Veneza

""Veneza", the second movie directed by Miguel Falabella, is one of those "8 or 80" stories. It's easy to turn up your nose at the plot of a group of highly fetishized prostitutes, which unfolds in various stories. On one side, there is the elderly Gringa (Carmen Maura) who dreams of going to Venice to find her old love. There is also the powerful romance between Madalena (Carol Castro) and Júlio (Caio Manhente), an unacknowledged transgender woman. And there are some other stories underneath, but they almost don't add up in "Veneza": the illiterate prostitute (Danielle Winits), the handyman (Eduardo Moscovis), the sick girl (Maria Eduarda de Carvalho), etc. The plot, adapted from an Argentine play by Jorge Accame, smells of mothballs and doesn't know its limits. More care was needed when talking about prostitution, treating the profession almost idyllically, as well as sensitivity when talking about sexuality. But on the other hand, it is possible to be moved and to find humor especially in the story of this old blind woman with some delusions, who dreams of going to the flooded region of Italy - the final sequence, playing with the imagination of theater, circus and cinema, is beautiful. Perhaps there was a lack of greater cohesion in the story, which immediately assumes its novelistic tone, and an update to still make sense today. What cannot be questioned is the quality of the cast, especially in the strength of Maura, the delicacy of Manhente and the magnetism of seeing Carol Castro on stage. A difficult film to assimilate and to reach a conclusion. Maybe it's better to just be taken by the challenging gondola of "Veneza"."