Angela (Lilian Lemmertz) leaves São Paulo with her lover Paulo Mendes (Mário Benvenutti) to the cottage of her psychiatrist Dr. Ana (Kate Hansen) in a peaceful place in the countryside following her recommendation. Angela is an anguished and unstable woman that has anxiety and has already tried to commit suicide and is very dependable of Dr. Ana.
The couple arrives in the beautiful place and sooner Angela asks Paulo to call Ana to come to the house and stay with her until the next morning. Ana has a conversation with Paulo and tells that Angela will never heal, only improve her mental condition.
Along the days, Paulo has one night stand with Ana that becomes weaker than Angela, in a weird transference of feelings and emotions.
"As Deusas" is another beautiful and classy film by the Brazilian filmmaker Walter Hugo Khouri, a director and writer visibly influenced by Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni and with a refined musical taste. His characters usually have existential problems and his films always have erotic but never vulgar love scenes and nudity. The stories are thought-provoking and take place in the chaotic São Paulo, the city where he was born and died; women usually are the lead and strong characters; and men are usually flawed and destructive sex-oriented characters.
Lilian Lemmertz and Kate Hansen are incredibly gorgeous and the sequence in the lake is of an awesome good taste. There is a quote in the film, when Angela asks how they would be thirty years after, dead or old, that is ironic since the actress Lilian Lemmertz died of heart attack in 1986.
The music score, with Rogério Duprat, Mozart, Billie Holliday and Duke Ellington, among others, is another plus and gives a touch of class to this film. Last but not the least, Walter Hugo Khouri is recommended to viewers that enjoy low-paced films. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "As Deusas" ("The Goddesses")
