SPOILER ALERT

I went to see Era Uma Vez, and was quite troubled afterwards.  I cannot think of a way to properly tell this story without spoiling the ending, so consider yourself duly warned.  I am about to tell you how it ends and how people reacted to this ending.  So if you don't want to know, don't read this until after you've seen the movie.

Consider yourself adequately warned?

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Sure???

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I don't want any nasty comments about how I'm a spoiler!

Ok so my story starts out a couple of months ago, when a friend and I went to see Sex & The City O Filme (as it's called in Brazil). We tried to go to Shopping Leblon but all its showings were completely sold out.  We then tried the Cinemas Severiano Ribeira (literally two blocks away) and the theatre was half empty.  It seems as though Shopping Leblon is the hip movie theatre to see and be seen, though personally I don't see the draw...

So basically the point of that little side story is that it seems to me that Shopping Leblon is a "status" place to go see a movie.

I really wanted to go see Era Uma Vez, a Brazilian film about boy from favela who falls from girl from Ipanema.  It came out about 48 hours after I left for Canada on vacation, so I had to wait until my return to go see it.

I thought it was well done and it was easy enough for me to understand (being in Portuguese and all).  The couple falls in love and tries to make it despite the differences in their backgrounds. I felt it was more violent than necessary, and it of course freaks me out to see violence (depicted, fictitious or not) happening just blocks from where I live.   But most disturbing of all to me were my fellow audience members. (Admittedly, mostly spoiled little teenage Brazilian girls).  They talked incessently throughout.  The snortled. (If you are a faithful reader you know how I feel about the Brazilian snortle. And if not click here to read about it.)

But worst worst worst of all, the people in our row, the row in front of us, and the row behind us, all LAUGHED out LOUD when the male lead (one half of the couple, the guy from the favela) is shot and killed.  One man said out loud the loose equivalent of it's about time...

Two seconds later, when the "Princess" from Ipanema is shot and killed, total silence.  I guess maybe our fellow audience members sympathized with her character a bit more?

I didn't cry watching the movie, but I had to hold it together walking out as the reality of what I'd just witnessed around me set in.  I wonder what the reactions were like at other theatres... 

Comments

[Joey]

Ugh, this story made me sad. For me this hits close to home as my boyfriend is from, and was living in a favella at the time that I met him (on the fringes of Bangu, to the west of Rio).

It's interesting the way people react to you dating somebody from such a vastly different background. To me it's not something I ever gave a second thought to, if you love somebody you love somebody. However, my experiences with him have made me very sensitive to people displaying classist behavior, the type of thing you witnessed in this movie theater would have caused me to loose it!

I think he has it easier than many because of his career as a hairstylist/makeup artist and being into fashion means that he looks like a boy from Zona Sul most of the time, even though he is not. Nevertheless witnessing behavior like this is very hurtful and I'm glad you made a posting about this. Thank you for being as offended by that as I would have been!

[DRL]

Thank you for sharing some of your story!
I really could not believe the reaction, it made me so sad and concerned that this country may never change with such attitudes.

[Mika]

I've seen this movie in Cinema Leblon too and there was one teen girl who was laughing too. But I heard what she said to her friends: "This movie is completely sadistic. I'm laughing because EVERYTHING that can go wrong, go wrong. Estou rindo para não chorar". Which made sense, I guess.

But anyway, the ENTIRE cinema was completely shocked at the end of the movie. It's weird that there were people laughing at your session. I mean, maybe they were laughing for the same reason as the girl who was next to me? We can only hope so but I really think you misunderstood something. Oh, the girl who played the main role was watching the movie too!

I've also seen Sex and the City in Cinema Leblon. When I went (at the opening day), it was completely packed. Maybe the reason why the mall cinema was full is because its much more modern and also much smaller?

[Daily Rio Life]

You can think what you want, but if I thought there was even the slightest chance that I had potentially misunderstood the reaction, there is no way that I would have posted about it on here. That is a pretty big/horrible accusation to make about those people if I were unsure. To be clear, there was not only a lot of laughter when the male lead died but also a couple of cheers and hoots. The entire audience was shocked when the GIRL died - it immediately went dead silent - it was fascinating to see how fast their emotions changed.

My theory about Shopping Leblon is that many are there to show status (and that was definitely the way I felt when Sex & the City was sold out there but not 2 blocks away).

I've also heard from people with kids (teens) that they don't want to go to Rio Sul or other shopping centres as it's not seen as being "chique" yet Shopping Leblon and Rio Design fit the bill.

[Mika]

Oh, I see. Sorry for saying you misunderstood, I guess I was just shocked at how mean some people can be.

And about the mall thing, I agree. I work with teenagers and the younger ones who live in the Leblon/Ipanema area consider Shopping Leblon to be the "cool" place to go, the place to be seen and, as such, they won't go to Rio Sul. But the ones who live closer to Rio Sul (in the Botafogo area) love going there; Shopping Tijuca is considered to be the "cool" mall for the ones who live in Zona Norte and Downtown is the "place to be seen" for those who live in Barra.

The curious thing is that the older teenagers (16 year old and older) consider the mall a really uncool place to hang out at, especially at night.

[Daily Rio Life]

No worries! I unfortunately just know what I witnessed and do prefer to try and look at the positive, not assume the worst but unfortunately yeah there just was no other possibility in this case. It's really too bad and disheartening as it makes me fear things will not get better in this country as long as these attitudes exist.

Who knew there were so many things to know about which mall is chique and which is not... wow!