Sometimes it's so pleasurable to pick up a movie that you know nothing about and find out that is is really memorable - for whatever reason.
Such is the case with O TEMPO E O VENTO (TIME AND THE WIND), an epic tale of familial struggle over a more than a century during Brazil's southern occupation. Knowing next to nothing about that country's history, I approached Jayme Monjardim's film cold, so to speak. Told by the now-elderly Bibiana Terra Cambará (Fernanda Montenegro), it retells a huge swathe of Brazilian history in terms of the regular cycles of birth, marriage, death, and the experience of colonization. While people often suffer at the hands of the Spanish, they manage to survive, and love springs eternal in their breasts. Bibliana's love for her husband Capitão Rodrigo Cambará (Thiago Lacerda) transcends time and space; even when he dies after having been shot in the back by a cowardly rival, her love for his memory never fades, as he appears in ghostly form beside her bed.
Some of the image-compositions are familiar from Technicolor Hollywood westerns of the Fifties - especially those of horses galloping across apparently endless landscapes. What renders TIME AND THE WIND so memorable is the stunning use of color from cinematographer Affonso Beato. Purples melt into oranges, blues and indigo; the skyline looks positively ravishing with an orb-like yellowish-orange sun setting in the distance; at dawn the sparse city of Santa Fe appears fresh, almost bluish as it welcomes in a new day; while the mountains protect the landscape from possible invasion.
The action proceeds slowly through a use of tracking shots accompanied by long shots showing the insignificance of the protagonists within the landscape. As Bibliana points out at the end, the wind might come and go, but time is inexorable; it is up to everyone to understand this inescapable fact of life and make the best of their limited presence on earth.
The story might be a familiar one, but it is compellingly told, aided by a wonderfully florid score from Alexandre Guerra. I do not know whether TIME AND THE WIND has been released anywhere outside Brazil, but I would strongly recommend anyone to take a look at it; they will not be disappointed.
