Songs

Armed with just one fixed camera and a few telling questions, Brazilian maestro Eduardo Coutinho gives us a lesson in film, and in passion. Seated in a chair on an empty stage, he asks his compatriots for a song that has profoundly influenced, determined or even irrevocably changed their lives. One by one, they tell us what this song is and then sing it themselves, a cappella, as if at an audition. The song in question is often accompanied by a poignant story, unexpected confession or improbable tale of deceit and infidelity. Coutinho himself is never seen, but is all the more present in the form of the - at times testy - questions he asks, in his gravelly voice. No one can escape his charisma, and no one escapes his ability to get people to reveal themselves, in all their imperfection. The commandant directing his own retreat. The man who unexpectedly bursts into tears when he thinks about his mother, cutting out sewing patterns. The polio sufferer who sings the same song with her husband every day. The son who wrote a song for his dead father. Exceptional people and beautiful songs, all of which talk about how love, lust and desire can determine, enrich, and sometimes derail our lives.