Film Forum

3:20 & 9:10

Acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz brilliantly recreates 1950s Rio de Janeiro in this tropical melodrama of two inseparable sisters: Eurídice (Carol Duarte), 18, and Guida (Julia Stockler), 20. They live restricted lives with their conservative parents. However, each nourishes a passionate dream: Eurídice of becoming a renowned pianist; Guida of finding true love. In a shocking turn of events, they are separated and forced to live apart. Karim Aïnouz’s first film, MADAME SATÃ, a Jean Genet-inspired story of 1930’s Rio’s drag demi-monde, premiered at Film Forum in 2003. INVISIBLE LIFE shares with it this director’s commitment to immersing himself in the emotional lives of his characters, visualized through rich, inventive, and lush imagery.

Based on Martha Batalha’s popular novel The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, the film is Brazil’s official submission to the 2020 Academy Awards® for Best International Film.

BRAZIL / GERMANY   2019   140 MINS.  IN PORTUGUESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES   AMAZON STUDIOS

Reviews

“Critic’s Pick. A disconcerting rush of lush imagery… (is) setting the viewer up for an emotional kill. A modern melodrama that’s proud to be one. Its mix of vivid period detail and raw frankness about sexuality and poverty and women’s oppression is heady and bracing; its depiction of female friendship and love is pointedly ferocious.”
– Glenn Kenny, The New York Times

“A heady blend of the casual, the sorrowful, the near-mythical, and the carnally explicit.”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“Lush, dreamy, and tear-jerking in the best way. Both (sisters) suffer with a fierceness in their eyes that’s nothing less than magnificent.”
– Stuart Klawans, The Nation

“Nothing quite prepares you for the ecstatic, chromatic intensity of INVISIBLE LIFE. To call the film a riot of color doesn’t begin to do it justice: color here doesn’t so much riot as surge, swoon, ebb and flow in a delirious tide of euphoria. (The film) is also highly relevant now under the authoritarian and homophobic new Brazilian regime of Jair Bolsanaro. Visually, the film is a triumph.”
– Jonathan Romney, Film Comment

“Masterful. Constructed with startling finesse and economy. Profoundly observant of womanly hardship. A hopeful celebration of female camaraderie and strength. It’s that optimism, that generous spirit that makes Aïnouz’s beautiful film all the more sublime.”
– Tomris Laffly, RogerEbert.com

“[A] ravishing period drama. A waking dream, saturated in sound, music and color to match its depth of feeling. More than one kind of sisterhood powers a story in which female solidarity, in a world of male oppression and manipulation, proves a life-saving force. Sumptuous... superbly choreographed… [with] flashes of joy and comradeship... a stirring celebration of the families we create. [Hélène] Louvart’s lensing, awash in hues and forms that feel sun-ripened to a lush, squishy haze, is a constant marvel.”
– Guy Lodge, Variety

“Lustrous textures, boldly saturated colors and lush sounds... serve to intensify the intimacy of Karim Aïnouz’s gorgeous melodrama... winding through passages by turns seductive and sorrowful, tender and raw. Exquisitely crafted. A haunting drama that celebrates the resilience of women.”
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter