Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Way He Looks/Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014) - Ribeiro's tender blind-boy-romance debut is an instant classic

9/01/2017

The Way He Looks/Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014) - Ribeiro's tender blind-boy-romance debut is an instant classic

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Brazilian Movie of the Year
+ Best Debut Movie of the Year
+ Best Romance of the Year

A deliciously photo-drawn poster for Daniel Ribeiro's The Way He Looks

Young Leo is an ordinary teenage boy, who, however, does stand out from his classmates in that he is born blind. He and his best friend Giovana have their lives changed, when a new boy, Gabriel, begins in their class.

Within the first few minutes I fell head over heels for The Way He Looks, which is the feature debut of Brazilian master writer-director Daniel Ribeiro (You, Me and Him/Café com Leite (2007, short)), which is based on his short I Don't Want to Go Back Alone/Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho (2010). Its original, Portuguese title means, 'today I want to go back alone'.
This romantic youth drama is both an aesthetic joy, - Ribeiro and cinematographer Pierre de Kerchove (Joaquim (2017)) demonstrate an exquisite eye for capturing beauty in many shapes and forms, - and a phenomenally sensitive portrayal of first love.
Ghilherme Lobo (Dangerous Liaisons/Ligações Perigosas (2016, miniseries), who is not really blind, is absolutely incredible as protagonist Leo. Fabio Audi (Forever and Ever/Alto Astral (2014, TV-series) and Tess Amorim (Spread Through the Air/Espalhadas Pelo Ar (2007, short)) as Gabriel and Giovana are also priceless, and even the smaller parts of Leo's mother, grandmother, father and his class tormentor (Pedro Carvalho (The Devil Lives Here/O Diabo Mora Aqui (2015)) is Fabio) are acted superbly.
The Way He Looks made me giggle and shed tears, but above all else it made me warm in both stomach and heart as a bonfire on a wintry night. It is a perfect, tender, intelligent gem of a film, completely entrancing and surely among the year's absolute best.

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2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.7 mil. R$ (Brazilian real), or approximately 0.86 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Big flop
[The Way He Looks premiered 10 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. The script was selected and refined at the 2010 Berlinale Script Station. Shooting took place in Ribeiro's native São Paolo from February - March 2013. The film opened #51 to a small 26k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it spread to 14 theaters but never a higher position, grossing 101k $ (8.3 % of the total gross), the second biggest market. The biggest market was the film's native Brazil with 1 mil. $ (83.3 %), and the third biggest was France with 48k $ (4 %). More than 205k paid admission to it in Brazil, which also made the film its Oscar-entry of the year. Regrettably, it wasn't nominated. The film won two awards at the Berlin Film Festival and several other honors around the world. Ribeiro is working on his second feature now, transgender drama Amanda e Caio. The Way He Looks is fresh at 92 % with a 7.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

9/01/2017

The Way He Looks/Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014) - Ribeiro's tender blind-boy-romance debut is an instant classic

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (13-24)

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