Posted by giveawayboy on March 09, 2003 at 11:06:44:
In Reply to: CENTRAL STATION posted by giveawayboy on March 09, 2003 at 10:46:14:
Steve I don't know if you've watched PIXOTE yet or not. If not, I own it and you can borrow it. It just hit me that there are alot of movies I've seen that are alike, but two from Brasil are just strikingly similar. CENTRAL STATION is about a boy who has lost his mother and is searching for his father. PIXOTE is about one of the street kids in Brasil. Each is about a boy without parents, for whatever reason, or perhaps just disconnected from his parents. One shows the boy's search for family, beginning w Dora and ending up w his brothers and the eventual hope that his father will return one day. The second details Pixote's descent into the dark life of a Brasilian street kid and ultimately leaves you feeling him headed for a life of crime. We don't know how Pixote's life ends. We have a good idea though. And it's not good. Still I was amazed at the way both movies portrayed these children without families. In each movie there are scenes of the boys looking at statues of Mary and Jesus with no words, just a scene of the promise of a place to belong. Also in each movie, near the end there are scenes of an older in woman in bed with a younger boy. In one scene it was Dora w Josué sleeping in a hotel overnight. There is a profound innocence in this scene where they briefly discuss the strange feeling of each being in bed togethr. Pixote, on the other hand, is in bed with a prostitute who doesn't know how to relate lovingly to him. It is tragic to see where some of those kids end up. Finally, there are differnt destinies implied. Josué learns how to make a top. His brothers are carpenter. Josué, fittingly might be able to be a carpenter or fulfill his dream to be a trucker. Pixote on the other hand learns how to handle a gun. He learns to steal. He learns those things. The sad thing is that there are children all over the world in just the same situation as these two children, Josué and Pixote. It is the people who helped them or who did not help them that made all the difference. I guess more than anything those movies just made me aware of that. Brasil is good for that. They wear their homeless children on their sleeve.