0
(0)

Ohomem ea Encruzilhada by Otávio Castellani

This film tackles an issue that has been keeping humanity busy for the longest time and asks the ultimate question; would one sell his soul to the devil in exchange for worldly belongings. To be more exact (and as mentioned in the film), it was “Christopher Marlow” with his world famous novel “Dr. Faustus” who was able to put this concept onto the hands of society and make it more concrete. Writer/Director “Otavio Castellani” was able to present a modern day “Dr. Faustus” in a very intricate and spectacular manner.

The screenplay is woven in a very interesting manner as it gives the characters the opportunity to draw the audience into the story as if they are part of the plot, add to that the dialogues written are anything but “cliché” thus proving the skillful ability of “Castellani” to professionally present himself as a true script writer. The acting on the other hand is nothing less than real and true in delivering the desired effect; all of the actors proved themselves highly professional without any sense of “overacting” or exaggeration making them one of the main pillars of the success story of this production.

WATCH THE TRAILER

Technically, again we see the talent and maturity of “Castellani” as a film maker in carefully choosing his frames and shots to suit the mood of each and every scene (this is especially exemplified in the first encounter scene between “Cesar” and “Lucifer”). Lighting wise, the slightly over exposed moments are semantic connotations that enhances the mood and brings more life into the scenes. The cleverly used picture in picture effect to show several moments of the main actor’s life as time lapse are also a sign of greatly forged skills and talent by “Castellani”. As for the music and sound effects they served the purpose intended and were not overly used although in such genre of films we tend to see an over abuse to force a specific mood, a mood that was already more than established in this film due to all the reasons discussed previously and more.

To conclude, and on a scale from zero to five, I give this film a definite five and I highly recommend it for viewers who are interested in such type of productions. The obvious synergy between cast and crew is exceptionally visible and resulted in this astoundingly well-crafted piece of filmmaking

N.Khouri Ph.D

Monthly Indie Shorts

Rating

5/5

About Otávio

Born in Rio de Janeiro, 22nd January 1971. At the age of 17 attend to Physics course at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – UERJ (Rio de Janeiro’s State College). Gets his Physics degree in 1993. Since then, ministrates classes at schools and universities. In 1998 attends to master’s degree at UERJ, obtainig the MSc title in Astrophysics in 2000. Along with his master’s degree course, begins his first experience on scenics arts fields. During following years, shares his time ministring Physics classes at some teaching instituitions, theatre classes, presenting theatrical shows and running a theatre company, Cia Teatral Criação Espontânea (Spontaneous Creation Theatrical Company). During 5 years, the company has presented many shows and those were always presented with some kind of projections with stories, short sketches, etc. The audiovisual side has always taken most part in his projects.
In 2010, creates the producer Castellani Produções (Castellani Productions), which has the main focus at creating audiovisual projects.
Castellani Produções were involved at productions of humor videos to the Youtube channel Penso, Logo Insisto! (www.youtube.com/pensoinsisto), at the production of educative videos about Physics to the Youtube channel Saboreando a Física (www.youtube.com/otapadawan) and on it’s own Youtube channel, about video editing courses, Castellani Produções (www.youtube.com/castellaniproducoes).
In 2016, Otávio Castellani starts the production of the medium-length movie “Estrelas Despedaçadas” (“Wrecked Stars”). Screenplay and Direction/Photography by Otávio Castellani. The movie premiered in 2018.
In 2017, works on the Photography Direction of short-length “Janela” (“Window”), by Kikha Danttas, who also did the screenplay and directed alongside with João Pedro Oliva. Movie premiered in 2018 at Memorial Getúlio Vargas, in Rio de Janeiro and was selected on the same year to Directors Circle Festival of Shorts, in Pennsylvania, USA.
In 2018, produced, directed and wrote screenplay to the webseries “Aquela Noite com Gosto de Sangue” (“That One Night with Blood Taste”) (3 episodes: www.youtube.com/castellaniproducoes), using the classic aestethic from Noir movies. The webseries was picked for Rio Webfest 2019, under the category BEST CAST (ACTION/SCI-FI/HORROR). On this same year, started the shots from short-length movie “Verdades Divinas” (“Divine Truths”) which he was responsible for screenplay, direction and photography. This one short-length movie still in post-production phase.
In 2019, shot the short-length “O Homem e a Encruzilhada”(“ The Man and The Crossroad), being responsible for responsible for screenplay, direction and photography. This one still in post-production phase as well. On the same year, writes screenplay, directs and photographs the short-length movie “Fantasma”(“Phantom”). Short-length thriller

Submit Now to Monthly Indie Shorts