High-Rise is a documentary feature that exposes (rather than examines) how shallow the people at the top of the Brazilian real estate market really are.
Brazil
3*
Director:
Gabriel Mascaro
Screenwriter:
Gabriel Mascaro
Director of Photography:
Pedro Sotero
Running time: 70 minutes
Original title: Um Lugar ao Sol
They live in penthouses atop giant high-rises named “Stradivarius” or “Versailles” or “Rembrandt” in Brazil’s biggest cities. They are among their country’s elite real estate owners, but their isolation from the rest of society is immediately visible when they open their mouths. And their views expose almost all of them as meritless ignoramuses.
Gabriel Mascaro’s barely feature-length documentary entitled High-Rise (the original Portuguese title translates as A Place in the Sun) contains snippets from eight interviews the director conducted with some very wealthy people. Most of them are single, although we also meet an adult son and his mother, a teenage boy with his parents, and a couple. Unfortunately, we don’t see much of their living quarters, but there are plenty of shots showing how far removed they are from the hustle and bustle of life at street level.
While penthouses are generally thought of as expansive and sometimes do take up an entire floor (or more), most of the interviewees focus on the privacy such a location affords them. They are not disturbed by people one floor up moving furniture around because there is no one above them. They are not disturbed by people in the next building looking at them because many of them live in the highest building around. And one particular individual even cheerfully elaborates on how her two-floor apartment separates her from people inside her own home, especially those working for her.
This part, which lets us peek behind the curtain at the eccentricities (or, less diplomatically, classism and even racism), is easily the most galling. “Living up high, you have the opportunity to experience another reality. It gives you a sense of domination”, says one woman, who may just have the most self-reflection of the lot. Another penthouse owner complains how the people from the favelas have “invaded the hillside” and tells us, without a hint of irony, that they have “shut themselves off from everything and make up their own rules”. This is a breathtaking statement from someone who chooses to live on the top floor of a skyscraper.
But she’s not done yet. She goes on to suggest that the poorest members of society should just learn to behave. “Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean that you have to be a bandit.” It gets worse. A French woman, who has lived in Brazil for around half a century but still doesn’t speak Portuguese like a native, refers to a sculpture of a black face in her home as “my slave”. Later on, a businessman, perhaps the film’s most professional individual, refers to economy class on flights as “slave quarters”. For these people, the world is black and white: They are white, and from their high-rise they look down at everyone else; the rest are black slaves invading their view.
It’s a very sad array of people, indeed. We never see them interact with anyone else. They appear not to have any friends, and the film makes a point of showing us that the couple, who lives in a truly gargantuan penthouse, moves around in silence with each doing his own thing. In addition, almost everyone dresses like they are from the lower middle class, with sandals and bad clothes.
Although the subject matter has a great deal of appeal, this High-Rise almost seems unfinished. The individuals are never introduced, so we don’t know who they are, in which cities they are or what they do. Some footage is of the home-video variety and looks absolutely atrocious. Fortunately, from time to time, the camera is used in some creative ways: A long ride up a glass elevator feels like we’re headed to heaven, and the images showing the buildings’ giant shadows on the beach, between which beachgoers have to find a sliver of sunlight, are truly remarkable. But it is regrettable that the director did not allow us to get to know his subjects any better. The interviews zig and zag all over the place, and in the end, there simply isn’t enough material to hold our attention for a full hour.