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Florianopolis Dream

Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:30 PM
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
A beach holiday turns into a wry romantic roundelay as an Argentinian couple and their kids are taken under the wing of a randy and vivacious Brazilian man who offers them his family’s home to rent. As the two different broods come to know one another, partaking of local karaoke, bodysurfing, and seaside walks, a variety of dalliances and separations arise. Deftly juggling characters of different ages, generations, and amorous expectations, Florianópolis Dream perfectly captures those vacations where the days are breathtakingly full of possibility. At Karlovy Vary, the film won the FIPRESCI Prize, a Special Jury Prize, and the Best Actress Award for the radiant Mercedes Morán. “Katz continues to blur the limits between the universe of what’s usual and expected—themes, situations, characters on the brink of some sort of crisis—and a narrative form that gently twists the clichés of what the audience might find familiar. . . . Florianópolis Dream is at its best when it describes the (sometimes hilarious) interaction of the four members of the family, showing the filmmaker’s very acute ear for writing casual, quotidian dialogue even as she effectively conveys a sense of melancholy behind the humorous fortunes and misfortunes of her characters.”—Diego Broderson, Cinema Scope