"Cara a Cara" ("Face to Face") marked as writer/director Julio Bressane's feature debut and what a chaotic and disastrous
early film for him and everybody involved. Nothing to say, nothing to show except for brief moments where the style and its
presentation looks a little groundbreaking in Brazil cinema, but the substance is null, horrific, tedious and a massive snooze fest
that will make you fall asleep and wake up over and over, due to its ugly-sounding soundtrack.
It's said that this is a dramatic tale of obsession, as experienced by a poor public servant (Antero de Oliveira), dealing with
a dying mother (Vanda Lacerda), who distracts himself in following and observing a wealthy beautiful woman (Helena Ignez) of whom he's
in love. While those characters lead their lives in separate ways and barely communicating with each other, there's a bigger picture at
play with the girl's father, a rich man (Paulo Gracindo) making a scheme to overthrown a leftist politician - a jab at president João
Goulart and the '64 coup, possibly.
The girl spends her days with a boyfriend or studying ballet, while the poor man just stumbles into things, suffers a lot and
keeps following the girl without trying anything but we know something terrible might happen. And does Bressane have anything so
interesting to say or show about those characters, their different realities where they simply cannot connect? Not really. It's pointless,
weak and weird to follow.
A painfully tedious and excruciating experience that I cannot recommend and I can't describe more about
how messed up everything was, no chance of salvation and neither a bright thought came across as I was watching this thing - two attempts
and it didn't impress me in no possible way. 2/10.
