MovieChat Forums > Central do Brasil (1998) Discussion > Consistency

Consistency

posted 18 years ago by Gerry-12
4 replies | jump to latest

Maybe the term for me is Literalist. I think I have a sense of humor, I can recognize and appreciate good acting and great camera work. I do find I have trouble with cutting too quickly, though other viewers seem to like that. But one thing I cannot tolerate is arbitrary inconsistency, that is, sequences of behavior which I cannot believe possible in a single sane character. I was put off by the alternations between extraordinary villainy and pangs of conscience in the female protagonist. Why would a person who makes her living cheating all her customers (and why isn't she caught in such a racket anyway?) and whose first move is to sell the child, have such feelings as to risk bodily harm to snatch him back? And then why should she spend all her money to take him away from Rio only to try to abandon him at the first good chance?

But as I write I realize that what the authors of the film may have been trying to do was to portray the kind of personality that condemns itself to the marginal live it leads. Maybe the authors or I were just not smart enough to understand each other. Should I go back and change my vote? No.

The images sure were Brazil, though.

[–] AJAbalahin 18 years ago

Gerry-12,

What is "arbitrarily inconsistent" about listening to one's conscience after half a life of ignoring it? Or about risking one's life one moment to save a child without realizing that that would not be the end of the commitment to the child's welfare? (In any case, Dora fled Rio as much to save her own life as Josue's since the "adoption agency"'s police thug was coming after her.)

I am not sure what you might mean by "Literalist." To me you sound like an "Idealist" at least as far as fictional characters go. Real people are inconsistent -- they aren't either pure and consistent exemplars of either heroism or villainy. It is in that very "inconsistency," in the capacity of human beings to defy the expectations others have of them or even they themselves, that the hope for all of us, individually and collectively, lies.

In fact, Dora is not "marginal" -- at least not compared to the people she swindles/serves. At least she is literate and a civil servant. That pretty much puts her smack dab in the center of Brazilian society -- between the scandalously destitute and the obscenely wealthy.

En touto nika

Jezu, Ufam Tobie!

[–] Sivey 17 years ago

Well said.

[–] gobiracer 17 years ago

I think her friend/neighbor made it clear she had to do it. There was an important scene where Dora couldn't sleep and was tossing and turning. I think she knew what she had to do, whether it was for herself or for her friend. That is, i don't think at this point in the movie, she really knew right from wrong.

Also, I think she may have just been driven by pure guilt.

[–] lunagranger 17 years ago

She is not really trying to do the "right" thing as the opposite from wrong. She is trying to do what is best for her and she is afraid of becoming attached to the child, but she really can't help that.
She tries to be cynical about the world she lives in, but she really can't be cynical to the people she loves and when she begins to love Josué (Joshua), she can't be cynical anymore, even if she tries to.