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But later, walking along the beach with her nephew and his girlfriend, Clara points out a pipe pumping sewage directly into the ocean: this, she says, marks the unofficial border between RecifeРІР‚в„ўs rich and poor neighbourhoods.

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Aquarius opens with a series of stills showing the districtРІР‚в„ўs magnificent skyscraper-lined shore, the image of chic Atlantic modernism, set to the lush orchestrations of Hoje, a ballad by the singer-songwriter Taiguara. While Aquarius might appear to be exclusively about the experiences of a privileged social sphere РІР‚вЂњ working-class characters are less prominent than in Neighbouring Sounds РІР‚вЂњ the film nevertheless offers an analysis of the political realities behind RecifeРІР‚в„ўs luxurious facade (that the film was not selected as BrazilРІР‚в„ўs Academy contender this year is widely seen as government retaliation for the makersРІР‚в„ў protest at Cannes against the impeachment of BrazilРІР‚в„ўs former president Dilma Rousseff). Making the most of her regal smile, raspy voice and hawkish profile, BragaРІР‚в„ўs imposing, tender, sometimes playfully mannered performance should by rights have earned her a nomination for the Best Actress award at Cannes.

Clara is proudly aware of her own complexity (РІР‚СљI am an old lady and a child all togetherРІР‚Сњ), a complexity that is palpable, and not just because her musical tastes accommodate Villa-Lobos, Gilberto Gil and Queen.

Clara unreservedly enjoys her night with a gigolo recommended by a friend РІР‚вЂњ like SebastiaРњРѓn LelioРІР‚в„ўs Gloria (2013), the film stands up for the sexual pleasure of middle-aged to elderly women РІР‚вЂњ though her anxiety about her mastectomy scar makes her back away from intimacy with a silver-fox widower. The film stresses her independence, making a strong case for the pleasures of living alone (with a visiting maid to make life easier), while also suggesting a more difficult dimension of solitude.Р”В«ragaРІР‚в„ўs charisma highlights ClaraРІР‚в„ўs sexual power, with more than one man commenting on her beauty. She came to embody a Brazilian archetype of the tough, sexually independent woman, and echoes of that image are evident here her Clara is at once a strong, autonomous intellectual, a sensualist (a lover of the sea, of music, of dozes in her hammock) and a compassionate family matriarch. Known internationally for starring roles in Bruno BarretoРІР‚в„ўs Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976) and Hector BabencoРІР‚в„ўs Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Braga became a national icon in various telenovelas of the 1970s, including the disco-themed DancinРІР‚в„ў Days. It is the only reference to this episode, but it tells us a lot about the tensions in ClaraРІР‚в„ўs family, and about her emotional independence.Р”Р„nother element providing a sense of history is the central performance by an iconic figure of the Brazilian screen, Sonia Braga. Later, other fragments of information will be dropped in, more or less unobtrusively, to further sketch in this sense of history РІР‚вЂњ as when ClaraРІР‚в„ўs daughter reminds her that, at some point, she left her husband and children for two years. It gives MendoncРњВ§a FilhoРІР‚в„ўs story historical density РІР‚вЂњ a theme that strongly emerges when Clara shows interviewers a newspaper clipping found in the sleeve of a second-hand John Lennon LP, calling it РІР‚Сљa message in a bottleРІР‚Сњ. The prelude serves, then, to signal that before the present, there was a past РІР‚вЂњ and another past before that. We also learn here that her niece Clara is recovering from cancer РІР‚вЂњ hence her cropped hair, which someone compares to the look of singer Elis Regina. We hear that she was persecuted at some point РІР‚вЂњ clearly, under BrazilРІР‚в„ўs military government of 1964-85 РІР‚вЂњ and glimpse moments of her youthful sex life, as she fondly reminisces in telegraphic flashbacks. The only backstory we discover at this point is LuciaРІР‚в„ўs. Each face we see merely notifies us that everyone at a party to celebrate Aunt LuciaРІР‚в„ўs 70th birthday has their own story, which could just as well be told in this or another film.

It essentially tells a single linear story and focuses on one character, Clara, a well-off widow in her sixties yet this simple conception allows the director to include much incidental and background material that puts ClaraРІР‚в„ўs personal drama in a wider context.Р”Р‡or example, the brief prelude, set a quarter of a century before the main action, doesnРІР‚в„ўt serve РІР‚вЂњ as one might have expected, given the mass of faces on screen РІР‚вЂњ to introduce the filmРІР‚в„ўs characters. MendoncРњВ§a FilhoРІР‚в„ўs follow-up Aquarius is in many ways more conventional it lacks the exuberant shifting from locale to locale, while toning down the stylistic effects (abrupt zooms, fragmented editing) that gave Neighbouring Sounds a distinctly modernist edge.