JAZZINEMATOLOGY : Bossa Nova (1999)
It’s the music. It’s the movie. It’s how Jazz colored-up the whole visual experience. It’s our very own recommendation to you. It is JAZZINEMATOLOGY.
Bossa Nova (1999)
Our recommendation this week is a romantic comedy in the blink of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s brazillian jazz who might not received many attention while it was released years ago. Though so, in its premiere at the 2000 Miami Film Festival, this movie got a lot of positive respect from the jury and audiences. Set against the incredible beauty of Rio de Janeiro , Bossa Nova (the right way as it’s written), directed by award winner Bruno Barreto (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands) tells love stories in eccentric multicharacters and overlapping romances. It is a story both inspired and punctuated with the music of the legendary Antonio Carlos (“Tom”) Jobim whose influenced many latin jazz artist over the years.
The Plot
As a bored and lonely American middle-aged widow living in the exotic Rio de Janeiro as an English teacher, Mary Ann Simpson (Amy Irving ; married to Barreto in the real life) never thoughts that she might ended in a relationship with a man from the same office building, a middle-aged attorney, Pedro Paulo (Antonio Fagundes), whose wife has dumped him for a younger man, a Tai-Chi instructor. From the first sight, Pedro slightly forgotten his obsession with his ex-wife and starts taking Mary’s English class. But love doesn’t always spreads that easy as the middle-aged lives with the distractions from people around them, include a macho soccer star who learned English to sign a contract, Pedro’s droopy younger brother, an ambitious intern in Pedro’s law office, and Mary’s young student in her culminate flirtation with his internet lover.
The Movie
Barreto sets this romantic comedy with all centered power of the astounding exotica of Rio de Janeiro ’s scenery, and off course, Tom Jobim’s music running under it all. It has its faithfulness to the moods of love, linguistic mishaps, sit-com clicheness and structured like the 50s rom-com. But after all, beyond the paradise beach and architectural treasures of the city itself, it’s a story about moving on. Like Jobim’s music, you’ll get delightfully intoxicated and float away in it like a swimmer in a calm sea.
The Soundtrack
Although Bossa Nova isn’t described as truly musical movie in the genre, the music took huge parts building the romantic atmosphere of Rio ’s beautiful scenery. The love theme itself was Jobim’s masterpiece, “The Girl From Ipanema”, who brought the original collaborations from legendary jazz artists, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, and Jobim himself in the OST. Beside Jobim’s original recordings, another new tracks featured Eumir Deodato who also composed the music scores, Sting, and many famous latin jazz frontliners e.c Barbara Mendes, Claudia Acuna, and Djavan. Strongly felt as a tribute album to Jobim, it flows as smooth and delightful as it can be.
Written by: Daniel Irawan
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