Sal de Prata (2005) Reviews

• Digital video against film

  iradao2012-12-26

  Veronese (Marcos Breda) is a cinema director that has only made short movies, but is somehow respected among his colleagues. In the initial scene there is a discussion in a movie competition, if they should accept digital movies or only 35mm films. Veronese argues that nowadays they should encourage new people to make movies, and accept video movies. In other hand, one director says that a movie to be a movie there must be film, there must be silver salt (Sal de Prata). This discussion will be well developed throughout the movie. Veronese has a heart attack, in a poor acting, during the discussion. His notebook has some parts of a long movie script. Several of his fellow directors want to appropriate of these scripts, because Veronese is somehow a respected writer, although he is not famous or recognized. With good performances of both Maria Fernanda Cândido and Camila Pitanga, the plot develops very well, because Veronese played not so well by the experienced Marcos Breda, tells her before his death, that he had a daughter aged 18. Maybe there is some exaggeration with the love betrayal because at some point it seems that everyone had sex with everyone, but as the story goes you notice that is not quite true. When his daughter, played by unknown actress Julia Barth, appears, the film turns more interesting. She works as a video editing in a countryside city of Rio Grande do Sul (south region Brazil). I will not spoil the movie but I liked a lot the last fifteen minutes. In the end, the credits says that the script was part of the Sundance Festival laboratory. Maybe that's why this movie is so intriguing. Surprisingly very good. This movie didn't achieve much box office or awards, but, in my humble opinion, deserves 9 out of 10.