Sundance Film #4: Acidente

Acidente
Inspired by the evocative names of 20 cities in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, filmmakers Cao Guimarães and Pablo Lobato uniquely meld a cinematic poem and an atypical travelogue in their film Acidente. Guimarães and Lobato visit each city and unobtrusively film slices of life, from a religious procession in Virgim da Lapa (Virgin of the Rock) to the nighttime activity at a lone gas station in Olhos d'Agua (Watery Eyes), to women sweeping the road in Entre Folhas (Between Leaves). These individual picture postcards from a larger tapestry revealing the diversity of the people, locations and cultures of the region, while the place names gradually unite to become a literal and expressive poem on the screen.

As the title suggests, much of what is filmed happens by chance, highlighting the unpredictable nature of life, even as the portraits of the various cities palpably reflect their names and their assimilation into the filmmakers' lyrical structure. Purpose and accident, and text and image merge to explore different facets of life in these cities, where a great deal takes place off camera in the margins of the frame or in the shadows. Local music and alternating film and video footage further individualize each city, creating a strong sense of place.

Acidente rewards the viewer with the joy of discovering not only Guimarães and Lobato's poem as it comes together, line by line, but also the people and places of Minas Gerais, city by city.
(Bill Tsiokos, 20007 Sundance Film Festival catalog)
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This was our third film of the day and our second back-to-back; I was fully prepared to nap during the entirety, but it was so gripping that napping never happened.

There is precious little "action" in Acidente, but in the Q&A afterward Lobato (who spoke no English, but when someone's purring in Portuguese, that's easy to forgive) said that he grew up in a small town in Minas Gerais (although not one of the towns featured) and wanted to give a sense of the way that time passes differently in these towns.

One of the questions afterward was about how they filmed - did they give themselves a time limit in each town, or did they just stay until something happened? Guimarães, the director who spoke English, said that they didn't have a lot of time to spend, but they spent as much time as they needed in each place, although as he answered the questions about different parts of the film it seemed like nearly all of the segments were things that happened while they were drinking or looking for a place to go drinking or after they'd been drinking for a while. Listening to him talk, it was easy to believe.

The visual was rich and varied due to both the use of different filming techniques and the fact that each city had something different to offer. Some segments lasted only a minute or two and had no human sounds whatsoever, others focused very clearly on the interactions among or between people. The buildings, machineries and tools of the cities shared equal time with plains, forests and endless trees.

This is one of my hands-down favorite kinds of movies - it was rich and varied and engaging, but in a quiet way that encouraged the later conversation about "wasn't that part incredible?" and "didn't you love how that did that thing where...?"

My single criticism is that the sound mixing isn't quite right. There were places where the sound was physically painful - both loud and high-pitched - and I had to cover my ears. Apart from that tiny flaw, it was perfect.

The Pirate says: Beautiful. Slow in spots, but beautiful.

My score: 5
The Pirate's score: 4