Jolting. I thought I would just watch the first five or 10 minutes and finish the rest the next day. I quickly forgot about that as I was gripped by the series of true events that could so possibly happen in America.
But jolting was also the decision on March 2, 2025, at the 97th annual Academy Awards. Deservedly, “I’m Still Here” won for Best International Film. But in a turn of stunning error, its powerful lead, Fernanda Torres, who portrayed an array of multiple emotions, sometimes several at once, was passed over for Best Actress. Incomprehensibly, the indie sex worker film, “Anora,” won Best Picture, in a field of nine stronger films, and its young lead, the weakest in a field of five, won Best Actress.
Moving on …
“I’m Still Here” starts out in Rio de Janeiro in 1971 with a happy family in a large house at the end of a street that ends at a fabulously expansive, busy beach. The mom is getting her exercise through a swim work-out in the Atlantic Ocean and the kids are playing beach volleyball with a bunch of friends. A cute stray puppy is in the way of the game, so he’s given to Marcelo (Guilherme Silveira) to keep clear of the big white ball.
Marcelo, who later becomes a paraplegic, takes the dog home. He is the author of the biographical book upon which this timely historical film is based.
Every scene, even the most mundane, is somehow captivating. Maybe it’s the music, maybe the cinematography, maybe the acting, or maybe it is the way the story is told. “I’m Still Here” tells what happened to Marcelo’s dad, former Brazilian congressman Rubens Paiva, his family, and his country, Brazil.
In the ’70s, Brazil was under an increasingly paranoid dictatorship. The day Marcelo adopted the stray dog marked a turning for his country and his family. An ambassador had been kidnapped, roadblocks set up, and his sister, Veroca, was in a car detained by rough police who had lost all sense of respect for the Brazilian citizens who paid their wages. Late at night, his mom was at home worried because Veroca (Valentina Herszage) hadn’t yet returned, and she didn’t know why.
The events that take place, in seemingly quick order, extract a great toll on Marcelo’s mother, Eunice Paiva. Brazilian Fernanda Torres plays Eunice with an exacting determination, simmering fear, and an abiding love for her family. She is the courageous power of the Paiva family and she should have been awarded Best Actress for this year’s Oscar.
The screen-writing team brilliantly uses Marcelo Paiva’s book to tell an Orwellian-like true tale of abuse of power. Eunice Paiva goes from an idyllically happy housewife to a frustrated and terrorized mother in prison. Adding to her horror is the knowledge that her husband and daughter are also somewhere in the depths of this dark, screaming, dungeon of torture.
Deservedly, “I’m Still Here” was nominated for three Oscars: Best International Feature, Best Actress, and Best Picture. Interestingly, the woman playing Eunice Paiva’s mother is Fernanda Torres’s own mother, Fernanda Montenegro. Still more interesting is the fact that 27 years ago, Montenegro, like her daughter, was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Montenegro’s nomination was for her role in the 1998 Brazilian hit, “Central Station,” which was also nominated for Best Foreign Film. Though neither Montenegro nor the film won at the Oscars, Montenegro won plenty of European Best Actress awards and the film won the Golden Bear, the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.
This year Fernanda Torres went into the Oscars as the winner of BAFTA’s award for Best Actress and Oscar’s nomination for the same. Though her performance was the strongest of the nominees, the very weakest act prevailed. That truth said, Fernanda is a powerhouse actress who brought history alive in “I’m Still Here,” a film about the past that resonates with the present.
10/10
Credits
Director: Walter Salles
Screenplay writers: Murio Hauser and Heitor Lorega / Based on the book, “I’m Still Here” by Marcelo Rubens Paiva
Producers: Maria Carlota Bruno and Rodrigo Teixeira
Cast: Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Valentina Herszage, Guilherme Silveira, and Fernanda Montenegro
Cinematography: Adrian Teijido
Editor: Afonso Goncalves
Music: Warren Ellis
Released: Sept. 1, 2024 (world premiere), Feb. 17, 2025 (US release)
Official Website and how to view: https://www.sonyclassics.com/film/imstillhere/
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