About
intimate sins
USA, 2006
Original title: Little Children
Directed by: Todd Field
Produced by: Todd Field, Albert Berger and Rom Yerxa
Screenplay: Todd Field and Tom Perrota (adapted from Perrota's book of the same name)
Cast: Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Noah Emmerich, Gregg Edelman, Phyllis Somerville
Music: Thomas Newman
Length: 137 min
A Melodramatic Satire of Freedom in the Modern World
By Ricardo P Nunes
Somewhat ungraceful and well into her thirties, Sarah (Kate Winslet) would embody the typical Balzacian model if she still had a lack of alternatives against that unfortunate decorum. Sarah, however, goes through the routine of this mold in such a distracted way that she doesn't even notice when she starts to break out of it. Fleeting companions on Sunday walks with the children challenge her to interview the coveted and shy handsome guy who occasionally shows up at the neighborhood playground with her young son. Sarah, with that respectable name of biblical matron, submits to the joke with indifference, without even suspecting that it was a bluff, more for the money from the false bet or to piss off her opponents, but above all because she trusts in the inability to of his own apathy where his impudence could pass as clumsy with strangers. A well-tailored casualness, by the way, is what gives robustness and lightness to the script of Pecados Íntimos (EUA, 2006).
Neither the theme nor its approach are new, the psychological drama of contemporary city life, but the delicacy with which the script weaves together the threads of the plot that illustrate them , makeintimate sins(from director Todd Field) a precious example of the genre. He appeals to the background narration, it is true, but his characters do not stop acting for themselves. The ubiquitous small-town atmosphere, in which everyone seems intimately intertwined, reinforces the tension of their dissonances. There's a sex maniac on the loose, a bully ex-policeman from the rugby team, blindly protective parents of grown-up children, guardianship of the generation that didn't "grow up" (perhaps it's not for nothing that the book on which the screenplay was based is calledLittle Children,by Tom Perrotta), the emancipated but absent wife, a husband addicted to pornography and the latent depression under the weak maintenance of appearances. Uniting the threads of this stormy ciranda, the furtive but fervent love of the pair of lovers, who feel they can allege the guilt of their indecency against the hypocritical unhappiness of that milieu. 136bad5cf58d_
In the budding world of those aspiring to a career in theater or cinema, the sentence that a great actor is not one who can cry, but one who can hold back the tears. In the role of the apathetic Sarah, which borders on the sly or the cynicism, Kate Winslet's talent demonstrates that the strength of expression also results from restraint and coldness. The parallel routine that frames the feature includes small allusions to the Freudian doctrine of libido, repressed drives and the weakness that betrays the display of virility; and in the ladies' book club that Sarah joins the book being debated isMadame Bovary. But the main point of his argument lies in the concrete, and even violent, facts that are articulated in the plot. Not that he manages to be completely impartial, but he prefers to suggest rather than make judgments, and he doesn't impose or usurp the viewer's opinion.
In the fledgling world of those aspiring to a career in theater or cinema, the sentence that a great actor is not one who can cry, but one who can hold back the tears. In the role of the apathetic Sarah, which borders on the sly or the cynicism, Kate Winslet's talent demonstrates that the strength of expression also results from restraint and coldness. The parallel routine that frames the feature includes small allusions to Freud's doctrine of libido, repressed drives and the weakness that betrays the display of virility; and in the ladies' book club Sarah joins the book in debate is Madame Bovary. But the main point of his argument lies in the concrete, and even violent, facts that are articulated in the plot. Not that he manages to be totally impartial, but he prefers to suggest rather than make judgments, and he doesn't impose or usurp the viewer's opinion.
Pecados Íntimos takes us back to Eros and Civilization, to the anguish of Julie de Balzac, to the sexual theories of Wilhelm Reich, to the dichotomy between feminism and motherhood or to the opposition of that we exercise free will, but avoids these schematic pretensions in the name of a compromise with a subtlety in the argumentation. Thus, it becomes easier to forgive when the weakened villain humanizes himself, the supposed hero equals him by sympathizing with his trajectory so that the plot harmonizes before the end. It portrays something unhealthy with crudeness, but seeks to comfort us with a certain palliative dose against human falls and stumbles, such as the possibility of forgiving and being forgiven, and, above all, with expiation in the face of the downfall of the sins, flaws and quirks of others.
Sarah (Winslet) and Brad (Patrick Wilson): the casualties of free will
Nem o tema nem sua abordagem são novos, o drama psicológico da vida citadina contemporânea, mas a delicadeza e a parcimônia com que o roteiro vai amealhando os fios da trama que os ilustram, tornam o filme do diretor Todd Field um precioso exemplar do gênero. Apela para o expediente da narração de fundo, é verdade, mas nem por isso seus personagens deixam de agir por si mesmos.
A ubíqua atmosfera de cidade pequena, em que todos parecem intimamente entrelaçados, reforça a tensão de suas dissonâncias. Há um maníaco sexual à solta, um ex-policial valentão do time de rugby, pais cegamente protetores de filhos marmanjos, a tutela da geração que não “cresceu” (talvez não à toa o livro em que se baseou o roteiro se chame Little Children, de Tom Perrotta), a mulher emancipada mas ausente, um marido viciado em pornografia e, sobretudo, a depressão latente sob a débil manutenção das aparências. Unindo os fios dessa tormentosa ciranda, o furtivo mas fervoroso amor do casal de amantes, que sente poder alegar a culpa de sua indecência contra a hipócrita infelicidade desse meio.
Perrotta and Field working on script
Todd Field intended to make a film based on the novelrevolutionary road, by Richard Yates, but it didn't go ahead. Then he looked for something similar to Yates' book: frustration with a life that doesn't live up to the dreams of youth. When reading Tom Perrotta's novel, in 2003, the director came across something more than what he was looking for, becauserevolutionary roadit was emotionally devastating, whileLittle Childrenit combined satire and melodrama.
No mundo iniciante dos pretendentes à carreira do teatro ou do cinema deve ser clássica a sentença de que um grande ator não é o que consegue chorar, mas o que consegue segurar o choro. No papel da apática Sarah, que beira o sonso ou o cinismo, o talento de Kate Winslet demonstra que a força de expressão também resulta da contenção e da frieza. Na rotina morna que emoldura o longa insinuam-se pequenas alusões à doutrina freudiana da libido, às pulsões reprimidas e à fraqueza que trai a ostentação de virilidade; e no clube de leitura de senhorinhas ao qual Sarah se junta por aqueles dias, o livro em debate é justamente Madame Bovary. Mas a linha condutora primordial do filme está nos fatos concretos, e às vezes violentos, que se articulam na trama. Não que imagens estejam imunes a parcialidades tendenciosas, mas seu argumento prefere sugerir a fazer julgamentos, e tampouco impõe ou usurpa a opinião do expectador.
Flaubert, diante do tribunal sensor: "Bovary c'est moi!"
Pecados Íntimos nos remete à teoria de Herbert Marcuse em Eros e Civilização, às angústias da Julie de Balzac, às teorias venéreas de Wilhelm Reich, à dicotomia entre feminismo e maternidade ou à impugnação de que exercemos o livre arbítrio, mas foge dessas pretensões esquemáticas em nome do compromisso com a sutileza na argumentação. Assim, fica mais fácil de perdoar quando o vilão fragilizado se humaniza e o suposto herói se iguala a ele ao se compadecer de sua trajetória para que a trama se harmonize antes do fim. Retrata algo doentio com crueza, mas procura nos reconfortar com uma certa dose paliativa contra os tombos e tropeços humanos, como a possibilidade de perdoar e sermos perdoados, e, sobretudo, com a expiação dos pecados, taras e manias alheias.
Jordan Peterson's Controversial Sociopsychology: "marriage is not meant to bring happiness to the couple, but security and stability to the offspring". Something that today's society has forgotten.
