The First Fallen, 2021, 107 minutes.
Continuing the home cinema marathon, I checked out another film from the 25th Tiradentes Film Festival. I really appreciate the work of actress Renata Carvalho. Reading the synopses of the films available on 01/28/2022, I saw that she was in the movie The First Fallen. It was my immediate choice.
The film has a script and direction by Rodrigo de Oliveira, shot entirely in Espírito Santo, with locations in Vitória, Guarapari and Domingos Martins. The cast includes Renata Carvalho (Rose), Johnny Massaro (Suzano), Clara Choveaux (Suzano's sister) and Vitor Camilo (Humberto).
For me, it was a film rescue of recent Brazilian history in relation to the beginning of AIDS in the country, when no one had much information about treatment, transmission, experience, generating a series of prejudices towards the first infected, especially gays, prostitutes and injecting drug users. As far as I can remember, there were no films that dealt with these anxieties as directly as in The First Fallen, especially about its beginnings on Brazilian soil.
The story takes place in the time frame between 12/31/1982 and 01/01/1984. Rose is a transvestite, a singer in gay nightclubs, but who also prostitutes herself at night in Espírito Santo. Humberto is a cameraman who makes a video about Rose, accompanying her in her performance on New Year's Eve 1982/1983, is shy and has his first homosexual relationship precisely at the turn of 1982/1983. Suzano lives in France, but is passing through Brazil visiting his sister and nephew Muriel, who has him as an idol. The three discover that they are infected and, fearing the reaction of society, take refuge in a place, where they will experience all aspects of the disease, receiving, by mail, medicines every fortnight from Suzano's boyfriend who lives in France, and having hope about their future and that of the new generations to come. All duly documented on video by Humberto.
There are very impressive scenes, especially in the final forty minutes of the film, when actors Renata Carvalho, Johnny Massaro and Vitor Camilo give a show of interpretation. Rose's speech looking into our eyes is a punch to the gut. Required.
There is a scene at the Genet nightclub, in 1983, where a happy crowd dances to the song Linda Juventude (14 Bis), while Suzano purposely drops several photos of his body with Kaposi's sarcoma. An interesting connection between the joy of the moment of that golden youth and what awaited her in the not too distant future.
It is a powerful film that talks about friendship, solidarity, fear, anguish, prejudice and, above all, hope, made explicit in its last scene.
Continuing the home cinema marathon, I checked out another film from the 25th Tiradentes Film Festival. I really appreciate the work of actress Renata Carvalho. Reading the synopses of the films available on 01/28/2022, I saw that she was in the movie The First Fallen. It was my immediate choice.
The film has a script and direction by Rodrigo de Oliveira, shot entirely in Espírito Santo, with locations in Vitória, Guarapari and Domingos Martins. The cast includes Renata Carvalho (Rose), Johnny Massaro (Suzano), Clara Choveaux (Suzano's sister) and Vitor Camilo (Humberto).
For me, it was a film rescue of recent Brazilian history in relation to the beginning of AIDS in the country, when no one had much information about treatment, transmission, experience, generating a series of prejudices towards the first infected, especially gays, prostitutes and injecting drug users. As far as I can remember, there were no films that dealt with these anxieties as directly as in The First Fallen, especially about its beginnings on Brazilian soil.
The story takes place in the time frame between 12/31/1982 and 01/01/1984. Rose is a transvestite, a singer in gay nightclubs, but who also prostitutes herself at night in Espírito Santo. Humberto is a cameraman who makes a video about Rose, accompanying her in her performance on New Year's Eve 1982/1983, is shy and has his first homosexual relationship precisely at the turn of 1982/1983. Suzano lives in France, but is passing through Brazil visiting his sister and nephew Muriel, who has him as an idol. The three discover that they are infected and, fearing the reaction of society, take refuge in a place, where they will experience all aspects of the disease, receiving, by mail, medicines every fortnight from Suzano's boyfriend who lives in France, and having hope about their future and that of the new generations to come. All duly documented on video by Humberto.
There are very impressive scenes, especially in the final forty minutes of the film, when actors Renata Carvalho, Johnny Massaro and Vitor Camilo give a show of interpretation. Rose's speech looking into our eyes is a punch to the gut. Required.
There is a scene at the Genet nightclub, in 1983, where a happy crowd dances to the song Linda Juventude (14 Bis), while Suzano purposely drops several photos of his body with Kaposi's sarcoma. An interesting connection between the joy of the moment of that golden youth and what awaited her in the not too distant future.
It is a powerful film that talks about friendship, solidarity, fear, anguish, prejudice and, above all, hope, made explicit in its last scene.
