Cinema Releases - The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão
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 Satã, 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 is now working on a documentary about the recent protest marches in Algeria.
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 and 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 | |
Karim 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 Canness Un Certain Regard prize.
The film is undoubtedly full-blooded, but that doesnt 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
"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 Aïnouzs Invisible Life. To call the film a riot of color doesnt begin to do it justice: color here doesnt 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 its by no means certain that Invisible Life is one. You might call it that in the sense that its picture of womens lives several decades ago echoes the Hollywood womens 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 Meierwhos 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 Eurídice and Guida (Julia Stockler), two sisters in 1950s Rio. Its 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 friendshi 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...
A tropical melodrama... Karim Aïnouzs 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...a real crowd pleasing."
Guy Lodge, VARIETY
"Melodrama is a neglected genre, often delivered with a post-modern twist these days. Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz proves 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. Hélène Louvarts 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