Aquarius

Brazilian actress Sonia Braga (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Kiss of the Spider Woman) is Clara, a music critic in her 60s who stands resolute in the face of change as developers come to tear down her opulent apartment building. Told in three chapters, Clara in 1980 is a cancer survivor who has her finger on the pulse of recent music and is the centerpiece of her friendships, notorious for her extensive music library (Leonard Cohen and Al Green LPs are on full display). When she is interviewed in the present day by young journalists interested in her opinion of the digital revolution, her explanation of why she prefers analog LPs is priceless: “It’s like a message in a bottle from the past where John Lennon discussed his plans for a future, within weeks of being shot, through Double Fantasy.” At its core, this is a horror story in a similar vein as Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher where the world deteriorates around Clara, where her kids are disconnected from her sense of life and she remains the sole occupant of the crumbling building that houses her memories.

[NR]