Director's Spotlight: Fernando Meirelles
By Joshua Pasch
March 17, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
City of God (Cidade de Deus):
Based off the Brazilian best seller of the same name, Meirelles did as my freshman year English teacher used to preach: fiction or non-fiction, you should always start by telling stories about that which you know. City of God nearly reaches epic scope by spanning two decades in telling the story of youth gangs who ran the slums outside of Rio de Janiero in the 1960s through 80s. The story is told through the innocent eyes of Rocket, who, as an aspiring photojournalist, manages to associate with all of the slum's major players without getting sucked into the dangerous politics of gang warfare. Much like Danny Boyle with Slumdog Millionaire, Meirelles manages to paint a realistic and sobering look at a part of the world that hadn't been given its due attention, but without making the outing a wholly depressing affair. He takes his training and experiences in making commercials and infuses that 30 second punch of energy into a two and a half hour exhilarating tour through Rio's shanty towns.
We explore these favelas with quick edits, a multitude of colors, and a near-documentary realism. There is an excess of drug use, gun use, abuse of the youth, of the poor, and of the disenfranchised – these depictions are harsh and real and not for the faint of heart. But if you can stomach it, the story is richly detailed and the slums teem with vibrant life. The movie never slows, finding time to introduce the audience to dozens of characters without feeling like a hodge-podge cramming of too much at once. The end result is a comprehensive look at a disturbing place and period in Brazil's modern history. Where most movies that deal with such heavy-handed subjects are hard to re-watch (think of films like The Pianist or Schindler's List), City of God has such a liveliness that it begs for a second viewing.
City of God was a monster success in Brazil, where Meirelles had already become a producer and director of note. In terms of its cross-over appeal to America, the movie was fortunate to come on the heels of films like Amores Perros and Y Tu Mama Tambien, both of which helped bring some needed attention to Latin American filmmakers in the early 2000s. The movie picked up some attention after screening out of competition at 2002's Cannes Film Festival. The Weinsteins brothers, then of Miramax, worked to position the film as a major awards contender. Though it went home empty handed, it managed four nominations in notable categories: cinematography, film editing, adapted screenplay, and directing for Meirelles. Amazingly, the film was not nominated Best Foreign Film. Even still, the movie made an above-average-for-foreign-films $7.6 million domestically, and a solid $23 million overseas. While Harvey and Bob were probably hoping for more, the results were nothing to sneeze at given the foreign setting and difficult-to-digest subject matter. The movie has gone on to build something of a cult following; it is a regular entry in the modern film school cannon, and even spawned a Meirelles produced, Brazilian television show that ran from 2002-2005 and a film spin-off, both of which are named City of Men (they share the slum settings of Rio and some tonal similarities, while dealing with brand new characters and storylines).
The Constant Gardener
Meirelles used his newfound success as a way to tell another story that he felt had meaning – another exercise of using his frenetic and kinetic style to complement a story, not override it. Sticking with his third-world sensibilities, but in English this time – The Constant Gardener is a beautifully shot, contemplative thriller in the vein of Michael Clayton, with a setting more akin to Last King Of Scotland. The story is pure fiction, but probably has some basis in reality – it revolves around a man trying to uncover the mysteries behind his wife's murder. What he discovers is a labyrinth of lies and cover-ups surrounding government and pharmaceutical companies that his wife was working to expose.
Rachel Weitz won an Oscar for her turn as the departed wife, with much of her story told via flashbacks. But it is Ralph Fiennes that really steals the show here. His performance is raw and vulnerable and after watching any one of Fiennes' hard hitting, villainous performances as Voldemort in the Harry Potter films or as the Tooth Fairy in Red Dragon, its hard to believe that this meek, yet impassioned character is played by the same actor. He truly transforms the movie and even raises the quality above what is already an above average story.
Once again, the technical achievements, considering the general low budget and lack of effects work, is quite special. In particular, Meirelles crafts some excellent flashback sequences with Weitz. These scenes manage to merge the present and past with some creative framing, editing, and exposure, and the end result is almost graceful and poetic.
Unfortunately, the film, just as Michael Clayton and Last King of Scotland do as well, sacrifices what could have been a more fitting or realistic ending for what is instead a Hollywood-ending. It allows for some kind of retribution or satisfaction from the protagonist in the final scenes and frankly, I find this story of one man who single-handedly brings down an entire pharmaceutical company and government cover-up a little hard to believe. I know the final scene where he gets to tell the world that screwed him over to shove it is satisfying, but it also doesn't ring true to the overall tone of the film. The movie treats the viewer as an adult for a full hour and 50 minutes – there's no need to pander to us down the home stretch. This isn't Bourne – we know Fiennes' character isn't a superhero, so he doesn't have to save the day.
Specialty distributor Focus Features released The Constant Gardener during the slow month of September. The film capitalized on some early awards season momentum and managed to rake in a decent $33 million. The film earned an impressive $82 million worldwide, making it an unqualified success against its quant $25 million budget. All told, Weitz walked away with a statue and the film also received nominations for editing, score, and adapted screenplay. My personal qualms with the ending aside, Meirelles was fast building a reputation as a director to watch for.
Blindness
And then came Blindness.
City Of God is a movie to love and The Constant Gardener is one to respect. Blindness, on the other hand, isn't even close. It is the worst kind of bad movie because not only is it bad, but its so far beneath the high expectations you almost certainly set for it that it just seems that much more disappointing. The high-concept premise of the film, the accolades lauded at its source material, the strong supporting cast (headlined by Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore), and the reputation that Meirelles had established for himself, all made this a movie to watch out for in 2008.
Blindness, based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel of the same name, revolves around a pandemic where the loss of sight becomes a contagious disease. There is an exciting opening scene where we open the movie with patient zero and then watch as the disease spreads and authorities attempt to quarantine the initial outbreak in a prison-like facility. Eventually, class systems evolve in these prisons and, later, certain blind members of a particular ward force their weaker counterparts to pay for their food by selling their bodies. These scenes are graphic, disgusting, and not even plausible. I'm certain there is some type of moral allegory about what debased humans are capable of, but it's hard to take any of these lessons to heart. The evil on display seems unnatural and unnecessary even, and when hybridized with Meirelles' flashy production values, it just seems out of place.
Where Meirelles' editing and cinematography enhanced his other work, here it undermines the sobering topic onscreen. In his other two outings, Meirelles used his keen visual eye to bring great life to stories that could have been too depressing to sludge through otherwise. In Blindness, he exhibits creative camera play – he uses many shots of overexposure in an attempt to mimic the milky blindness that afflicts the film's characters – but, no amount of camera gimmickry could save viewers from what is a poorly adapted, slow, depressing, and generally wrongly-conceived/executed sci-fi drama (*insert witty quip about wanting to go blind by the end of the film here*).
Trading out Focus for Miramax, Blindness kept a similar release strategy to Constant Gardener. Released in an undersized 1,690 theaters in early October, Blindness never had a chance. Perhaps with their other senses heightened, audiences smelled a miss with this one, as the movie opened to a paltry $1.9 million and dropped like a rock by 75% the following weekend, topping out with an impressively small $3.4 million domestically. Even its $16.4 million from foreign territories wouldn't be enough to help it climb over its low $25 million budget. Both critically and commercially, Meirelles officially experienced his first outright bomb.
Up Next
Today, even with the World Wide Web at our disposal, it is sometimes hard to find out what is actually happening in the development of upcoming projects. Unfortunately, this seems to be such a case. There are two projects that are rumored to be on Meirelles' plate – but so non-descript and non-precise are these descriptions that they haven't even earned a spot yet on IMDb, so take the following with a grain of salt.
Meirelles' name is currently attached to two different projects – both of which seem to fit nicely into his wheelhouse of tidy, high-style, modestly-budgeted productions. One would mark Meirelles' first studio feature. The as of yet untitled picture is a historical drama that depicts the final hours leading up to a volcano's destruction of the Roman city Pompeii in 70 A.D.
The second picture, entitled Intolerance, is an ambitious attempt to highlight globalization by studying the relationships between northern and southern hemispheres. Screenwriter Braulio Mantovani, who also penned City of God, is back to partnering with Meirelles here. The project reportedly aims to shoot in five different countries and just as many languages – concluding with intertwining storylines. Reminiscent of Babel, the project started development after City of God was released back in 2003 and, was talked about again after Constant Gardener was released – whether or not it still has a heartbeat remains to be seen.
Either of these projects sound like they might help Meirelles get back on track. While I know at least one of the writers at BOP disagrees, City of God is a top of the list favorite for me (and many of my college peers). Clearly the idea of a re-teaming with Mantovani is an exciting prospect. Meirelles is at his best when working with substantive material and a wide visual palette accompanying the material. Intolerance, if it ever comes to fruition, would provide him with a landscape of nearly half a dozen vibrant locales and a socially relevant subject. For now, all we can do is wait and see...and maybe watch City of God again in the meantime.