Wilson Barros' short "Maria da Luz" is an amazing exercise in style and a tribute to the train station of Luz, located in downtown of São Paulo. It presents a series of sequences filmed
inside the crowded historical station where a young woman (Mariza Guimarães) tries to find ways of getting out of there yet for strange reasons she can't get out of there, and possibly
there's something special there that makes her stay whether by finding a man's ID on the platform or some magnetic force that prevents her from boarding the train (pay attention that
in some of the doors she tries to enter there's no people walking in or out (understandable feeling during rush hour since it's practically impossible to get in and one has to wait
countless trains before finally getting in).
Shot in 35-MM, pure black-and-white, Mr. Barros presents the daily routine of the Luz station, the overflowing wave of people inside the place going in several directions and he
captures almost everything in a cinema verité style - except when the woman appears here and there, which gives the picture a more fictional note. But when she appears next to other
people, the real life extras, it all seems real without staging or anything. My theory when it comes to what happens with her or why she always there is that she simply lives there
and can't imagine herself living elsewhere, and the possible reasoning of moving from there would just to see the sights, to see how other stations work...but she's located in a
fascinating place, a very old station known because of his architecture designed by the British and it's one of the major train/subway stations located in the city and Mr. Barros truly
knows to film and capture street scenes and make great use of São Paulo as a location as evidenced in his other short films ("Disaster Movie", "Diversões Solitárias") and his only
feature "Anjos da Noite". It might not have a story per se or a higher meaning to it but like many cinema du look films of the period it's gorgeous and special to look at. Obviously
that it's not part of the movement since it isn't a French movie but it carries certain qualities from it. 9/10.
