December 14, 2016
Page 13
A Refusal to Cave
c ontinued froM p age 4
her existence. Reacting to that
requires the powerful to behave
in ugly ways in order to maintain
the upper hand, so they do.
The film’s debut at the Cannes
Film Festival happened to coin-
cide with the ouster of Brazil’s
duly-elected progressive female
president, by business interests.
The cast and director at Cannes
protested those events as a coup,
apparently reflecting deep divi-
sions in Brazilian society. Braga
and the film’s brilliant writer and
director, Kleber Mendonça Filho,
have spoken and written about
the parallels between Clara and
the Brazilian president, each be-
ing ousted from their homes. The
tactics used by the developers
in the film also feel like a met-
aphor for how economic power
is sometimes exercised. Mean-
while, an opening section of the
film grounds Clara’s attachment
to the apartment in her personal
and family history, a very dif-
ferent lens for making decisions
about one’s home.
The film’s fall release in the
U.S. now feels particularly reso-
nant. The Brazil of this film has
no heroes; Clara and her family
are privileged and have benefited
from their privilege in ways that
they can’t always see. We see the
echoes of those power imbalanc-
es, too, and of the limited means
the poor have for asserting their
interests. There are some partic-
ularly poignant, though under-
stated scenes involving Clara’s
housekeeper, whose young son
was killed by a drunk driver and
who reaches for ways to insist on
recognizing his memory in the
face of unredressed injustice. Yet
the film also contains some wis-
dom regarding how those without
power can be and often are held
to a standard of behavior that the
powerful need only pretend to
uphold.
Filho, Braga, and a uniform-
ly excellent cast have assembled
a canny film that has the power
to stay with you for a long time
-- not so much because of its plot
but because of the time it takes
with the perspective of someone
who simply insists on standing up
for what she actually thinks and
wants, refusing to adjust who she
is and what she wants to where
the wind is clearly blowing. The
film’s resonance is both particular
to this one woman, and to the heat
of the exchanges her resistance
provokes. In the end, though she
is sometimes angry, she is not pri-
marily so. And she is only crazy
in the eyes of those who can insist
on a reality that does not really
include her as herself.
Darleen Ortega is a judge on
the Oregon Court of Appeals and
the first woman of color to serve
in that capacity. Her movie review
column Opinionated Judge ap-
pears regularly in The Portland
Observer. Find her movie blog at
opinionatedjudge.blogspot.com.
It Does Good Things
TM
This page is sponsored by Oregon Lottery
C alendar
December 2016
MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
FRIDAY
12
13
14
15
16
Barbara Emberley
born, 1932
Hovercraft Patented
(1955)
Poinsettia Day
National Cocoa Day
Susan B. Anthony
dollar coined in
1970
First Miniature Golf
Course Opened,
1929
South Pole Discov-
ered, 1911
Bill of Rights Day
Underdog Day
David McCord born,
1897
Beethoven’s Birth-
day (1770)
Boston Tea Party
Anniversary (1773)
19
20
21
22
23
Oatmeal Muffin Day
Dickens’ A Christ-
mas Carol pub-
lished in 1843
26
Boxing Day
Kwanzaa Begins
National Whiners
Day
Games Day
Electric Light
demonstrated in
1879
27
Ingri d’Aulaire born,
1904
Visit the Zoo Day
World Bank created
(1945)
First Day of Winter
Humbug Day
Bright Side Day
National Flashlight
Day
28
Card Playing Day
Iowa became the
29th state (1846)
National Chocolate
Day
R
First Christmas
Lights, 1882
Mercury Thermome-
ter Invented, 1714
29
Texas became the
28th state (1845)
Roots Day
Federal Reserve
System established
(1913)
30
Tiger Woods born,
1975
Author Rudyard
Kipling born, 1865
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
17
18
Wright Brother’s
First Flight (1903)
National Maple
Syrup Day
Wear a Plunger On
Your Head Day
Baseball great Ty
Cobb born, 1886
24
25
Hanukkah Begins
Christmas
Christmas Eve
National Pumpkin
Pie Day
National Egg Nog Day
Apollo 8 reached
moon, 1968
31
New Year’s Eve