Eduardo Coutinho (1933 - 2014) is a very famous name in Brazil. He is considered the best in the documentary genre in the country. Therefore, I was really eager to watch something he made.
The funny thing is that when we hear such things we expect something complex. But his greateness, at least with Jogo de Cena (2007), relies in the simplicity... I'm not gonna talk about Cinematography, Soundtrack... What matters in the movie are the stories and the acting.
"The production company published a small newspaper ad asking women over 18 in Rio de Janeiro to tell their life stories for a documentary. "
Some women were selected and told their life stories to the director and his crew. Then Jordana Berg edited the best parts, comic, dramatic and tragic ones, a fantastic work.
It's mind blowing to realize ordinary women have very interesting stories. The stories are very funny or very touching. Knowing they are real makes them much more special and meaningful. It's a fantastic experience to enter a life like that, to know the best and the worst about somebody's life. Watching it in some point I thought: "wow! When I'm walking on the streets I'm around women who are single mothers, who lost someone special, maybe the week before we cross each others way and I'll never know it... And they will never know what I've been through either..."
But Coutinhos' geniality pushes this documentary to a even higher standard.
He invited actresses to perform the stories. So there are the real women talking and actresses performing. Some are very well known in Brazil, so I knew they were acting, but some I didn't know, so I couldn't separate the actresses from the real women.
That's why the title is "Jogo de Cena". It's a theater game.
So this documentary is about challenging actresses, bringing to light ordinary women, real stories, real problems and showing how we know nothing about almost no one and that we are not alone when we feel joy or pain, everybody does. A must-see that will probably have more impact in women but that will be very interesting and important for men too.
