Newport Beach Film Festival: “The Orange Thief” and “Vinicius”
April 24th, 2007, 10:20 am · 1 Comment · posted by jchin
Guest reviewer Lisa Delao checked out two films in the Newport Beach Film Festival and offered her thoughts:
In a matter of hours on Sunday, I was transported from the rugged countryside of Sicily in “The Orange Thief” to the exquisite beaches of Ipanema in “Vinicius,” the first films I took in as a festival reviewer.
“The Orange Thief” presents a story told from the thoroughly unique perspective of its central character, a young Sicilian peasant (Andrea Calabrese) who dreams of owning land while he steals the much-cherished fruit grown by neighboring farmers. He’s not even that skilled a thief, given that during most attempts he gets caught and beat to a bloody pulp and left in a heap on the coveted terra firma. Eventually his exploits land him in jail, where his bunkmate is Torrido, the “Smooth Blade”. A physically terrifying hulk of man, Torrido has the heart of a lover. Imprisoned for life, his only dream is to hear his beautiful Rosalba sing once more. He makes a deal with the orange thief – bring him back a recording of Rosalba, and he’ll give him a piece of land to call his own. What ensues is a charming adventure that explores the power of dreams and how they can give someone the hope and willpower to keep striving in a life that is sometimes defeating.
This film is perfectly cast. As the orange thief, Andrea Calabrese carries in his saunter the arrogance of youth, but also the frustration of a man who has a dream that is constantly sidetracked by circumstance and poor choices. We watch as struggles through conventional jobs as a barber’s assistant, auto shop lackey – pointless efforts for someone who was born to work the land and dig his hands into the rich soil of the earth. Calabrese is also a beautiful singer and plays a mean guitar while a cigarette dangles out of his pouty lips. The film is generously peppered with Sicilian folk songs that made me want to buy the soundtrack (if only it had one).
Equal parts humor and adventure, “The Orange Thief” was a perfect way to begin my festival experience. I highly recommend that you catch its second screening on Thursday at 2:30pm. You will be charmed and delighted by its whimsical beauty.
After gorging myself at Maggiano’s for dinner, I headed back to the festival just in time to view “Vinicius”, a lyrical documentary on one of Brazil’s great poet-philosophers, Vinicius De Moraes. Filmed as a documentary framed by dramatization, it explores the highly-charged creative atmosphere that Moraes lived in and generated by the power of his own artistry and charisma.
More than being the co-composer of the bossa nova hit “The Girl from Ipanema” and playwright of the famed “Orfeo” (later to be shot as “Black Orpheus”), Moraes wrote numerous philosophical texts throughout his life and worked extensively with Antonio Carlos Jobim, one of the fathers of modern Brazilian music. An intense and romantic soul, Moraes was constantly chasing that feeling of emotional and creative euphoria that inspired his work and filled him with a sense of the infinite. Perhaps this is why he married nine times. As one of his former wives remarked in the documentary, he didn’t chase women for sex, but was looking for that singular connection that happens between a man and a woman and fills them with wonder.
One of the greatest attributes of the film are the interviews conducted with people from Moraes’ inner ciircle – wives, children, fellow artists, friends. His relationships seemed to be his greatest treasure. He highly valued friendship and worked hard to maintain close bonds with those he loved. He thrived on the company and creativity of his comrades and loved ones and they too fueled his work and sense of hope.
An added treat were the musical performances of Moraes’ songs by some of Brazil’s most respected and gifted singers. I’m a wild fan of Brazilian music and listening to the heady lyricism of these pieces just swept me away emotionally even as I sat in my creaky little theater seat. Sexy and smoldering, heartbreaking yet often playful, the songs do more than create an ambience or set a mood, they reach into the heart and caress it and make it FEEL.
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