Ivani's review of AGY in Brazil:

Last Saturday (October 21st) I could attend AGY at 30th São Paulo International Film Festival that has begun on October 20th and will finish on November 2nd, click HERE to visit the official site of the Festival.

This is the most important festival in Brazil, with around 400 movies and documentaries from around the world being screened, most of them with social or political contents, but also the big hits which are still to be released are present as Babel, Volver, The Departed, The Fountain, The Illusionist.

AGY is scheduled with 4 screenings, with a total of 927 seats offered: October 21, 04:10hs pm (Saturday) – Sala UOL de Cinema (271 seats); . October 26, 05:30hs pm (Thursday) – Espaço Unibanco de Cinema 2 (263 seats); . October 28, 05:20hs pm (Saturday) – Reserva Cultural 2 (160 seats); . November 1, 09:00hs pm (Wednesday)– Cinemark Santa Cruz 9 (233 seats);

Being a Saturday and knowing from the news I watched on TV last year that movie lovers are used to attend this festival in a very massive way and despite the movie begins at 4 pm (it would be the second movie to be screened at the theater, the first at 2:00 pm was a movie from Italy, I decided to be at the box office at its opening, 1:00 pm, to make sure I would get tickets for me and 2 other friends.

This theater is located in a neighborhood where people has a good standard of life, economic and culturally speaking, and are frequent users of this theater. It’s an audience that like movies very well done, they don’t spend time and money to watch popcorn movies with gratuitous violence, shot guns, car crashes and silly plots. A perfect audience that had young and older people. The movie was certificated here in Brazil to be watched for people over 10 years old.

I was the first in the line and soon more people arrived, when the box office opened, most of us in the line were there to buy tickets for AGY. This put my first smile in the face, because I feel that moment AGY was selling more tickets than the Italian movie. I picked my tickets, entered the theater hall and took a seat to observe the entrance of the audience and read the papers. The audience for the Italian movie was not that good, around 40% of its capacity I suppose, and people outside went on arriving and buying tickets for the next screenings, including AGY´s. There were people who would pass the afternoon and the night there watching the movies scheduled for that theater

Around 2:30 pm my friends arrived so we could chat a little. Only 2 of us had already read the book, a story we loved, so we had already a sort of expectation about it. Finally the time for AGY came and we could enter the theater, as usual entering first (we were the first in the line) to take the best seats, in the middle of the last row, I checked my chocolate bar at my purse to eat in the middle of the movie, and after 10 minutes waiting for everybody being seated, the second smile came to my face: the theater was totally sold out for AGY. Talking in numbers, from the total of 927 seats offered for the 4 screenings, 29% were already sold.

No trailers, straight to the movie.Time to follow Max’s life when he was a child enjoying a good time in Provence with his uncle Henry who tries to pass Max his wisdom acquired during life, sometimes with success, sometimes not. We could see some patterns in Max’s childhood that followed him and had increased in his adult time, patterns that unfortunately Henry could not get to change. Max is a very successful stocker in London market, he knows how to make money easy and fast with no ethic and has no shame of it, for despair of those who are trying to make money in a more legal way. Max Skinner is not a vinedresser/vintager/vintner. Max Skinner is a broker, a money maker, a womanizer, a wanker.

After receiving news his uncle had passed way, he goes to Provence to see if he could profit a little more of his unexpected inheritance, cause his life is London and the job. Time is passing, things don’t work out the way he planned plus problems in the office , he notices that in Provence he isn’t the same smart guy he is in London, memories come and go, inner conflicts begin to appear, make him put his mind wondering how/when/why his life have such shake-up, totally opposite to his uncle’s teachings. His life doesn´t suit that place. Suddenly being back to where his memories have more power than his will of making easy money and at the same time falling in love for a girl that lives nearby have opened another different horizon until now not visualized by him.

This is a romantic comedy, shot in a very European style, where you smile and laugh in several situations, some of them around the rivalry existing between English and French, the audience at the theater knew to get and enjoyed them.

Russell as always did another great job, a Max very safe of himself - there is no woman in the movie that could escape at his perception. Marion was adorable as Fanny. Some critics have asked: what a beautiful girl like Fanny saw in a guy like Max in a so bad fashion in Provence? Sure Max’s best looks is when he is London. The answer to this question is in their past. The romantic scenes …. sighs. I think Abbie Cornish´s character could have more developed/explored, by the way it´s impressive Abbie´s resemblance with Nicole Kidma in some scenes. Tom Hollander was perfect – his character showed to be more greedy than Max himself, and the big and grateful surprise is Archie Panjabi as Gemma.

Some funny scenes to not lose …. Max and his “understanding” with that Smart car; the tennis match between Max and Duflot, Max being tempted by a woman at the sound of “The Wedding Samba” by Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra, and with Tati – the dog.

Talking about music, the soundtrack was also much appropriated, although I don’t know all the songs chosen, just only one that appears at end of the movie in the final credits, what I think its use is funny too, but I cannot tell which is. There are more surprises in the movie, especially for those who have already read the book, as me, but I can not tell. In general, I like it very much, and hope you guys too.

Some critics are calling this movie as a sort of Under the Tuscan Sun with Boys. I can’t agree. While the main character in Under The Tuscan Sun runs away from her sad memories in the big city traveling to Italy to put her demons in the past, the main character in AGY only looks for money when traveling to Provence, only changing his way of thinking, little by little, cause his uncle Henry, besides of being death, is still alive and teaching him that life and peace of spirit matter more than money. The only similarity between these movies are the change of the scenery, from a big, turbulent and noisy city to places in Europe that still maintain nowadays the same romantic way of living very well photographed in the movie.

Others criticize Russell and Ridley because they expected a movie in a way of a Gladiator, a Blade Runner, an Alien, a Master & Commander, A Beautiful Mind. Lucky of those who could do big and small budget movies, sometimes “less” means “more”. A movie has the goal of bringing entertainment to the audience.

Film finished, I felt the audience enjoyed the movie. At the exit of the theater all of us needed to give back a piece of paper distributed before the screening, with our personal info (for the organization sending us the newspaper of the festival via e-mail) and also rating the movie from 1 to 5. My note was 4. As I live far away, at the other side of the city, and it was already late and a little cold, we said bye bye and went home. The chocolate bar? I ate it on my way home because I was too much entertained during the movie.

Ivani