Cinema Releases - The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao
Rio de Janeiro, 1950. Eurídice, 18, and Guida, 20, are two inseparable sisters living at home with their conservative parents. Although immersed in a traditional life, each one nourishes a dream: Eurídice of becoming a renowned pianist, Guida of finding true love.
In a dramatic turn, they are separated by their father and forced to live apart. They take control of their separate destinies, while never giving up hope of finding each other.
Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes Film Festival 2019.
Brazil's entry for the Oscars 2020 International Film.
Karim Aïnouz (born in Fortaleza, Brazil) is an award-winning film director, screenwriter and visual artist.
His first feature, Madame Sata, premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2002.
He also directed Love for Sale, 2006 (Venice Orizzonti), I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You, 2009 (Venice Orizzonti), and The Silver Cliff, 2011 (Cannes Directors’ Fortnight).
In 2014 Futuro Beach screened in the Berlinale Competition. The documentary Central Airport THF, premiered at the 68th Berlinale (Panorama) and won the Amnesty International Prize.
Karim Aïnouz has directed, with Sergio Machado, the TV series Alice, for HBO Latin America. His installations and collaborative projects as a visual artist have been part of events such as Sharjah, São Paulo and Whitney Museum Biennials. He is also a screenwriting tutor at the Porto Iracema das Artes in Fortaleza, Brazil.
The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão is his seventh feature. The film premiered in Cannes 2019 where it won the Un Certain Regard prize.
He has recently completed Nardjes A, a documentary film about the recent protest marches in Algeria and has several other film projects currently in place.
2019 The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão
2017 Central Airport THF (Documentary)
2014 Futuro Beach
2011 Silver Cliff
2009 I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You | co-directed with Marcelo Gomes
2006 Love For Sale
2002 Madame Satã
| CAST | |
| Eurídice Gusmão | Carol Duarte |
| Guida Gusmão | Julia Stockler |
| Antenor | Gregório Duvivier |
| Filomena | Bárbara Santos |
| Ana Gusmao | Flávia Gusmão |
| Zélia | Maria Manoella |
| Manuel | Antônio Fonseca |
| Cecilia | Cristina Pereira |
| Afonso | Gillray Coutinho |
| Eurídice | Fernanda Montenegro |
| CREW | |
| Director | Karim Aïnouz |
| Screenwriter | Murilo Hauser |
| Co-writers | Inés Bortagaray, Karim Aïnouz |
| Based on the book by | Martha Batalha |
| Cinematographer | Hélène Louvart (AFC) |
| Music | Benedikt Schiefer |
| Editor | Heike Parplies (BFS) |
| Production Designer | Rodrigo Martinera |
| Costume Designer | Marina Franco |
| Sound Designer | Waldir Xavier |
| Sound Operator | Laura Zimmerman |
| Makeup artist | Rosemary Paiva |
| Assistant director | Nina Kopko |
| Music | Benedikt Schiefer |
| Re-recording mixer | Björn Wiese |
| Producers | Rodrigo Teixeira, |
| Michael Weber, Viola Fügen | |
| Production Companies | RT Features, Pola Pandora |
| Sony Pictures, Canal Brasil | |
| Executive Producers | Camilo Cavalcanti |
| Mariana Coelho | |
| Viviane Mendonça | |
| Cécile Tollu-Polonowski | |
| André Novis | |
| Associate Producer | Michel Merkt |
| Funds | FSA/BRDE Ancine (BRA) |
| Medienboard (GER) | |
| 139 min Brazil / Germany / 2019 | |
| 2.39.1 / 5.1 |
'Aïnouz makes a triumphant return to feature films with this transcendent ‘tropical melodrama’ about the enduring bond between two not-so distant sisters, which won Cannes’s Un Certain Regard prize.
The film is undoubtedly full-blooded, but that doesn’t mean it lacks subtlety or nuance; indeed, as it progresses through the 50s, chronicling the changes in the two siblings’ lives, it explores, to richly rewarding affect, notions of family and friendship, love and loyalty.
If this is melodrama, it is so only in the best sense of the word.”
Geoff Andrew, SIGHT & SOUND
Karim Aïnouz’s lovely melodrama… gorgeous Brazilian movie…you may want to cry well before this deeply moving, slowly blood-boiling movie is through.
The sins of the patriarchy are fairly out in the open in “Invisible Life” — Manuel’s dogmatic conservatism, Antenor’s man-child ignorance — but there are no easy or one-note villains. For the director as well as the audience, hating the men in this movie is of secondary importance to loving its women, as Aïnouz so clearly does..
Aïnouz is working firmly and confidently in a grand tradition of melodrama; there’s a hint of Douglas Sirk, a master of the form, in his expressionistic use of color, particularly cool greens and warm reds, to heighten the intensity of his characters’ emotions. It’s instructive that the movie’s English-language title has been truncated to “Invisible Life,” making clear that this isn’t just Eurídice’s story; it’s implicitly a story about innumerable unseen women, in 1950s Brazil and beyond, who have toiled and suffered, rebelled and prevailed. Justin Chang, THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
'Out' Brazilian filmmaker’s masterpiece elicits tears and cheers…unfolds on screen like a great novel.’
‘A rich film that will reward patient viewers who love a juicy melodrama.’
The film may have an epic scope — it covers multiple years in the sisters’ lives — but it feels intimate and voyeuristic. This closeness helps define the characters, who are emotionally connected as they endure considerable heartache and personal setbacks.
Both Julia Stockler and Carol Duarte give excellent performances, playing characters who feel lived in. The actresses convey so much emotion and frustration as women who are shamed and repressed in this male-dominated society. Viewers will be rooting for them to reconnect.
The film generates dramatic tension during a moment that may have Guida and Eurídice unexpectedly crossing paths. The teasing scene, which takes place in a restaurant on Christmas Eve, is beautifully directed and packs an emotional wallop.
Gary M. Kramer, Philadelphia Gay News
'A haunting drama that quietly celebrates the resilience of women even as they endure beaten-down existences.
An affecting portrait of sisterhood divided." David Rooney, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
'In a melodrama, you might hope that things will be highly colored. But nothing quite prepares you for the ecstatic, chromatic intensity of Karim Aïnouz’s Invisible Life. To call the film a riot of color doesn’t begin to do it justice: color here doesn’t so much riot as surge, swoon, ebb and flow in a delirious tide of euphoria, and sometimes solemnity. I used the term ‘melodrama’ at the start, although it’s by no means certain that Invisible Life is one. You might call it that in the sense that its picture of women’s lives several decades ago echoes the Hollywood ‘women’s pictures’ of the 40s and 50s (rather than the more narratively-loaded Latin American telenovela tradition).
The film manages to make its leads work as teenagers and as somewhat older women battered by harsh experience, and they are both terrific."
Visually, the film is a triumph not only for Aïnouz and Louvart, but for colorist Dirk Meier’s worth mentioning by name because in general, when it comes to film reviews, colorists really do live invisible lives.” Jonathan Romney, FILM COMMENT
“Gorgeous Brazilian movie…you may want to cry well before this deeply moving, slowly blood-boiling movie is through. Directed by the gifted Karim Aïnouz, the movie tells the story of Euridice and Guida (Julia Stockler), two sisters in 1950’s Rio. It’s a drama of resilient women, thoughtless men and crushingly unrealized dreams, told with supple grace, deep feeling and an empathy that extends in every direction." Justin Chang, LOS ANGELES TIMES
Critic's Pick:
Sisterhood Is Stronger Than Patriarchy
"Lush imagery and action...Its mix of vivid period detail and raw frankness about sexuality and poverty and women'suppresion is heady and bracing; its depiction of female friendship and love is pointedly ferocious." Glen Kenny, NEW YORK TIMES
"This year's Cannes Un Certain Regard winner is a nourishing melodrama elevated by Karim Aïnouz's singular, saturated directorial style."
"Crowd pleasing and emotionally assessible...a waking dream, saturated in sound, music and color to match its depth of feeling...
“tropical melodrama... Karim Aïnouz’s ravishing period saga lives up to the description — high emotion articulated with utmost sincerity and heady stylistic excess, all in the perspiring environs of midcentury Rio de Janeiro — while surprising with its pointed feminist politics and occasionally sharp social truths."
This heartbroken tale of two sisters separated for decades by familial shame and deceit is...a florid sensory experience...his most crowd pleasing feature to date."
Guy Lodge, VARIETY
"Melodrama is a neglected genre, often delivered with a post-modern twist these days. Brazilian director Karim Aïnouzproves in this stirring, heart-wrenching period film that it can be served straight up and still work a treat. This tough, good-looking family saga...Aïnouz and his scriptwriters know full well that melodramas don't just get by on sympathy - they need our anger as well."
Lee Marshall, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
"It is classic storytelling that will delight those who like their dramas full of twists and turns, with pain and anger, in a film that highlights the changing position of women in society."
Kaleem Aftab, CINEUROPA
"A beautifully shot, impeccability acted and emotionally potent family drama. Both Duarte and Stockler are magnetic on screen, delivering wonderfully observed and full bodied performances. Helene Louvart’s cinematography is sumptuous whilst Aïnouz steers a sympathetic and empathetic path through the lives of his heroines. At its heart, The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao is an elegant and emotive story about two women struggling to build a life for themselves."
Rob Aldam, BACKSTREET MAFIA
Download set of 4 photos here
Download UK Pressbook
Download the international pressbook here
Download clip (.mov format)
Interview with Karim Ainouz here
Interview with Karim Ainouz in DMovies