Sonhos de Rossi

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Note of intent

Daydreamer (Sonhos de Rossi) is a film about loneliness, about feeling inadequate, about not “fitting in” the environment in which one lives, about family oppression, about bullying, about dreams and desires, especially those that can not be revealed.
The feature film was written from my first short film, Family Affair (Assunto de Família). The short tells the story of Rossi, a shy and lonely young man, a victim of his bully older brother, Cauã. Rossi can’t find his place in the crowded room. In the kitchen, he is visited by Cassio, one of Cauã’s friends. Both are caught by surprise when they kiss passionately. Family Affair (Assunto de Família) opens a door to a family that treats the homosexuality of one of its members with secrecy, disapproval and shame.
From the experience with the film I wrote the story in which Rossi is put through a journey that blossoms his sexuality and forces him to act in the world as an individual.
The scenery I chose for the story are the nights in Downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, where many young people are living sexual and affective relations. The center of Sao Paulo, which is one of the largest metropolises in the world, is a place where decay and marginal life live side by side with a vibrant nightlife and an interesting and independent artistic movement. Rossi moves around the city and this movement provides him initiation, maturity and individualization.
In Daydreamer, the narrative enters radically in the internal universe of its character, invading their fears and deepest desires. The proposed aesthetics of the film will go towards it. Still we seek to create a specular relation between Rossi’s reveries his mother’s.
Daydreamer’s narrative structure is supported by the flaneur tradition, this end of XIX century’s character that walks around the city finding a series of situations and interesting characters.
The script is also based upon episodic structures, which the character leaves his house with one objective, and this objective is constantly changed. The narrative is supported by works such as Odyssey, by Homero.
 

Synopsis

Laundry area. Rossi, 17, passionately kisses Cassio, a friend of his brother Cauê. Bathroom. Rossi is masturbating and is surprised by his mother Eunice. Living room of an apartment. A family gathers around the television. It is very hot, but the windows are closed, because the apartment is only a few meters away from an enormous viaduct, the “Minhocão” that crosses the city from west to east. Eunice is standing in front of the closed window, enjoying the subtle breeze that comes through a crack. Cauã, 20, is alone on the couch and casually moves the fan with his feet. Borges, 50, watches television in his chair. Rossi, 17, enters the room and sits on the floor. When he does that, he drops the fan on the ground, breaking it.  Cauã scolds him and goes to the window, opening it with hardly, leaving the deafening noise of Minhocão invade the room. Borges looks at Rossi with disapproval and asks Eunice to increase the TV sound. Eunice doesn’t hear him asking, and Borges, angrily, leaves the room. Cauã goes to a nightclub with his friend. Rossi goes to the window. Eunice sits on the couch and stands still.
This is the routine of this staggered family where Eunice and Rossi can’t find their place, not even close to each other. To bear this hard everyday, they take refuge in daydreams, each on their own.
Daydreamer is the chronicle of a weekend where Rossi will find, in the street, characters that, like him, are mismatched. The street is configured as the stage of Rossi’s sexual and affective initiation. On this journey, Rossi experiences the disaffection and affection and, thereafter, may react to his brother’s threats and approaches his mother’s of truth.
 

Visual concept

The proposal for the direction of the film is built upon two concepts: the road movie and the fable. Road movie because the film is a trajectory of movement.
The fable, the fantastic, the dreamworld, is suggested by Rossi’s characteristics, in search for refuge in reveries, to leave the oppressive everyday life.
The film happens in a very specific space in the city of São Paulo: downtown, it’s human and urban landscape. Daydreamer also define itself by being the chronicles of a space and a time: the nightlife in São Paulo, at Augusta street, Roosevelt square, the old downtown, and sundays and holidays in the closed Minhocão.
Therefore it will be necessary to create a fusion between the documental/naturalist (the film’s environment – downtown and it’s cultural life) and the dreamworld (Rossi’s and Eunice’s revenues). To do that I propose a radically documentary aesthetic,  that will fray the boundaries between fiction and documentary. This aesthetic is proposed for the cinematography, by the use of the lighting already in places (mainly in the street scenes) and the use of handheld camera and less noticeable camera movements, for art direction, by using elements found in the downtown universe itself; by using part of the cast with non-professional actors, as a result of a research in the central region; by a dramaturgy that will incorporate improvisation of the actors, and by the editing that can use unconventional cuts to build the narrative. The dream, within that universe, will infiltrate this everyday and documentary aspect of the film.