Carnal Utopia (2006) User Reviews

Fighting for a cause, about society and about love

[mario_c · 6/10 · 28 May 2008]

It's a Brazilian romance drama set in the period when the country was governed by a Military Dictatorship. The plot is set in the 70's and it's about a couple, CRISTIANA (Mel Lisboa) e SAULO (Filipe Camargo), that are part of a rebellious armed group which tries to fight against the dictator regime and its oppression, believing in a better future and a free country. During one of those operations one of their companions, VASLAV (Sérgio Marone) is injured in his hand and SAULO takes he to his place in order to CRISTIANA take care of him, until he gets healed. Everything is alright until the moment which starts rising a profound complicity and friendship between CRISTIANA and VASLAV. It's the beginning of a complex love triangle…

In spite of the political context as background it's mainly a romance drama, a bit philosophical I must say since it focus on the ideals and thoughts of that revolutionary period, but it's no more than that. It's a slow paced and melancholic film but it's never too melodramatic. In fact it's even a bit poetic at parts… and, OK, I must admit it, what called my attention to this movie was the beauty of the gorgeous Mel Lisboa! She's really sweet like "mel" (in Portuguese "mel" means "honey" – bee's honey. Now I understand why she has that name!:). Globally I appreciated the acting, from her and from the two other leading actors. I just didn't appreciate the acting by the Portuguese Ricardo Pereira which does a minimal role as the paranoid ROCO. I think he wasn't so fine! To sum up I enjoyed the film, I just think it's perhaps a bit slow.

Bargain basement non-starter

[groggo · 1/10 · 14 November 2009]

This VERY low budget film (about $157?) spends almost all of its 90 minutes indoors while a crisis is playing outdoors. It's about nothing less than an attempt by revolutionaries to overthrow the government of Brazil in the mid-1960s. The film purports to paint on a very large canvas when it doesn't seem to have enough money to even BUY the canvas.

Where is the unrest? Where are the rabid revolutionaries? Where's the mayhem? Where's the actual plot? You won't find them in this film, except in stock footage of real events during the period. There are only three main players in the cast. It could easily have been a stage play. The one or two outdoor 'action' shots are amateurish, so unconvincing they're almost laughable. This is a film that just never seems to go anywhere, and it ends abruptly without a satisfactory explanation.

The raison d'etre behind this film could very well have been an attempt to show, yet again, 'steamy' scenes of simulated sex, the same 'steamy,' simulated sex we've seen countless times before. The film could also be interpreted as a love triangle, but its outcome is so 'telegraphed' that you can tell almost precisely what is going to happen long before the curtain comes down.

I watched this and really wondered why it was even made. It doesn't illuminate anything. The Brazilian troubles in the 1960s were international in their scope, but you'd never know it by watching this flick. It doesn't tell us anything about the causes of unrest, nor do we really ever find out anything about the three characters, except perhaps that they're horny. And it all moves with the pace of a snail.

Other than all of this, a terrific flick.

A curious film about a generation of positive dreamers

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 8/10 · 14 October 2021]

Marcelo Santiago's "Sonhos e Desejos" (bizarrely titled in English as "Carnal Utopia" when it should've been "Dreams and Desires") is a nice and involving story that takes place during the early days of the military regime in Brazil. Here, a small group of misfits trapped in a small apartment while fighting for left cause spend their days dreaming of a possible future of freedom and dignity in the nation.

The student Cristiana (Mel Lisboa) and her parter, teacher Saulo (Felipe Camargo) are members of a political group who commits robberies as part of their revolutional and political projects against the military forces. When they move to an apartment the man tells the girl to not leave the premises unless necessary, but when a mysterious injured group member comes to join the girl is told to take care of the man, assist him with his injuries. The strange man is called Nijinsky (Sergio Marone), and he's under a mask of which he cannot remove thanks to superior orders from the group since he's a valuable member.

That fact intrigues Cristiana who spends her days with him in long conversations while her partner is out trying to help the foreign member Roco (Ricardo Pereira), a paranoid man who suspects he's being hunted by everyone. During the many conversations and attempts to see Nijinsky's face, a feeling of love and closeness bring them together but they all know the man will have to leave when his injury heals, and he'll have to go to the southside where an important mission awaits him.

The criticism: a noted filmmaker once said that the best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie. In this case, to write about another movie and see how similar aspects differ and become (or not) better movies. It's enormous similarity with Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" is a constant thing with me.

Both films deal with a trio of characters trapped in the same environment and they all live the free spiritism of the late 1960's/early 1970's - they had the May 68 events, here it's the early 70's that are depicted. And in between wild and fantastic dreams of liberty and free love, there's the junction of characters (brother, sister and one foreign in that movie; a couple and the mystery lover).

And obiovusly lots of moments of eroticism between the characters permeates the story in beautiful and well shot sequences. Too bad that "The Dreamers" quality isn't brought up in here. Maybe because while those charcters dreams are more innocent, less revolutionary (at least until the ending) and more the cinema love that united them, while in this picture the dreams and desires are more for a closeness for each other than a bigger social cause as they claim to fight on the outside.

Their dreams aren't for a social revolution, it's more of a personal and significant change within themselves, wishes for simpler times where they can leave the room and enjoy love and freedom without having to hide themselves from the world. But I can agree that both films deal with the topic of youth wanting and demanding to be the change of culture and ideologies in their places, the generation that would shook the world and make it a better place to live. Those are cliches of many similar themed films but it never fails to work. Here I think it was a little under used since we don't see much progress on that except the free-spirited love that happen between the guys and the girl on bed or on the floor.

The cast is very good in their roles, even though I didn't like the jealous and irritating character played by Camargo. The movie succeed fairly whenever he wasn't on screen and only Cristiana and Nijinsky were having their most intimate moments of closeness and affection. Pereira's minor role was a thankless role, the more he appears the creepier and crazier he gets. He was under-developed by the writing and not because of the acting. A little glimpse of hope this story could present but that was only destined to a handful of characters.

For enthusiasts of the period depicted here, or fans of one scenery/play-like device, this is a must-see. The soundtrack is also good, which brings back many 1970's classics and one original song that fits the film with perfection - if I'm not wrong it's Milton Nascimento who performs it. I'd love to watch it again. 8/10.