Essay About Babencos Film And Bad Luck

Carandiru – Movie Overview
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Carandiru
The adaptation of Carandiru Station, a best-seller by Drauzio Varella, Carandiru proposes diving into
the heart of Sгo Paulos prison, the largest in Latin America with approximately 7,000 prisoners with
a capacity for 4,500. Guided by a humanist doctor (the author) who has an affection for the
prisoners, the audience shares in the daily life of the condemned before the massacre perpetrated on
October 2, 1992 by the police force following a riot.
The film opens with a settling of scores by Ebony, a prisoner in charge of the kitchens. While the
director quickly arrives on the spot, Ebony doesnt let go of the reins of the situation. Hes
understood: in Carandiru, the voices of management and prisoners rise in a choir and vibrate in
diapason, in order to maintain a balance and precarious order, essential for the place to function well.
The armed sentinels carrying out their rounds along the ramparts, always discrete, only represent
only the last resort in case of outbursts.
Whats immediately striking about Babencos film is the details used to account for the tacit rules laid
down in this place of imprisonment. Killers, robbers and rapists seem to cohabit by enacting their own
rules, often transpositions of the law of the street, with its codes, duties, rights and punishments.
Between the walls of the various wards, one witnesses the everyday life of a city totally apart, with its
neighborhoods, trades, residences. No cell is closed: the impression is visiting studios of disconcerting
filth in bad neighborhoods. Each one comes and goes as he pleases, adapting and decorates his cell
to fit his taste. One watches TV, another cooks, while one hangs his laundry on the bars. Difficult to
be convinced that its about a prison. The colors and lighting serve this hyper-realist atmosphere.
Inspired by the lighting of the prison, Walter Carvalho, director of photography, mixes the colors,
making hot and cold lights cohabit. The result: a chromatic chaos contrary to the dark and dull
images one usually has of this type of place. However, bad luck and filth live on the walls.
The characters drag bad luck like a ball and chain. Its unfortunate that Babenco didnt know to draw
up their portraits intelligibly. He doesnt manage avoiding the tedious enumeration of their personal
stories. During the procession of the prisoners in the infirmary where the doctor quickly gains their
confidence, the audience is entitled to flashbacks on each one. As necessary as these biographies are
in order to be attached to the protagonists, Babenco toils to connect everything.
On the other hand he manages to awake the audiences