"Young Brazilian actors Ghilherme Lobo and Fabio Audi return for this feature-length version of director Daniel Ribeiro's award-winning short.
BERLIN -- When a blind teenager meets the new boy in his class it’s love at first sight in all ways -- except literally -- in The Way He Looks (Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho), the sweet and beautifully observed feature debut of Brazilian writer-director Daniel Ribeiro.
The film’s a feature-length version of the director’s award-winning, 17-minute short film from 2010, with the same actors back on board again here, though their characters are now slightly older teenagers. Ribeiro has impressively fleshed out the material into a full narrative, with not only added conflict and a convincing gallery of supporting characters but also an entirely new focus on the quest for independence of the blind lead[...].
[...]
Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo) has been blind since he was born, so he has never even seen the face of his devoted best friend, Giovana (Tess Amorim), who walks him home from their Sao Paulo school every day. They sit next to each other in class, where Leo uses a braille typewriter to take notes. Their familiar and safe routine is upset when a curly-haired cutie, Gabriel (Fabio Audi), joins their class and becomes friendly with Leo, while Giovana wonders whether he could be romantically interested in her.
[...]Ribeiro’s command of tone is key in making this set-up believable, focusing on the innate goodness of his young characters before slowly allowing them the space to rebel as they try to assert themselves and leave their protective childhood cocoon behind.
Indeed, Giovana is extremely protective of Leonardo [...] but this is equally true of Leo’s parents, who don’t even like their teenage son to walk home unaccompanied or stay home alone, much less go on a school trip or move abroad for a high-school exchange program.
Ribeiro makes the protectiveness of the characters, rather than a potential coming out, the motor of the drama, with both Leo’s mother (Lucia Romano) and father (Eucir de Souza), getting a couple of well-written exchanges in which they discuss their parental doubts and fears with their only child. It’s clear from these well-observed scenes that the parents are of course worried about the safety and well-being of their special-needs son but they are also at least a little bit guilty of using his blindness as an excuse to avoid what is truly scary for any parent: letting their son be his own man.
But it is independence that Leo’s after, which also means making his own choices about whom he loves. His choice of partner, Gabriel, feels entirely natural and Ribeiro movingly shows the boy’s growing affection for his classmate through the heightened other senses of Leonardo, such as touch and smell. Gabriel isn’t sure initially how to react and
a game of spin-the-bottle at a party at the house of the class bimbo (Isabela Guasco) ends in a cascade of embarrassing moments for Giovana, Leo and Gabriel.
[...]
Generally, however, Ribeiro’s screenplay [...] feels extremely well tuned into the conflicted emotional lives of his adolescent characters, who often retreat into the safety of their childhood comfort zone after every exciting but also scary excursion into the adult unknown. Ribeiro also weaves in several lovely audio as well as visual leitmotifs, including the contrasting music tastes of the budding couple and Leo’s seemingly impossible dream to simply bike down the lanes of Sao Paulo.
Lobo is mesmerizing as Leonardo and, compared to the short, he’s offered a much larger range of emotions to play here, suggesting Leonardo will one day make a fine and well-adjusted young man once his occasional outbursts about wanting to be treated like any other kid will have finally worn those around him down. Though not blind himself, the actor’s gait beautifully conveys that all of his character’s other senses are constantly wide-awake to compensate for his lack of sight.
Audi and Amorim also turn their characters into full-bodied human beings, with Audi bringing a natural affability to Gabriel that makes it clear that even a blind boy would totally fall for him, while Amorim adds a fragility to Giovana that ensures that her third-wheel fate is quietly heartbreaking." http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/way-he-looks-hoje-eu-679738
The movie won the "Best Gay Movie" Teddy Award, second best film award at the Berlinale Panorama, and best FIPRESCI film at Berlinale.
The movie will premier in Brazil at March 28th, with a possible international release.
(Turn on captions!)
"Young Brazilian actors Ghilherme Lobo and Fabio Audi return for this feature-length version of director Daniel Ribeiro's award-winning short.
BERLIN -- When a blind teenager meets the new boy in his class it’s love at first sight in all ways -- except literally -- in The Way He Looks (Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho), the sweet and beautifully observed feature debut of Brazilian writer-director Daniel Ribeiro.
The film’s a feature-length version of the director’s award-winning, 17-minute short film from 2010, with the same actors back on board again here, though their characters are now slightly older teenagers. Ribeiro has impressively fleshed out the material into a full narrative, with not only added conflict and a convincing gallery of supporting characters but also an entirely new focus on the quest for independence of the blind lead[...].
[...]
Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo) has been blind since he was born, so he has never even seen the face of his devoted best friend, Giovana (Tess Amorim), who walks him home from their Sao Paulo school every day. They sit next to each other in class, where Leo uses a braille typewriter to take notes. Their familiar and safe routine is upset when a curly-haired cutie, Gabriel (Fabio Audi), joins their class and becomes friendly with Leo, while Giovana wonders whether he could be romantically interested in her.
[...]Ribeiro’s command of tone is key in making this set-up believable, focusing on the innate goodness of his young characters before slowly allowing them the space to rebel as they try to assert themselves and leave their protective childhood cocoon behind.
Indeed, Giovana is extremely protective of Leonardo [...] but this is equally true of Leo’s parents, who don’t even like their teenage son to walk home unaccompanied or stay home alone, much less go on a school trip or move abroad for a high-school exchange program.
Ribeiro makes the protectiveness of the characters, rather than a potential coming out, the motor of the drama, with both Leo’s mother (Lucia Romano) and father (Eucir de Souza), getting a couple of well-written exchanges in which they discuss their parental doubts and fears with their only child. It’s clear from these well-observed scenes that the parents are of course worried about the safety and well-being of their special-needs son but they are also at least a little bit guilty of using his blindness as an excuse to avoid what is truly scary for any parent: letting their son be his own man.
But it is independence that Leo’s after, which also means making his own choices about whom he loves. His choice of partner, Gabriel, feels entirely natural and Ribeiro movingly shows the boy’s growing affection for his classmate through the heightened other senses of Leonardo, such as touch and smell. Gabriel isn’t sure initially how to react and
a game of spin-the-bottle at a party at the house of the class bimbo (Isabela Guasco) ends in a cascade of embarrassing moments for Giovana, Leo and Gabriel.
[...]
Generally, however, Ribeiro’s screenplay [...] feels extremely well tuned into the conflicted emotional lives of his adolescent characters, who often retreat into the safety of their childhood comfort zone after every exciting but also scary excursion into the adult unknown. Ribeiro also weaves in several lovely audio as well as visual leitmotifs, including the contrasting music tastes of the budding couple and Leo’s seemingly impossible dream to simply bike down the lanes of Sao Paulo.
Lobo is mesmerizing as Leonardo and, compared to the short, he’s offered a much larger range of emotions to play here, suggesting Leonardo will one day make a fine and well-adjusted young man once his occasional outbursts about wanting to be treated like any other kid will have finally worn those around him down. Though not blind himself, the actor’s gait beautifully conveys that all of his character’s other senses are constantly wide-awake to compensate for his lack of sight.
Audi and Amorim also turn their characters into full-bodied human beings, with Audi bringing a natural affability to Gabriel that makes it clear that even a blind boy would totally fall for him, while Amorim adds a fragility to Giovana that ensures that her third-wheel fate is quietly heartbreaking." http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/way-he-looks-hoje-eu-679738
The movie won the "Best Gay Movie" Teddy Award, second best film award at the Berlinale Panorama, and best FIPRESCI film at Berlinale.
The movie will premier in Brazil at March 28th, with a possible international release.
Edited by Kinode