Poems of Independent Women

From a film critic to a director, from the 15-person interpretation of all beings in [The Sound of the House], to focusing on the daily life of a woman in [Aquarius], Kleber Mendoza Jr. further transformed his city Nihilism permeates every aspect of middle-class life. As the second feature film, [Aquarius], like [The Sound of the House], reflects the noise and disturbance of the city of Recife through people's living environment, and also reflects the director's own views on social issues in Brazil . But like [the sound of the house], [Aquarius] is a movie that is too "full", and it has a lot of things stuffed into it by Mendoza: the story line of Clara's fight against house demolition, and the film also extends to this details of a woman's life. Her family, her family, her training assistance at the seaside, her conversations with various acquaintances and strangers, her cognition and thinking about life, her sex life, her music, her single breast , and even her hair has extremely detailed camera performance. These small fragments of life can be viewed independently and are very entertaining, and they can all show more stories from behind. In contrast, among these life-like fragments, Clara's story line against the demolition of the house is not clear, and Mendoza is more than willing to turn this incident into one of Clara's life shots. As a result, acting as a stubborn nail household exists in parallel with the bits and pieces of her private life. Occasionally, the real estate agent will intervene in her peaceful life, but occasionally she can leave the audience's sight. The audience will unconsciously turn their attention to her beautiful family memories and family members, or her unique musical taste. In the forced demolition incident with a tense confrontation atmosphere, the force of contradiction and conflict was broken up by all kinds of small fragments of life.
As a movie focusing on middle-class nail households, [Aquarius] is not a masterpiece that explores the serious problems of social reality. In the city of Recife, a drain separates the rich and the poor. Clara, a retired music critic living in the rich area, only visits the servants who clean and cook for her. She would go to the end of the drain. As the last nail-biter left behind in the apartment, the blame that Clara faced was not that the real estate developer dared to confront her head-on and forcibly intervene in the demolition. Whether it is noise disturbing people, burning mattresses, or releasing termites, moth-eaten the foundation of the house, the shameless real estate developers only dare to operate in the dark, but when facing Clara, they can only wear a businessman's unique ingratiating smile. As for the real estate agent, who used money to lure Clara's relatives, friends, and even former neighbors to attack her and ask her to move out of the apartment, they were all soft measures. Removed the plot and drama that all American movies value, the real estate businessman did not attack Clara head-on. On the contrary, Clara, who was born in the middle class, always attacked the real estate business head-on. She not only treats businessmen, but whenever she encounters any unfair treatment or personal attack, she will fight back strongly. In this wrestling, Clara has never been at a disadvantage. Compared with the slums at the other end of the sewage pipes, in the whole of Recife where real estate developers do not follow the regulations and legal procedures, Clara, the story of an independent middle-class woman, has always belonged to one end of this social fault. Far from reaching the other shore.
Therefore, [Aquarius] is not about the story in this residential area called "Aquarius", it is different from [The Sound of the House], it is a life inspection that belongs to Clara, a woman. "Growing gracefully" summarizes Clara's current life situation. At the age of having grandchildren, she lost many things - such as youth, husband and right breast, but she also had many things - children, grandchildren, economic strength and social connections. Clara's memories are inserted from time to time in the film, each of which urges her to become stronger and more persistent, as her daughter said, she is stubborn, sometimes like an old man, sometimes like a child. Mendoza once mentioned that Clara is his incarnation in the film, but the character's character is built based on the image of the powerful women around him. This character carries his personal thinking about life. As well as reflections on the entire vast Brazilian society, and through the modern meaning of "independent women", Mendoza's own protests. For example, Clara's single breast is his ridicule to the male group who wears colored glasses to know people, dark skin is his counterattack against discrimination against people of color, Clara opposes demolition to protect the house that witnesses her life and growth, and more Shows Mendoza's indignation at the ruthless changes in modern society. Taking a woman (individual life) as the starting point to realize the group ridicule of all beings in society, although the strength of criticism is scattered, but fortunately, the role of Clara is very successful, and the film's landing point is very solid. She is tough and bright, and if fate gives her two slaps, she will return a basket of fate.
In addition, Mendoza created the details of Clara's living room with a simple and petty lifestyle - music records, hammocks in the living room, posters of [Barry Lyndon], in this house where life situations and memories overlap anyone would understand Clara's stubbornness not to move. This also reflects the charm of the movie - no matter how difficult the reality is, life always has to be emotional.
(Originally published in Issue 719 of "Watching Movies Magazine")

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