Reaching for the Moon

I had hoped for more from this movie, considering its pedigree: director Bruno Barreto (View from the Top, Four Days in September, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands); the excellent cast, including Miranda Otto (Lord of the Rings); and the compelling true story that it's based on. I read the book "Rare and Commonplace Flowers" in 2005, and my late Brazilian husband, architect Sylvio de Vasconcellos, knew all the main characters personally, so maybe I was expecting more content than could possibly be squeezed into a 2-hour film.For those who aren't familiar with the story, American poet Elizabeth Bishop arrives in Rio de Janeiro on a freighter in 1951. She has a ticket to travel around the world and is taking advantage of the stopover in Rio to see her friend from Vassar, Mary Morse. Bishop is 40 years old and already well known for her poetry, having recently completed a stint at the Library of Congress in the position that was later to be called "Poet Laureate."A self-declared lesbian with a string of lovers in her past, she soon discovers that Mary is living with Lota de Soares Macedo at a beautiful inland retreat not far from Rio. The scenery is breathtaking - and how could it not be? The views of the Brazilian landscape are worth the price of admission.Hours after her arrival, Bishop bites into a caju fruit (the fruit that bears the cashew nut at its tip) and has a violent allergic reaction that nearly takes her life. She misses her boat and ends up remaining in Brazil for 15 years in a ménage à trois with Lota and Mary. It's worth noting that Bishop gets by on a fairly decent inheritance from her family and Lota is in similar circumstances, only much wealthier. This is a story about rich people who have a lot of time on their hands.Otto's interpretation of Bishop is delicately nuanced; she does a masterful job of capturing the poet's moods and quirks. Glória Pires is powerful as Lota. From the old photos online, it would appear that they each bear a strong resemblance to the real person they are portraying. Yet somehow I didn't feel the chemistry between them, or with Mary. While the compulsive attraction between and among them is key to the story, it just didn't work for me. Also, I didn't feel the characters age, or the tensions deepen, over or the evolution of the 15-year relationship. Lota ultimately has a nervous breakdown, which is blamed on Bishop. We see her go straight from commander-in-chief of an enormous landfill project (creation of Rio's famous Flamengo Park) to a pathetic shadow in a mental hospital. If Bishop was the cause of Lota's breakdown, as a movie-goer, I want to understand why.On another level, I was expecting credit where credit was due in the creation of Flamengo Park. Lota is billed as its creator and "architect," but the park was famously designed by architect Affonso Eduardo Reidy and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.* Lota had no formal training in architecture. Furthermore, the house where she lived, which in the movie she claims she designed herself, was in fact designed by architect Sérgio Bernardes. He won a prize for it in 1953 at the II São Paulo Bienal.**Still, if you want a movie that takes place in a beautiful setting and celebrates the accomplishments of two very strong, very independent women who broke the cultural mold of their time, you will be rewarded.______* For the story of my acquaintance with Burle Marx, see http://www.findingmyinvinciblesummer.info/2013/01/06/roberto-burle-marx/** For the true story of Flamengo Park and Lota's house, see https://coisasdaarquitetura.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/a-arquitetura-do-rio-de-janeiro-vai-ao-cinema/)

It’s beautifully acted and even more gorgeously made movie about American poet - pale creature that left New York to escape and found richness and love in Rio de Janeiro. It’s filled with nature, flowers, bold women - the one that brittle and the one that strong; and than they switched. It’s filled with poetry and architecture - the fields where male egos run supreme, but all we can see are gorgeous and driven females woven into each other. It was very captivating - you feel sorry that so few artistic endeavors can deal with complicated matters of love, politics, class and fate with grace of this movie. (Or I forgot the gender and sexuality within same one).

I never knew who Elizabeth Bishop was before watching this film. Now I want to read her poetry

I was sad to see this deeply moving, complex and intelligent story of the love between the award winning American poet Elizabeth Bishop and Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares. so overlooked by U.S. audiences and critics. There are two outstanding performances by Miranda Otto as the outwardly shy and repressed alcoholic Bishop, and Gloria Pires as her opposite, an extroverted, highly emotional woman who coaxes Bishop out of her shell.Very nicely photographed, this reminded me of the best of the Merchant-Ivory films. It's not flashy. Indeed there's a quiet to itthat is needed to off-set the melodramatic (even if based in truths) elements of these women's lives. But that doesn't keep it from packing a hell of an emotional punch, and in being bold enough to create characters we care for, but who are also deeply troubled and capable of making bad choices – just like in the real world of relationships we rarely see on screen.It was also nice to see a gay love story that both acknowledged how difficult being homosexual was in the 1950s, while not becoming a film about that only. This is a film about a complex relationship between two highly creative and wounded souls whoboth save and damage each other. The fact that both are women is only a small part of the larger story. It's also one of the only films I've seen capture at least a taste of the struggle and loneliness of the act of writing.One of those quiet little gems that deserves to be discovered by more people.

What is the saddest thing in life? Could it be to find love and to lose it again? I think so. This is a beautifully crafted story. The cinematography is excellent, the dialogue meaningful, the acting so unlike acting that it seemed to me they were living their parts rather than portraying them. How could anyone review this story based on the sexuality of the main characters when the real story is the complications of love and loss and jealousy? This is not primarily about lesbianism, this is a story primarily about love, and love has no boundaries. We love whom we love, period!One of the most fascinating, heartbreaking, yet brilliantly done stories I have watched. Bravo!!

Très bon film, mais juste une petite chose... pourquoi, presque à chaque fois dans les films lesbiens... elles ne peuvent presque jamais finir heureuse et ensemble, il faut toujours que cela finisse dans la tragédie... comme encore une fois dans ce cas ci, par le suicide de l'une d'entre elles... Est-ce que cela frustrerait trop certain égos d'hommes ou de males bien pensant, de voir que beaucoup de femmes sont très bien capable de se passer de ces beaux machos qui se croient supérieur à toute espèce de femelles, pour finir dans bien des cas, qu'elles ne s'en portent que beaucoup mieux entre elles... autant du côté sexuel que du côté de pouvoir gagner leur vie convenablement.. Je sais que ce film était une histoire vraie et on ne peut pas changer les faits si ce sont les vrai faits qui ce sont passé. N'oubliez jamais une chose importante messieurs, avant de crachez sur l'agent féminin de quelque manières que ce soit...que ce sont elles qui ont souffert et qui vous on donné la vie.... en vous mettant au monde. Vous leur devez rien d'autre que le plus grand des respect, c'est tout.That was a good movie. The women in general are treated like second best citizen all over the world especially in certain foreign countries so if those movies are made by women can we support each other a little bit better instead of putting us down ourself just to give males or females homophobic thoughts and behaviors satisfaction that any woman can't do anything right if we are not with a man... in every sense of the word... come on... we can do better than that....it's so still in the 1950-1960 century way of thinking.Can we evolve and go forward too... without all that misogynistic bullshit, once and for all. I do also understand that it was a true story, so we can't change what really happened there, if it's the true facts. This is just one statement of someone who thinks that women in general deserve a better treatment and a better place too in this world... we're not less important that our brothers, fathers or any other males for that matter. One thing for those men who treat women like garbages or badly in any other ways... They are those same women who give you life and suffer for it and put you also on this earth... Don't ever forget that, before hurting women again as much as physically or as emotionally. They deserve nothing but the most respect from you, nothing less.Merci quand même... Thank you anyway...

同性愛を扱っているためか、大手レンタル店になく、それでも、どうしても見たかったので、アマゾンさんで見つけました。　時代が1950年代ということと、二人の年齢もアデルたちより上なので、「アデル、ブルーは熱い色」のような若い二人の激しさ、熱さからすると大分、抑え目です。　平たくいうと、エリザベス・ビショップというアメリカの有名な詩人とブラジルの建築家のロタ・デ・マチェード・ソアレス（原語と発音が違っていたらすみません）の同性愛、それに元々はエリザベスの学生時代の友人のメアリーと恋人同士だったロタとの三角関係が絡んでいます。　実話が元になっているそうですが、この映画の中では、タチ（男役）がロタ（男性的な豪快な性格）で、ネコ（女役）がエリザベス（シャイで繊細）といった感じです。 この当時から割と同性愛にオープンなロタに対し、エリザベスは人前ではそのことを隠します。　そして、仕事に忙しく家を空けるロタに対し、エリザベスはニューヨークに帰ってしまいます。（この辺りは男女の恋愛話のようです。） エリザベスのアメリカ帰国後、精神を病んでいたロタは最後は悲劇的選択をします。　ざっくりいうとそういったお話です。　「ロード・オブ・ザ・リング」のミランダ・オットーがエリザベス・ビショップ演じています。　このミランダ・オットー、良いです。　あとは「reaching for the moon」ご覧いただいた方が良いと思います。

J'adore

リージョンについては特に書かれていませんが、普通に再生出来ました。英語字幕で、主役の一人の女優さんと、監督、スタッフがブラジルの方達ということで、わりとゆっくりめの英語なので私でもなんとか追える位でした。エリザベス・ビショップという方のことを私は知らなかったのですが、こちらの方をウィキで検索してみて、作品の背景的なことも少しわかりました。ネット上にこの作品の日本語の情報が少ないようですが、私的には日本で劇場公開されてもおかしくないレベルの作品だと思いました。月の出をまって、太陽と月に背いて、月の瞳・・・この作品はどういう邦題になるのかなと思います。

Reaching for the moon was a joy to watch and should be added to the list of must watch lesbian films. It is based on the lives of real people which can go either way when presented in film format, however this film succeeds in many ways. The film is based on the relationship between the American poet Elizabeth Bishop and the Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares. The film does sometimes give a little background to the lives of the people represented, however the main focus of the film is the relationship between the two central characters. Bishop stays with an old school friend and her partner while she is in Brazil, this is how she meets Soares, as Soares is the partner of Bishop's old school friend. Soares seemly manages to get both women to agree to have a relationship with her simultaneously. However, this seems odd considering that many accounts of the relationship say that when Bishop had affairs it effected Soares mental wellbeing and the film hints at this also, especially at the end. Therefore it seems odd that Soares expects to be able to have what seems like an open relationship, whilst also expecting monogamy from her partners. Regardless of this confusing discrepancy this is a thoroughly watchable film and high on my list of favourite lesbian films, would certainly recommend.