Marcelo Masagão and Gustavo Steinberg's amazing experience "Um Pouco Mais, Um Pouco Menos" ("A Little More, A Little Less" raises questions
about the people who livin the city of São Paulo and its enormous social contrasts and contradictions by showing statistical facts, that at
first we think it's just mere imagination but on other hand by the end of movie there's the original sources for such a strange yet accurate
research.
The movie makes comparison between social classes (rich vs. Poor), crazed numbers revolving many facts about anxiety, depression, the numbers of bars existing in the city, the crazed traffic that overflows the city, and as for images with have a wide dimension on how enormous and complex São Paulo. I guess the ultimage image that hits the world is when it comes to showing Morumbi, where there's a whole of favelas (slums) surrounding a small complex of buildings from upper classes - and the film shows back and forth the value of income both get and how they survive almost as if clashing at each other. It's mostly aerial shots, all captured in black-and-white bringing an enormous sense of sadness and desperation. In between some shots, there's small fragments showing the hands of people and with time there's an explanation of those hands and the terms mean (not sure if of the ones used here actually have a meaning or a correlative to foreign audiences).
Masagão, best know for those kind of experimental films that reflects life and the human condition with its varities, had as his previous work the unforgettable "Nós Que Aqui Estamos Por Vós Esperamos", a college of images and archive footage from the whole 20th Century showing the beauty of it, and the tragedy of it all although he doesn't necesarilly presents the real story about the images, instead opting to create some fiction that does reflect and feel real. And with movie, along with Steineberg his silent reflection of life is brief, solid and very poignant to those who don't know the city - and it's the kind of thing that can be applied to many metropolis out there, the numbers will go way too higher, the problems and the difficulties of a large world city, or maybe a little less, and specially fascinating for those who live in São Paulo - like I do. I was impresssed with everything I've seen, at times depressed, others times even amused with some comparisons he made about people and their realities. 10/10.
The movie makes comparison between social classes (rich vs. Poor), crazed numbers revolving many facts about anxiety, depression, the numbers of bars existing in the city, the crazed traffic that overflows the city, and as for images with have a wide dimension on how enormous and complex São Paulo. I guess the ultimage image that hits the world is when it comes to showing Morumbi, where there's a whole of favelas (slums) surrounding a small complex of buildings from upper classes - and the film shows back and forth the value of income both get and how they survive almost as if clashing at each other. It's mostly aerial shots, all captured in black-and-white bringing an enormous sense of sadness and desperation. In between some shots, there's small fragments showing the hands of people and with time there's an explanation of those hands and the terms mean (not sure if of the ones used here actually have a meaning or a correlative to foreign audiences).
Masagão, best know for those kind of experimental films that reflects life and the human condition with its varities, had as his previous work the unforgettable "Nós Que Aqui Estamos Por Vós Esperamos", a college of images and archive footage from the whole 20th Century showing the beauty of it, and the tragedy of it all although he doesn't necesarilly presents the real story about the images, instead opting to create some fiction that does reflect and feel real. And with movie, along with Steineberg his silent reflection of life is brief, solid and very poignant to those who don't know the city - and it's the kind of thing that can be applied to many metropolis out there, the numbers will go way too higher, the problems and the difficulties of a large world city, or maybe a little less, and specially fascinating for those who live in São Paulo - like I do. I was impresssed with everything I've seen, at times depressed, others times even amused with some comparisons he made about people and their realities. 10/10.