Photo: Pepper
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Jair Correia made documentaries and has three feature films, whose unexpected appreciation, at the whim of chance, led us to the discovery of a filmmaker's talent such as we have rarely seen appear in Brazilian cinema, in the entire existence of this cinema. In fact, this discovery, for us, constituted an impact such as we could hardly have expected, such as we never imagined it would offer us an appreciation of the films of someone whose artistic or professional existence
little or nothing had transpired to us.
However, we know his films: three feature films and two documentaries. And its cinema is among the most important that Brazil has done in recent times. Or rather, any time. His two documentaries on art - "THE ART IN THE WOOD OF AGENOR" and "THE ART IN THE MARBLE" - focusing on works by primitive artists, reveal to us a filmmaker with concern and sensitivity different from the average in relation to other arts than just cinema. And this quality, which is not very common in our hurried and unprepared milieu, already reached its fullness when Jair Correia made his first plot and feature film.
"TWO STRANGE WOMEN", integrated two stories, "Diana" and "Eva", into the film. Debut and is already a definitive film. Totally achieved. About two women? No. More about two men, more about the supernatural, the split personality, and the dream world.
More about the fantastic that is reality.
"Diana", is the story of a woman whose troubled and hit her to mediocre marriage suddenly finds itself complicated and redeemed, and at the same time brought to a new impasse and then, to the tragic outcome, when her husband's "alter ego" begins to reveal itself intermittently, is already an impact, already the mock of the collapse of the world of men and the justice they create; the "close" of the judge reading the sentence is a synthesis, a total "resurrect", "maximum" in the case of
of cinema made in our country.
But without "Diana" being inferior to him, it is with "Eva" that Jair Correia reveals himself to be more complex and complete. The narrative grabs the viewer and only lets go at its end, taking him from that same kind of electric shock with which "The Stranger of The Third Floor" made Boris Ingster's unknown classic in 1940. Or like "Retrato de Mulher" (The Woman in the Window) by Fritz Lang in 1944. Or still, like in 1947 the limited attendance of the old "Clube de Cinema de São Paulo", in a public office, on Rua Antônio de Godoy, saw "Na Solidão da Noite" (Dead of Night), an English film also belonging to the fantastic genre, equally revealed to an audience only then dazzled and proud because of its group of four directors, a Brazilian was part of it: Alberto Cavalcanti.
Many foreign films have dealt with, manipulated, and revolutionized the cinematic language, freeing it from the obligation of linearity: "India Song", French by Marguerite Duras, "Three Roads Lead to the Lake", German by the unknown Michael Haneke, almost all recently here we met Carlos Saura ("Cria Cuervos", "Elisa Minha Vida", "Ana e os Lobos", etc.) and others.
Admittedly, this renewal perhaps begins with Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" in 1958, not to mention the obvious and deliberate "Citizen Kane" by Welles in 1941.
But in Brazilian cinema, nothing so close or so exciting we had, when in "Eva" the dream within the dream, which in fact may not be a dream, the transfer of that dream, or rather, from this nightmare to a reality that may also not be real and whose chess pieces (the characters) are transferred from a pair of characters (we are resisting the temptation to write "double" and thus relate everything to Otto Rnak's question) to another, until they flow into a new reality - or just another dream? - where things will begin again and thus fall back on the plane of potential hallucination, in the realm of infinity.
Hoffmann? Le Fanu? Good. The new filmmaker is not unaware of them and that is one more side in his favor.
RUBEM BIAFORA- O Estado de Sao Paulo
TWO STRANGE WOMEN
Halftones, reticence, subtly distilled information, climates, and atmospheres built with a look, a gesture, an expression: the filmmaker Jair Correia. From "Two Strange Women", revealed in the two short stories that make up this film, the literary author is fascinated by the human landscape. A fascination that leads him not only through its obviously geographical features, but lends him the keys to penetrate the true essence of this landscape. Life, death, and desire, are what the author uses to build a revealing mirror, which, by giving us back our apparently distorted image, reminds us how much we are still secret,
unknown, undiscovered.
(EDMAR PEREIRA - Jornal da Tarde)
In my childhood primers, Eva saw the bird. Jair Correia's Eva sees many other things, in a labyrinthine game of mirrors where her time, no longer that of Paradise,
it is not our everyday life either.
Images of an unidentified Time insist on blending together as if lives were combinations of playing cards dealt by a strange hand.
differently with each new playthrough.
And with each new move, the subject and object of the actions can vary, without needing any logical explanation. Who? As? Why? When? And where?
These are questions that have never been definitively answered. All these ambiguities, however, do not cloud the clear and precise narrative. They only serve to stimulate our reflection
when the story comes to an end. End?
(JOÃO CÂNDIDO GALVÃO -Veja)
TWO STRANGE WOMEN
a film by Jair Correia
Storyline and Screenplay:
Jair Correia
Photography Direction:
Tony Rabatoni
Music:
Excerpts by Tchaikovsky, Rinsky-Korsakoff, Prokofiev, Scriabin,
Dvorak, Lizst, Alban Berg, Vivaldi and Elmore James.
Costumes:
Aurea Lima
Scenography:
Jair Correia and Roberto Palma
Assembly:
Jair Correia
Executive producer:
Cassiano Esteves
Cast:
Hélio Porto, Patricia Scalvi, Sérgio Paula, Paulo Minervino,
John Doo, Fátima Celebrini, Vandi Zaquias, Misaki Tanaka and others
Direction:
Jair Correia
A film of ours, by all accounts, absolutely mandatory.
Full mark.
Rubem Biafora - O Estado de São Paulo
TALKING PORTRAIT OF A SHAMELESS WOMAN
A film that intends to discuss some of the injustices in our society,
TALKED PORTRAIT OF A SHAMELESS WOMAN comes in handy as a reminder that the work of art, as long as it does not constitute a reflection by the artist on his navel, is something vital for the progress of customs and society itself.
(RICARDO BONALUME NETO- TSA)
For "TALKED PORTRAIT ..." we could speak in the narrative process of flashbacks of "Citizen Kane" (but not in the same way as an Argentine film by Libertad Lamarque in 42 imitated it), we can find points of connection with "Laura", the classic thriller with Gene Tierney in 1944, things that are capital, but are not enough to give an idea of expression and values peculiar and proper to this new Brazilian film.
(RUBEM BIAFORA - O Estado de Sao Paulo)
TALK PORTRAIT OF A SHAMELESS WOMAN
Road map:
Hélio Porto
Photography Direction:
Tony Rabatoni
Music:
Egberto Gismonti
Opening:
Darcy Penteado
Assembly:
Mauro Alice
Executive producer:
Gelson Nunes and Silvio França Torres
Cast:
Paulo Cesar Pereio, Jonas Bloch, Imara Reis, Monique Lafond,
John Herbert, Nicole Puzzi, Serafim Gonzales, Luis Carlos de Moraes,
Zelia Toledo and others
co-management:
Hélio Porto
Direction:
Jair Correia
A psychological cop: great.
Lauro Machado Coelho - Jornal da Tarde
SHOCK
After Two Strange Women and Spoken Portrait of a Shameless Woman,
there could be no doubt that Jair Correia is one of the best new filmmakers of the new generation of national cinema, one of the few who manage to undertake a career without giving in to the low commercialisms that are in deplorable fashion.
(JOSÉ JÚLIO SPIEWAK - Jornal da Manhã)
It can be said that this is the first suspense and horror film in Brazilian cinema. If there were others, they certainly cannot match this surprising work by director Jair Correia, where the climate of fear and anguish exceeds all expectations and dignifiedly knocks down
the prejudice that national cinema lacks quality.
SHOCK has a technical level of excellent finishing, from the photography to the soundtrack composed especially to increase the suspense, to the impeccable signs and, fundamentally, the excellent sound, always the great slip of Brazilian cinema.
(GRAÇA PERRI - Manchete)
A film produced with dignity, competence, and talent. Let it serve as an example.
(JAIRO ARCO E FLEXA - Folha da Tarde)
SHOCK - A national thriller causes surprise at Cannes
Overthrowing all prejudices that national cinema lacks quality, Shock is the first thriller and horror film in Brazilian cinema. If there were others, they certainly cannot match this surprising work by director Jair Correia, where the climate of fear and anguish exceeds all expectations, leaving the audience anxious and on edge.
Shock has a technical level of great workmanship, from the photography to the soundtrack composed especially to increase suspense, to the impeccable signs and, fundamentally, the sound quality (an excellent, rare thing in national cinematography). For all this, in the recent parallel exhibition of the last Cannes Festival, Shock achieved all the conditions required for its commercialization in a large part of the world, including being invited to participate in the International Festival of Fantastic and Horror Films Sitges-Barcelona, in Spain, as a strong candidate for the first prize.
A rare genre in national cinema, Shock shows a group of young people involved in a fatal and diabolical plot after a party in a country house, when a mad assassin, creating situations of fear, paranoia, and despair, eliminates one by one of the characters. one of the young women in a complete state of hallucination, led to recognize the suspect arrested by the police, at dawn. Shock stands out from other Brazilian or foreign productions not only for the suspense genre but above all for its terror/human line, not appealing to the supernatural, common in almost all productions of the last 20 years.
The film has good performances. Actress Claudia Alencar, in a trajectory that goes from humor to terror, brings a surprising ending. Aldine Müller, Mayara Magri, and Sílvia Mazza were tragically destroyed by fear alongside actors Elias Andreatto, Kiko Guerra, and Taumaturgo Ferreira, in the good moments of their careers. Vandi Zaquias, violent and visibly aggressive, does not need to show his face to make a strong presence in the film. In the end, the audience itself interprets the violence in its own way, symbolized in the film. Shock has been receiving the highest praise from critics and the public, including being negotiated for the cable-tv network in the USA and Canada.
(Luis Henrique - Revista Fatos e Fotos)
SHOCK
a film by Jair Correia
Argument:
Jair Correia
Road map:
Jair Correia and Gertrudes Eisenlohr
Photography Direction:
Tony Rabatoni
Music:
Palhinha Cruz do Vale, Renato C. Grosche,
Pedro Turin and Jair Correia
Original Soundtrack:
Palhinha Cruz do Vale
Art Direction:
Sergio Reis
Makeup/Special Effects:
Jean Canova
Executive Producer:
Luis Carlos Dupont
Cast:
Claudia Alencar, Aldine Muller, Elias Andreato,
Kiko Guerra, Mayara Magri, Taumaturgo Ferreira,
Silvia Mazza and others
Direction:
Jair Correia
A fable or a reality? A film that even Hitchcock would sign.
Grace Perri- Manchete
