Mooi opZuid

This Brazilian movie, winner in Berlin, tells the story of the BOPE elite police force within the regular police. Setting is the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In the first part of the movie, the daily reality is shown with the criminals running the favelas, paying off the regular police to be left alone. It gets almost ridiculous with all the different police squadrons trying to defend their own piece of the action; to be corrupt here turns out to be a real challenge. The BOPE force is a sort of paramilitary group that operates by its own laws; torture and silent killings are the preferred methods to achieve the objectives. The second part gets more personnel and everything turns more grim. You could get the impression that this dance between drug gangs and police has some sort of equilibrium, but this last half of the movie shows how all people involved are trapped in this life and that there is no escaping from it. This movie, although in perspective diametrical opposite from that of ‘Cidade de Deus’, tells the same story, in this respect. But this is much more realistic, thanks to it’s in-your-face camera work and it’s not so polished as ‘American Gangster’. This one hits home hard.

Another jazz-legend came to a packed Lantaren-Venster Friday night. Pharoah Sanders’ physique was certainly impressive, with the white hair and beard, his performance was also good, but this was not a very inspired concert. A few grievances: first of all, what was the idea of this Chaouki Smahi character? Admitted a good lute player, but all he did was improvise some in- and outro’s, some exchanges between him and Nat Reeves didn’t work at all and for the rest he did inaudible percussion. Secondly; Joe Farnsworth at times played much too loud, especially during the first song, My Favorite Things, and his solo; much too long. Furthermore, Sanders wandered off-stage a bit too often, so we didn’t get to hear him that much. This said, it still was worthwhile; I liked William Henderson and there was no denying that this is very capable quartet.

Pharoah Sanders - tenor
William Henderson - piano
Nat Reeves - bass
Joe Farnsworth - drums
Chaouki Smahi – lute, perc.

Big Band Koninklijk Conservatorium
Jim McNeely

Lighting object by sculptor Dan Corson marking the boundary between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Via dezeen.