Coluna Claquete – March 29, 2016 – Movie of the Week: “The Five Senses”
Newton Ramalho
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Movie of the Week: “The Five Senses”
Considered the most intellectual of festivals for commercial films, the Cannes Film Festival, often awards hermetic films, of difficult acceptance for the general public. Titles like the Iranian “Taste of Cherry” or the French “Under the Sun of Satan”, let the general public confused, because they have a different perspective from Hollywood standard.Other award-winning films divide opinions as “Apocalypse Now”, “sex, lies and videotapes” or “Pulp Fiction”.A film that has certainly added to this list is the Canadian “The Five Senses”.
Fleeing the traditional presentation, “The Five Senses” is not just a single story, but six in a tangle of lives over a period of three days. What serves as a link between all of them is the disappearance of a little girl of three years, lost during a walk in the park.
The other characters have their personalities and expressions associated with the senses – hence the title. Rachel (Nadia Litz), an introverted teenager, feels guilty for her father’s death.She is the only character who wears glasses, and who assumes the role of observer of the world, although living apart from it. For failing to look at the little girl, Rachel is responsible for her loss. On the other hand, she can perceive in a new friend, feelings and emotions, that even he had realized.
Ruth (Gabrielle Rose), Ruth’s mother, is a professional masseuse, whose job consists by relieving the pain of others, with the touch of her hands.Despite this talent, after the death of her husband, she can not touch or be touched by anyone. Even the daughter is kept at a distance on a cold and formal relationship. When required to maintain close contact with the mother of the lost girl, she is forced to touch the real world.
Richard (Philippe Volter), the ophthalmologist who treats his neighbor Ruth, is losing his hearing, and make a list of sounds he wants to preserve in memory.Sounds like rain, music, a simple conversation, the voice of the estranged daughter, etc .. It is through a prostitute, whose daughter is deaf from birth, that he realizes that there is more than one way to hear things.
Robert (Daniel MacIvor) is a janitor who loves his job.In recent times, he meets all his former lovers, men and women, to prove his theory that love provides a special smell.Disappointed by not finding the smell that he demands among them, he discovers to be loved by others.
Finally, Rona (Mary Louise-Parker), a pastry chef who makes beautiful cakes and sweets, but does not care about the taste they have.Despite the sharp taste, she thinks that only the external appearance is enough to satisfy people, as her own relationships, which never go beyond the superficial. When Roberto, an Italian chef she had met in Europe, reappears in her life, Rona allowed herself to engage with emotions that she always had controlled.To complicate matters, hes mother is a cancer terminal ill, which causes her a sense of guilt by the distance kept between them.
The main characters – all with names beginning with “r” – are contained and introverted, full of problems, and stuck in their own worlds. The link between all the little girl Amy, who was part of the life of each of them, in some way, even if by the memory that her inspires. The cast is multinational: Mary Louise-Parker is American, Gabrielle Rose, Nadia Litz and Daniel MacIvor are Canadian, Philippe Volter is French and Marco Leonardi is Australian.All are experienced players and can give their characters the necessary emotional charge.
“The Five Senses” is not an easy assimilation film. It is a vision of the normal world, by an “abnormal” view, showing common situations in an exacerbated way. It’s like a patchwork, seemingly unconnected, but that lead to reflection. It is worth watching, even if only to escape the hamburger-with-coke of Hollywood, at least occasionally.Experience.