Keswick Film Club - Reviews - Aquarius

You are viewing the old version of our website.

Please visit our current website for all the latest information.

Reviews - Aquarius

Aquarius

Reviewed By Ian Payne

Aquarius
Aquarius
Clara is a 65 year old widow living in a low-rise, 1930's style apartment block, The Aquarius, opposite the beach in Recife, Brazil. It is a lovely spacious, airy apartment, filled with LPs and books from her time as a music journalist and writer. She lives alone, not just in her apartment but in the whole block, a construction company having bought up the other apartments as they became available.

Enter Diego, the son of the construction company boss, fresh out of business school in the USA, who is given the job of turning the site of The Aquarius into a modern high-rise. He needs Clara out and her negative response is both simple and dignified.

As Diego goes about his business by fair means and foul, we follow Clara as she gets on with her life and we see just why The Aquarius is so important to her. It is the centre of her world, it is where she brought up her children. It seems like the perfect retirement – she is wealthy and can afford to employ Ladjane as a cook and companion; her extended family is close; she has an extensive network of friends and then there is the Brazilian climate and the beach opposite for her daily dip and calisthenics.

Yet Diego's actions start to chip away at that quality of life and Clara needs to stand firm, not only against the Company but also her family who see Diego's financial inducement as a windfall that should not be ignored. In the end it is Clara's social network that comes to her aid rather than her close family.

Sonia Braga, who plays Clara is on screen for the majority of the film's two hours and, twenty minutes. She is mesmerising with a quiet beauty and dignity yet when Diego's friends try to drive her out with a loud and frankly obscene party in the vacant flat above her, her response is to pour a large glass of red wine and put a Queen LP on the turntable at full volume and sing along.

It was a film that divided the audience – one comment on the feedback slip was "One of the best if not the best film I have seen in ages. Very powerful" yet another was "Boring – walked out".
Certain Women that was shown at the Club a couple of weeks ago had the same divisive reaction. I loved Aquarius and was totally unmoved by Certain Women and in trying to analyse why, it came down to being able to relate to the lead characters. Clara is portrayed as an old lady, yet she is 'only' 65, she is fit and active and faces life head on – as Pete Townshend put it, its talking about my generation.

Back To Film Page

Find A Film

Search over 1375 films in the Keswick Film Club archive.


Film Festival

Festival Logo

27 Feb - 1 Mar 2020


Friends

KFC is friends with Caldbeck Area Film Society and Brampton Film Club and members share benefits across all organisations


Awards

Keswick Film Club won the Best New Film Society at the British Federation Of Film Societies awards in 2000.

Since then, the club has won Film Society Of The Year and awards for Best Programme four times and Best Website twice.

We have also received numerous Distinctions and Commendations in categories including marketing, programming and website.

Talking Pictures Talking Pictures The KFC Newsletter
Links Explore the internet with Keswick Film Club
Find Us On Facebook