I’m Still Here
Walter Salles’ triple-Oscar-nominated film delves into the dark days of Brazil in the early 1970s.
Fernanda Torres
Image courtesy of Altitude Film Distributors.
For many, the Brazilian director Walter Salles is best remembered for his 1998 feature, the highly acclaimed Central Station, although he would go on to have later success with his film about Che Guevara, 2004’s The Motorcycle Diaries. In 2012 his screen version of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road was widely released too, but it has taken him twelve years before offering us another feature, I'm Still Here. Acclaimed at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and elsewhere, it has now been nominated for Oscar consideration and that will doubtless be most pleasing to Salles not just because it reaffirms his standing as a major filmmaker but because this piece has a personal resonance for him. Salles became acquainted with the Paiva family as a youth and I'm Still Here is centred on their tragic history being the story of how in 1970 Rubens Paiva, an engineer and former politician, became the victim of Brazil's military dictatorship on being taken away from his family home and then becoming one of the missing. For years his virtually certain fate could not be established beyond all doubt, but in 1996 a death certificate was issued and it is now officially recognised that he was murdered on 21st January 1971. If I'm Still Here stands as a tribute to Rubens Paiva, it is no less a film in honour of his widow, Eunice, who would live on until 2018. The film also takes account of the impact of these events on their five children including a son named Marcelo whose autobiographical book of 2015 became the basis for this film.
Over the years many films have been made about victims of Latin American military dictatorships but the approach adopted here by Salles is one which unexpectedly illustrates the extent to which concentrating quietly on the impact experienced by one family can become a powerful expression of the wider tragedy. This was brought home to me by the way in which the first half hour or so of the film draws one in by concentrating on the home life of the Paivas and their five children. They are an engaging family and the viewer identifies with them. Our concern is all the greater because the news that they are seeing on their television set makes us aware of how political pressures are building up. Furthermore, we witness one of the daughters being subjected to official questioning when she happens to be out with friends whose car has been stopped at a local road block. Yet all of this seems part of the background to their lives rather than a direct threat even though Rubens takes telephone calls which suggest that he is secretly involved in actions helping those hostile to the junta. The threat to the Paivas only becomes explicit when armed men arrive at their home and Rubens is taken away to make a statement and fails to return. Within a short time, Eunice and one of the daughters, Eliana, is subjected to removal for questioning too.
All of this is political but viewed from a personal perspective and it is all the more telling because Salles as director makes it all seem so authentic in the way he presents it. He is, of course, helped by the casting and Fernanda Torres playing Eunice could not be more persuasive – this is acting of a quality that calls out for award recognition. But everyone in the large cast does well and Selton Mello is an excellent choice to play Rubens. One admires too the photography of Adrian Teijido and the film’s period flavour is adroit right down to the records favoured by the daughters and the film posters on their walls. But, for all the quality displayed, I find myself unable to align with those who regard I'm Still Here as an out-and-out masterpiece.
Two factors just come into play here. One is the fact that what impresses most, the material that gains in political force by being presented from the viewpoint of one family, is that part of the story that I have already outlined. The subsequent events occurring during the 1970s find Eunice able to come back home, becoming increasingly aware that Rubens is unlikely to return but playing down her fears of that in order to keep her children hopeful rather than despairing. This part of the film leading up to a move from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo is effective enough but never quite as powerful as what has preceded it. However, what robs I'm Still Here of some of its power is the decision to carry on the story with sequences set first in 1996 and then in 2014. There is no warning that this is going to happen and, since the film has been running for about an hour and three quarters before it moves on to 1996, one might well expect that it would limit the main storytelling to the 1970s. It could cover any significant later events through a number of written statements to complete the picture or, if that was felt to be inadequate, just a short-enacted coda. In the event the scenes set in 1996 last on screen for a quarter of an hour only to be followed by a few minutes that show Eunice as a victim of Alzheimer's in the company of her adult children. This does mean that we get to see the star of Central Station, the splendid Fernanda Montenegro, taking over the role of Eunice which is particularly apt since she is in real life the mother of Fernanda Torres. It is only a cameo appearance yet it does include a touching moment beautifully realised by Montenegro. But, while it would have been a pity to lose that, one is still left with the sense that the final half-hour of this film is an indulgent extension of a work that should have been wrapped up far more quickly. I strongly believe that the length of the piece is a misjudgment but what is good in it is so very, very good that I would nevertheless recommend I'm Still Here as a film to be seen. And, regardless of any surrounding faults, the performance of Fernanda Torres cries out to be witnessed.
Original title: Ainda Estou Aqui.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Valentina Herszage, Maria Manoella, Bárbara Luz, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, Luiza Kosovski, Marjorie Estiano, Guilherme Silveira, Antonio Saboia, Cora Mora, Olívia Torres, Pri Helena, and with Fernanda Montenegro.
Dir Walter Salles, Pro Maria Carlota Bruno, Rodrigo Teixeira and Martine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Screenplay Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, from the book by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, Ph Adrian Teijido, Pro Des Carlos Conti, Ed Affonso Gonçalves, Music Warren Ellis, Costumes Cláudia Kopke.
VideoFilmes/RT Features,/MACT Productions/Arte France Cinéma/Conspiração Filmes/Globoplay/Canal+/ Ciné+OCS-Altitude Film Distributors.
138 mins. Brazil/France. 2024. US Rel: 20 November 2024. UK Rel: 21 February 2025. Cert. 15.
