fish up to their mouths and drink greedily from glasses of water. We see many close-ups of their faces and both women have interesting, gnarly visages that they know how to turn them into expressive masks of suffering and stoicism but that's not enough to establish that they've acquired survival skills. Does Massu (Seu Jorge; later Luiz Melodia), the son of an escaped slave who adopts them, provide for their every need? The sudden jumps forward of a decade at a time are a neat way of avoiding any exploration of daily life. Maria, the young daughter, says she has nothing to do. How so? How do you live in a wilderness and have nothing to do? It doesn't seem as though this was very well thought out. According to TimeOut New York, this is "a movie that's been referred to as 'a perpetual bleach job for the art-house mind.'" Mexican director Ricardo Benet's 2005 News from Afar /Noticias lejanas has the same nowhere starting point as House of Sand but it provides a more evocative experience because it's grounded in a wealth of character and incident. News's settlement becomes believable, and its main character's grounding in reality is further strengthened by a long second sequence in which he goes off to live in Mexico City. Compared to Benet's film, Waddington's chooses more to remain in the art-house realm of poetry or meditation rather than ground itself in recognizable experience. Lisandro Alonso's Los Muertos and the films of Carlos Reygada are other examples of Latin American film-making that edgy and outside the mainstream but has a strong punch of gritty reality.
The successive jumps from WWI to WWII to 1969 do, however, have some of the sweep of the awesome sandy landscape. And with its bursts of sudden passion, stark conflict, and terrible longing, the movie has some touching and powerful moments, particularly in the final scene in which the young daughter, the one of the three generations who's escaped to the city, returns, grown old now (Montenegro plays both roles this time) in 1969 to see her aged mother and tells her that man has walked on the moon.
The daughter immediately discovers she's pregnant and wants to go home. She never does, though, and the film moves along depicting her wilderness existence in brief sequences, skipping forward by decades between them. A pair of Brazilian actresses who are in fact mother and daughter play the two women. They're Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres, respectively and they're a powerhouse team: Montenegro received an Oscar nomination for her starring role in Walter Salles' Central Station and Torres won the Best Actress Award at Cannes in 1986. House of Sand is a movie in which women play the heroic roles and men are, alternately, obstacles, temporary lovers, or recessive helpers. (Despite the feminine sound of his first name, the director is a man, but his screenplay was written by a woman, Elena Soárez.) If it's studiously lacking in such conventional palliatives as a David Lean soundtrack, House of Sand was nonetheless shot in a wide aspect ratio that emphatically sets off the harsh beauty of the landscape of a nature preserve in the Brazilian state of Maranhao where all the shooting was done. The print is so monochromatic you may forget it's in color but its special tonalities and ultra-sharp look make it eye-candy. The sound track of remixer Mark Berger is also striking and unusual, and in it music plays a tiny but enormously significant role for one of the main characters.
Soundtrack and image take the leading roles because Waddington emerges as more interested in setting and in his film's the formal elements, than in story. He's relatively careless with his characters, and with his audience's ability to follow his sudden time shifts these decade-long leaps forward that come on us unawares, without any titles or other guidelines by way of warning. This offhand approach to narrative becomes downright jarring when Waddington "ages" Torres' character by having her suddenly begin to be played by Montenegro. Mother and daughter the two actresses may be, but their faces are distinctive and dissimilar. You may feel the projectionist has gotten the reels switched around. It's a very telling piece of information that Waddington's starting point wasn't a story, but a photograph of a house buried in the sand somewhere. He didn't even see the shot himself, but the minute he heard about it the idea grabbed him. He decided he want to make a movie to explain how it came about. And there is a moment when a character returns from a trip and indeed finds a scene like that snapshot.
Situations are established visually rather than fully explored. It's hard to believe the two women are really even living in this place. Unlike the people of Zacharias Kunuk's Atanarjuat, for example to name another movie shot in a stark, remote place these women don't have an ancient culture that includes survival skills for the landscape they occupy. In a story not so unlike Robinson Crusoe, almost all the specific details of daily vicissitude and survival that enliven Defoe's famous narrative are omitted. We see one of the women rinse out a shirt; we see them listlessly bring pieces of fish up to their mouths and drink greedily from glasses of water. We see many close-ups of their faces and both women have interesting, gnarly visages that they know how to turn them into expressive masks of suffering and stoicism but that's not enough to establish that they've acquired survival skills. Does Massu (Seu Jorge; later Luiz Melodia), the son of an escaped slave who adopts them, provide for their every need? The sudden jumps forward of a decade at a time are a neat way of avoiding any exploration of daily life. Maria, the young daughter, says she has nothing to do. How so? How do you live in a wilderness and have nothing to do? It doesn't seem as though this was very well thought out. According to TimeOut New York, this is "a movie that's been referred to as 'a perpetual bleach job for the art-house mind.'" Mexican director Ricardo Benet's 2005 News from Afar /Noticias lejanas has the same nowhere starting point as House of Sand but it provides a more evocative experience because it's grounded in a wealth of character and incident. News's settlement becomes believable, and its main character's grounding in reality is further strengthened by a long second sequence in which he goes off to live in Mexico City. Compared to Benet's film, Waddington's chooses more to remain in the art-house realm of poetry or meditation rather than ground itself in recognizable experience. Lisandro Alonso's Los Muertos and the films of Carlos Reygada are other examples of Latin American film-making that edgy and outside the mainstream but has a strong punch of gritty reality.
The successive jumps from WWI to WWII to 1969 do, however, have some of the sweep of the awesome sandy landscape. And with its bursts of sudden passion, stark conflict, and terrible longing, the movie has some touching and powerful moments, particularly in the final scene in which the young daughter, the one of the three generations who's escaped to the city, returns, grown old now (Montenegro plays both roles this time) in 1969 to see her aged mother and tells her that man has walked on the moon.
A boring and tiresome pretentious homage to a sand hill
kingdio30 December 2006
To say this movie is inert is much too great an understatement. It makes the dictionary look like an explosive dramatic novel. Critics would have you believe that great cinematography and scenery can substitute substance. Such a belief is akin to touting grass growing as breakthrough cinema just because it's being broadcasted in HD.
The movie establishes from the beginning that the true star is the scenery. There are but a dozen words in the first 20 minutes of the film, a trend that continues throughout and grows weary if you can manage to stay up. The sound of the wind and crashing waves are terrific for putting you to sleep. But they hardly constitute a gripping drama.
For reasons that are never explained, a very stubborn man takes his wife and her mother to what amount to a sand dune. What follows is a very long depiction of the most uninteresting lives in the entire continent of South America. If the premise is not absurd enough, we get treated to three generations of insignificant characters and a whole lot of desert nature. A desert that's much too kind in my opinion. A real desert would've killed the first generation in this boring movie and spared me 90 minutes of garbage.
The movie establishes from the beginning that the true star is the scenery. There are but a dozen words in the first 20 minutes of the film, a trend that continues throughout and grows weary if you can manage to stay up. The sound of the wind and crashing waves are terrific for putting you to sleep. But they hardly constitute a gripping drama.
For reasons that are never explained, a very stubborn man takes his wife and her mother to what amount to a sand dune. What follows is a very long depiction of the most uninteresting lives in the entire continent of South America. If the premise is not absurd enough, we get treated to three generations of insignificant characters and a whole lot of desert nature. A desert that's much too kind in my opinion. A real desert would've killed the first generation in this boring movie and spared me 90 minutes of garbage.
An allegory of life's futility
filipewsan18 October 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Firstly, apologize my poor English and eventual grammar mistakes. Then...
Have you ever questioned yourself what's the point of living anyway? In my interpretation that's what this movie is about: the relativity of all points of view that tries to explain life itself. In fact, in some part of the movie, Einstein's theory of relativity is commented. Do you have high expectations on life? So did the mother-in-law and mainly the wife of Vasco, who owned a piece of land in the middle of nowhere. When they arrived on that desert land, both wife (Áurea) and mother-in-law (Dona Maria) insisted that settling there was craziness. Dona Maria get used to the idea, but Áurea remained reluctant. Then, Vasco dies trying hard to build (a house) on sand. The rest of the movie, roughly, is Áurea and Dona Maria (and later Áurea and her daughter) struggle to survive as the dunes try to avoid it. Hopes are continuously buried as the movie goes on. In the end, Áurea (now an aged woman) finally gets the opportunity to visit a big city. When she returns (and that's the synthesis of the movie in my opinion), she tells her daughter how it was: after all it is all a handful of sand.
Have you ever questioned yourself what's the point of living anyway? In my interpretation that's what this movie is about: the relativity of all points of view that tries to explain life itself. In fact, in some part of the movie, Einstein's theory of relativity is commented. Do you have high expectations on life? So did the mother-in-law and mainly the wife of Vasco, who owned a piece of land in the middle of nowhere. When they arrived on that desert land, both wife (Áurea) and mother-in-law (Dona Maria) insisted that settling there was craziness. Dona Maria get used to the idea, but Áurea remained reluctant. Then, Vasco dies trying hard to build (a house) on sand. The rest of the movie, roughly, is Áurea and Dona Maria (and later Áurea and her daughter) struggle to survive as the dunes try to avoid it. Hopes are continuously buried as the movie goes on. In the end, Áurea (now an aged woman) finally gets the opportunity to visit a big city. When she returns (and that's the synthesis of the movie in my opinion), she tells her daughter how it was: after all it is all a handful of sand.
Soooo close to being an "Epic"
fwomp5 January 2007
Epic is often something we attribute to lengthy films or ones that have a cast of nearly a hundred or more. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) quickly comes to mind. It had an all-star cast and a run time of over 220 minutes. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) is another, clocking in at just over 190 minutes. Then there's the more modern "epics" such as GLADIATOR (2000) that comes in at 171 minutes.
But run times are only a portion of what makes an epic an epic. THE HOUSE OF SAND runs well under two hours (115 minutes), but spans multiple generations, covering over 60 years. And although The House of Sand teeters on the verge epic-ness, it misses the mark ...but only by a hair.
Visually breathtaking, The House of Sand focuses on the lives of three generations of women. The first generation is forced into a little known desert area of Brazil where a man named Vasco (Ruy Guerra) leads a ragtag group of settlers on a quest for land to call their own. With him comes his wife Aurea (Fernanda Torres), a young woman of an arranged marriage. Also with him is Aurea's mother, Maria (Fernanda Montenegro). The group of settlers quickly learn the inhospitable nature of the area and all of them flee, except for Vasco, Aurea, and Maria. But Vasco soon dies in an accident, leaving the mother/daughter team to fend for themselves. Luckily, there's a group of former slaves eking out an existence nearby. Massu (Seu Jorge) is one of these tough ex-slaves, and he takes a liking to Aurea (as do several other men who live or happen upon this sandy area).
As time passes, Maria falls in love with the dunes and the simplicity of the area. But Aurea begs to leave. She wants for the excitement of a city with people her own age. Several options for freeing herself from the boredom of the sand appear and just as quickly evaporate, stranding her year after year in the desolation. One time, however, a young officer in the Brazilian Army visits the area with scientists who are marking an eclipse of the sun, and a quick one-night-stand results in a pregnancy. The officer leaves and Aurea is once again stuck in this place. Her daughter (Maria) grows and looks exactly like Aurea. And as Aurea ages, she has a striking resemblance to her mother, Maria. Roles get reversed after Aurea's mother's death in a sand slide. Aurea must now be the responsible mother to her daughter Maria. But Maria's life in this place is adding up to zero. Sound familiar? The circular pattern of family has been done before, but never on par with this. The sweeping vistas, quiet yet constantly shifting sands, and the pressing of dunes on everything (including the women's relationships) make this film a very good story. But not a great one.
The short run time forces two quick decade leaps that are, to say the least, jarring and confusing. Also, the excellent cinematography lingered just a bit too long on occasion whenever sweeping scenery presented itself ("Yeah, that's beautiful ...still beautiful ...yep, still great ...is it still on the screen?") This is one of director Andrucha Waddington's first feature length films and one can't help but be impressed by his able hands on the helm. It is a magnificent piece of cinema that needed just a few touch-ups in order to be "Epic."
But run times are only a portion of what makes an epic an epic. THE HOUSE OF SAND runs well under two hours (115 minutes), but spans multiple generations, covering over 60 years. And although The House of Sand teeters on the verge epic-ness, it misses the mark ...but only by a hair.
Visually breathtaking, The House of Sand focuses on the lives of three generations of women. The first generation is forced into a little known desert area of Brazil where a man named Vasco (Ruy Guerra) leads a ragtag group of settlers on a quest for land to call their own. With him comes his wife Aurea (Fernanda Torres), a young woman of an arranged marriage. Also with him is Aurea's mother, Maria (Fernanda Montenegro). The group of settlers quickly learn the inhospitable nature of the area and all of them flee, except for Vasco, Aurea, and Maria. But Vasco soon dies in an accident, leaving the mother/daughter team to fend for themselves. Luckily, there's a group of former slaves eking out an existence nearby. Massu (Seu Jorge) is one of these tough ex-slaves, and he takes a liking to Aurea (as do several other men who live or happen upon this sandy area).
As time passes, Maria falls in love with the dunes and the simplicity of the area. But Aurea begs to leave. She wants for the excitement of a city with people her own age. Several options for freeing herself from the boredom of the sand appear and just as quickly evaporate, stranding her year after year in the desolation. One time, however, a young officer in the Brazilian Army visits the area with scientists who are marking an eclipse of the sun, and a quick one-night-stand results in a pregnancy. The officer leaves and Aurea is once again stuck in this place. Her daughter (Maria) grows and looks exactly like Aurea. And as Aurea ages, she has a striking resemblance to her mother, Maria. Roles get reversed after Aurea's mother's death in a sand slide. Aurea must now be the responsible mother to her daughter Maria. But Maria's life in this place is adding up to zero. Sound familiar? The circular pattern of family has been done before, but never on par with this. The sweeping vistas, quiet yet constantly shifting sands, and the pressing of dunes on everything (including the women's relationships) make this film a very good story. But not a great one.
The short run time forces two quick decade leaps that are, to say the least, jarring and confusing. Also, the excellent cinematography lingered just a bit too long on occasion whenever sweeping scenery presented itself ("Yeah, that's beautiful ...still beautiful ...yep, still great ...is it still on the screen?") This is one of director Andrucha Waddington's first feature length films and one can't help but be impressed by his able hands on the helm. It is a magnificent piece of cinema that needed just a few touch-ups in order to be "Epic."
Seattle International Film Festival - David Jeffers for SIFFblog.com
rdjeffers20 June 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Friday June 16, 7:00pm Pacific Place
Saturday June 17, 1:15pm Pacific Place
The story of three women, marooned in a remote corner of northwest Brazil is portrayed by real life mother and daughter Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres in Andrucha Waddington's cinematic masterpiece House of Sand (Case de Areia). The two actresses alternately play grandmother, mother and daughter in a story that spans sixty years from 1910 to 1969. An eccentric aristocrat moves his pregnant wife, Aurea (Torres) and mother-in-law, Dona Maria (Montenegro) to a desolate world of enveloping sand dunes and builds his house on the edge of a seasonal lagoon. Soon after arriving he dies and the women are left to survive on their own. Their only contact is the group of escaped slaves and subsistence fisherman nearby. From among them Massu (Brazilian pop star Seu Jorge) becomes their provider and consummates a relationship with Aurea after ten years of sexual tension, against the immense backdrop of breathtaking Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
Saturday June 17, 1:15pm Pacific Place
The story of three women, marooned in a remote corner of northwest Brazil is portrayed by real life mother and daughter Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres in Andrucha Waddington's cinematic masterpiece House of Sand (Case de Areia). The two actresses alternately play grandmother, mother and daughter in a story that spans sixty years from 1910 to 1969. An eccentric aristocrat moves his pregnant wife, Aurea (Torres) and mother-in-law, Dona Maria (Montenegro) to a desolate world of enveloping sand dunes and builds his house on the edge of a seasonal lagoon. Soon after arriving he dies and the women are left to survive on their own. Their only contact is the group of escaped slaves and subsistence fisherman nearby. From among them Massu (Brazilian pop star Seu Jorge) becomes their provider and consummates a relationship with Aurea after ten years of sexual tension, against the immense backdrop of breathtaking Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil.
One of the All-Time Saddest Films
nunajerbidnis20 February 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Áurea married and entrusts her life, as well as her mother Maria's life, to a mad-man. He believes that he is going to farm the desert. He keeps her captive with insanity and constantly threatened brutality.
A group of run-away slaves, living near by, have access to salt. Salt is more than the mad-man and his captive bride Áurea have. Salt brought-in to the slaves by a soul-less trader dominates the mad-man who has impregnated his wife just before he has a mantrum and accidentally kills himself ripping-down their drift-wood shack.
The run-away slaves in this film are perfectly treacherous. They intentionally prevent the women--Mother Maria, Áurea and daughter Maria--their opportunity to escape that wasteland. They do not inform the women that the scientific expedition has arrived again.
They keep mum for the purpose of holding power over the women. To keep them to themselves. To allow time and desolation to break their spirits.
When Áurea finally decides that her life isn't worth spit and pretties-herself-up to become the whore of the head slave, her daughter Maria sees that the world she was born into is clearly an insane power-struggle. The total nowhere-ness of their life in the sand is pure depression without Prozac. Helplessness is a major theme.
Then Áurea finally succumbs to Stockholm syndrome. She identifies with her slave captors, feels herself exiled to nothingness and gives-up. When, finally, an opportunity arrives to escape--she cannot leave.
She stays, outlives the all male slaves, and ends-up 100% alone, isolated and has ended-up living a completely wasted life. Prisoners have more social contact, more things to do, better food, a chance of release and live happier more viable lives.
I have never seen a sadder, more desolate, hopeless film.
A group of run-away slaves, living near by, have access to salt. Salt is more than the mad-man and his captive bride Áurea have. Salt brought-in to the slaves by a soul-less trader dominates the mad-man who has impregnated his wife just before he has a mantrum and accidentally kills himself ripping-down their drift-wood shack.
The run-away slaves in this film are perfectly treacherous. They intentionally prevent the women--Mother Maria, Áurea and daughter Maria--their opportunity to escape that wasteland. They do not inform the women that the scientific expedition has arrived again.
They keep mum for the purpose of holding power over the women. To keep them to themselves. To allow time and desolation to break their spirits.
When Áurea finally decides that her life isn't worth spit and pretties-herself-up to become the whore of the head slave, her daughter Maria sees that the world she was born into is clearly an insane power-struggle. The total nowhere-ness of their life in the sand is pure depression without Prozac. Helplessness is a major theme.
Then Áurea finally succumbs to Stockholm syndrome. She identifies with her slave captors, feels herself exiled to nothingness and gives-up. When, finally, an opportunity arrives to escape--she cannot leave.
She stays, outlives the all male slaves, and ends-up 100% alone, isolated and has ended-up living a completely wasted life. Prisoners have more social contact, more things to do, better food, a chance of release and live happier more viable lives.
I have never seen a sadder, more desolate, hopeless film.
Beautiful landscape of our souls
wel200518 August 2006
It's funny how things happen. Here in Brazil, this movie was considered pretentious an empty by most critics and the public decided not to see this movie, besides the huge advertising (almost three hundred thousand people saw it).
Now in the United States and Europe people love it, especially the critics. I watched "House of Sand" at the cinema one year ago and I like it, but something bother me, maybe the pretentious subject, but I rent the DVD and watch again and again and I discovered a gem, a piece of art made with passion, blood and poetry, a movie that deserve to be rediscovered.
It was filmed by Andrucha, Fernanda Torres' husband. Fernanda is Fernanda Montenegro's daughter. They are both great actress. Andrucha is going to direct now a movie with Antonio Banderas. He is young and used to do advertising. He also direct "Me You Them", a good movie written by Elena Soarez. Welington Liberato, from São Paulo, Brasil
Now in the United States and Europe people love it, especially the critics. I watched "House of Sand" at the cinema one year ago and I like it, but something bother me, maybe the pretentious subject, but I rent the DVD and watch again and again and I discovered a gem, a piece of art made with passion, blood and poetry, a movie that deserve to be rediscovered.
It was filmed by Andrucha, Fernanda Torres' husband. Fernanda is Fernanda Montenegro's daughter. They are both great actress. Andrucha is going to direct now a movie with Antonio Banderas. He is young and used to do advertising. He also direct "Me You Them", a good movie written by Elena Soarez. Welington Liberato, from São Paulo, Brasil
A weak attempt to make a movie about family relationship
gazineo-123 May 2005
'Casa de Areia', a Brazilian movie directed by Andrucha Waddington, a director who started his career in TV Mini Series, try to reach two distinct points: first, to tell a story about family relationship, its problems and the absence of communication between the generations. Second, to make a movie with a slow paced narrative in the celebrated style of some European directors as Antonioni and Bergman. The outcome is a disaster. 'Casa de Areia' has a good cast, especially Fernanda Torres (daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, the most respected actress in Brazil) but the two points enlisted above fails miserably. The audience just find a boring, pretentious and weak drama settled against a very beautiful landscape.
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