1972 · drama · cinema-novo
São Bernardo
Directed by Leon Hirszman1h 53m1972
The story of Paulo Honório, a poor ploughman who becomes a rich farmer. Obsessed by his desire to get even richer, he doesn't pay much attention to his wife, Madalena, a teacher who reacts against his tyrannical ways.
Our read: São Bernardo (1972) reads as a heavy, slow-burn, inventive drama · cinema-novo entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Heavy, slow-burn, measured drama / cinema-novo, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, cold.
- heavy
- slow-burn
- intense
- bleak
- cold
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How São Bernardo feels to watch.
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What watching it is actually like.
“You want a rigorous Brazilian literary adaptation about a poor man's rise to tyrannical landowner and its cost to his marriage.”
Skip it tonight — You want exciting plots or uplifting underdog stories; this is a grim study of ambition and isolation.
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