Folha de S. Paulo - 10/Jul/2000
João Sayad
Opinião Econômica (Opinion in Economics)
Corruption is systemic.
The film "Chronically Unfeasible" approaches this theme. It does not
talk about corruption but it depicts all of us, Brazilians, of all races,
professions and social classes as individualists who, when endangered
by fears, by assaults, by accidents, or even by redemption, show themselves
without mercy: they steal, they save their skins and flee. People perform
all this in an almost legally manner. Maybe the answer lies in the title.
I do not agree that the country is unfeasible. But, today, we see it
in an acute phase of unfeasibility. Corruption is only hypocrisy that
conceals scepticism and weak determination.
Folha de S. Paulo - 25/Jun/2000
Jorge Coli
Ponto de Fuga (Runaway Point)
Lightness may be what better characterises Sérgio Bianchi's film. It
deals with horrible things, in an implacable way, leaving no leeway
for excuses or retreats. However, this is all approached in an elegant
tone, with an amiable smile, a kind of humour that does not fall into
an easy scorn. This is its powerful weapon which avoids him from decaying
into mere sentimentalism, impassioned drama, or the alibi of indignation
.
Folha de S.Paulo
- 23/06/2000
Mario Sergio Conti
Film relights the debate between Arts and Politics
Based on the nature of the audience it is attracting, on the arguments
it is raising and on the echoes of the reviews, "Chronically Unfeasible"
has already proven its cultural relevance. In some of the movie sessions,
people applaud it openly.
"Sérgio Bianchi has made one of the best films of the decade" says Carlos
Augusto Calil, professor at the Film Department of the University of
São Paulo. "It is a frontal and efficacious attack against an imaginary
Brazil created by Darcy Ribeiro or even by Gilberto Freyre."
"A few days after the film opened, all the world could watch on TV the
police form Bahia beating some Indians during the celebrations of the
500 years of Discovery of Brazil", says the former president of Embrafilme
(a federal agency for the support of the Brazilian Cinema which was
closed during the administration of former President Fernando Collor),
who has already seen the film twice. "That amazing demonstration of
incompetence from the part of the Government seemed to be like a sequence
from "Chronically Unfeasible", where, without any visible reason, an
Indian is beaten by police officers."
Jornal do Brasil - RJ - 17/May/2000
Artur Xexéo
For how long will we be able to go on laughing over our tragedy? Moviemaker
Sérgio Bianchi has the answer. In "Chronically Unfeasible", the grand
surprise of the current cinematographic season, he makes the spectators
laugh at the Brazilian malaises up to the last straw. But you end up
by leaving the theatre with the fear of looking to your sides and recognising
an accomplice - or maybe being recognised by one - who helped you build
this country.
O Estado de S. Paulo - 14/May/2000
Luiz Zanin Oricchio
Chronicles of a Social Predicament
Sérgio Bianchi produces a vigorous portrait of the Brazilian society
in this end of the millennium. "Chronically Unfeasible" is a sort of
mis-gift to Brazil's in its 500 years celebration. It is not only an
uncomfortable but also an accurate X-ray film of our tropical society.
Who are the characters? People from all social classes, who are shown
almost like in a documentary film. Rich people, poor people, middle
class people, miserable people. Nothing and nobody could be exactly
called as constructive in this human fauna.
O Globo - 12/May/2000
Eduardo Souza Lima
The Sleep of the Unjust
Watching "Chronically Unfeasible" is not one of the most comforting
experiences (...)
There are neither good nor bad guys. Bianchi does not leave any steady
stone. He equally criticises oppressors and oppressed, intellectuals,
politicians, Black, Indian, Homeless, and NGOs movements. For him, all
have their share of guilt: and, for a chronic evil, palliatives are
not enough.
Valor (SP) - 3/May/2000
Leon Cakoff
Bianchi Unfolds the Myth of the Identity
Fiction or documentary? The national cordiality little by little falls
apart by means of real images and rough representations. The film reveals
itself like a patchwork quilt, dividing the country in regions, with
conflicts happening in the most different segments of the population.
Bianchi is pessimistic and implacable. In his shattered Land, neither
culture nor people can be distinguished. In the last scenes, characters
depicting the elite - always in a restaurant - dream of New York like
a place of more sensitive and sympathetic people. Meanwhile, a homeless
mother rocks her child to sleep with psalms praising the virtue of being
honest even when facing misery. In this shattered Land not even the
roots are left behind.