The City of Abysses

Questions about film language.

In this short, Willer’s poetic images and his voice dress the streets, the skies, the avenues. Here is Willer, the great poet and living legend of the sixties generation, in front of the camera, letting us into his universe, which Priscyla Bettim & Renato Coelho approach as a poetic encounter, in which experimental cinema becomes a powerful catalyst for his poetry. From an erotic and personal approach, the filmmakers give substance to what Willer states...or perhaps it’s the reverse: it is the images that coexist freely with the sound field of words and music.

Nélson Fun, a solitary, unemployed writer, wanders through a city marked by emptiness and a lack of purpose. Amidst the nihilism of a generation devoid of grand ambitions, he seeks out mundane experiences and immediate pleasures as a way to fill—however fleetingly—his existential void.

Verónica Valenttino emerges from the darkness of São Paulo’s night as a transgressive and sensual subversion. In this short film, the face of the São Paulo based singer-songwriter and trans actress, is accompanied by the melodies of a melancholic piano with deep intensities (composed by Arrigo Barnabé) and, in the bottom of the frame, some flashes of light from the city. In a high-contrast chiaroscuro, the main focus is on the face, the gesture; we see Veronica smoking while taking a break on a tremendously black night. A city break, an intimate moment, a languid rhythm that leads us to contemplate it as a calm beast, as tenaciously nocturnal. In just over two minutes we find a profile, the footprint of a city, a decision and a look. In this film, Priscyla Bettim & Renato Coelho share a unique way of portraying, in the manner of Andy Warhol's screen tests, to capture another modality of glamour and subversion, with the final gesture of Verónica imperious, diva, full of vital force.

A subversive take on the urban symphonies of the past, with anti echoes to São Paulo, Symphony of a Metropolis (1929) by Adalberto Kemeny and Rudolpho Rex Lustig was inspired by Walter Ruttmann’s classic Berlin, Symphony of a City (1927). This short film by Bettim & Coelho pays tribute to Piva in relation to the Brazilian city. A tribute to a poet who is missed, but also a visual and sonic epitome of explosions, nightlife and rock, which is also invoked through the self-portrait, the frantic exploration of the city and its lights.