THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET by Marcos Bernstein
December 8th, 2004 by Andre Soares
O Outro Lado da Rua / The Other Side of the Street (2004)
Direction: Marcos Bernstein. Screenplay: Marcos Bernstein and Melanie Dimantas. Cast: Fernanda Montenegro, Raul Cortez, Laura Cardoso, Luiz Carlos Persy
THE SPYING GAME
As in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller Rear Window, the amateur sleuth in Marcos Bernstein’s feature film début, O Outro Lado da Rua / The Other Side of the Street, believes she has witnessed a murder while spying with binoculars on a neighbor. But has she, or is it all a figment of the imagination of a lonely, embittered older woman?
Unlike Hitchcock, however, Bernstein (co-writer of Central do Brasil / Central Station) is less preoccupied with the alleged murder than with the psychological and emotional workings of the two protagonists: a widower who may or may not have killed his ailing (and wealthy) wife and the lonely divorcée who spends much of her time as a "senior-citizen spy" for the Rio de Janeiro police.
Bernstein, who co-wrote the screenplay of O Outro Lado da Rua with Melanie Dimantas, treats his characters with an incisive but compassionate eye, and his direction is for the most part quite subtle and mature. But sorely missing from this psychological drama is the melancholy atmosphere essential for a tale about inner emptiness and longing.
Yet, O Outro Lado da Rua is very much worth watching for its straightforward handling of the problems of aging and loneliness in our ever more impersonal society, and for the presence of Brazil’s Grand Dame of the stage and television, Fernanda Montenegro (Academy Award-nominee for Central do Brasil), who delivers a strong — if at times a tad calculated — performance as the elderly woman in search of a sense of self.
DVD:
Region 4 DVD (South and Central America, Mexico, Oceania); this transfer of O Outro Lado da Rua includes subtitles in Portuguese, Spanish, and English; plus commentary by director Marcos Bernstein and a "making of" featurette.
LES SOEURS FÂCHÉES / ME AND MY SISTER
THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON
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