House of Sand (Widescreen)
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Actor: Fernanda Montenegro, Fernanda Torres, Ruy Guerra, Seu Jorge, Stênio GarciaBrand: MONTENEGRO,FERNANDA
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Portuguese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-12-12
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of House of Sand (Widescreen)
DVD Review: disorientating relentless passage of time is nothing but moving sand
Summary: 3 Stars
it is a stark movie, filmed in a starkly beautiful but desolate land, at the intersection of sand and sea in Brazil.
I constantly asked myself how can anyone survive let alone raise children in such a land. There is apparently nothing but sand and saltwater, crabs and a few coconuts. Their goats and small gardens as well as the sea are the only sources of food, even salt has to be brought in. The sand is everywhere, eventually moving and completely recreating the landscapes, it swallows the houses and shapes the consciousness of those living there.
It is the story of 3 women, grandmother, mother and daughter. It uses an odd technique of jumping ahead decades without any clues and swapping the actresses, the mother is played by the actress who was the grandmother and daughter by the actress who was daughter. I missed this the first time and had to rewind and see that watching (subtitled, in Brazilian Portuguese) the names is crucial, not the faces.
The two, grandmother and mother (who is just pregnant) arrive with a stark raving mad husband in this cruel and unforgiving land. He soon dies and leaves the two women to survive or die, the land doesn't care.
It is a bit disorientating, which is apparently the author's design, landmarks are wiped out by the moving sand. The mother wants desperately to return and tries to walk out, to bargain a ride out, to wait for an expedition that was working on the 1919 solar eclipse and Einstein's theory. It is a story of consequences, situation A leads to situation B, but both time and this disconcerting disorientation make the transition anything but straightforward.
This deliberate disorientation is increased by almost meaningless or even anti-meaning events, why after decades does the mother have this passionate moment. Why does the daughter flip out when she sees it.
I don't think that the daughter says a word until the last few minutes as a middle aged woman and a monologue with her now very elderly mom.
in a way it all seems rather pointless and existentialist like "No Exit" or "Waiting for Godot", life is just life, live it or don't, the sand/universe doesn't care
The major situations are: mother's passion leads to daughter's promiscuity, nothingness of the environment leads to nothing to do and nothing inside the daughter, an overwhelming desire to leave makes the acknowledgment that this is home and a place to cherish and grow old in unrecognized. The curious point of the movie is to see how aging changes each woman so she becomes more like her mother, with the mother eventually deciding to stay when given an opportunity to leave presents itself, which the daughter takes.
So it is a movie about time, about growing old, about maturity with the constant background of the shifting and unstoppable sand.
It destroys house, destroys lives, disorientates the viewer yet moves so slowly that you have to pay attention to see the changes.
Like life which reflects the passage of time, most of the real work is done unseen, slowly but inexorably.
The lessons of the movie are as much achieved by the landscape as by the characters and plot, actually more so, for there is little dialog.
i think that the movie will appeal to some people and bore many, much like sitting and watching a sand dune would be.
but it is worthwhile watching, even if in fast forward, if only for the scenery. i had no idea places like this even existed.
anyhow. use the pause key, look carefully at the scenes and pay attention to the names of the women, not the faces, for the passage of time is marked only by the names, not the faces or the clothes.
Description of House of Sand (Widescreen)
Filmed entirely on the magnificent, sandy coast of northern Brazil, Áurea's saga begins in 1910, in Maranhão, where her fanatical husband has relocated his family to start a farm. Desperate and pregnant, Áurea (Fernanda Torres) longs to return to the city, but cannot traverse the dunes with her aging mother, Maria (Fernanda Montenegro) in tow. When calamity strikes, the two women find themselves stranded. Eventually, they settle among the shifting sands and Áurea finds peace. But her passionate daughter, Maria, longs to explore the world beyond the dunes. This profound portrait of passing generations has established Andrucha Waddington as one of the most exciting directors in Brazil today.The landscape looks like the surface of the moon. Set in Brazil's Maranhão desert, House of Sand follows three generations of women, from 1910 to 1969, as they eke out a living from this hostile environment. Oafish Vasco (director Ruy Guerra) brings pregnant wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother, Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro, Central Station), from the city to make a new start. Shortly after they arrive, fate takes him out of the picture. Mother and daughter muddle through with the help of slave descendents. Wary at first, Massu (Seu Jorge, City of God) takes a particular shine to the duo. The story then skips ahead to 1919, when an escape route materializes. There will be two more shifts in time. By 1942, Áurea's daughter, Maria (Torres), has grown into impetuous womanhood, while Áurea (Montenegro) and Massu (Luiz Melodia) have settled into middle age. In the final section, set during the year of the first lunar landing, Áurea (Montenegro) is around the same age as her mother at the start of the film. With the exception of Camilla Facundes as nine-year-old Maria, Torres and her real-life mother assume every female role. What does it all mean? Andrucha Waddington (Me You Them) doesn't burden his enigmatic epic with a singular message, but those who appreciate dust-swept dramas like Woman in the Dunes and Walkabout aren't likely to hold it against him. The point seems to be that the human--especially the female--capacity for survival knows no bounds. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from House of Sand (click for larger image)
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