Limit (1931)

• Year: 1931
• Released: 01 Oct 1931
• Country: Brazil
• Adwords: 1 win & 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022080/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/limit
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p,
• Language: None, Portuguese
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Drama, Romance
• Runtime: 114 min
• Writer: Mario Peixoto
• Director: Mario Peixoto
• Cast: Olga Breno, Tatiana Rey, Raul Schnoor
• Keywords: isolation, boat, river, fate, silent film,

7.0/10

Limit Storyline

In a drifting small boat, two women (Olga Breno and Tatiana Rey) and a man (Raul Schnoor) recalls their recent past. One of the women escaped from the prison; the other one was desperate; and the man had lost his lover. They have no further strength or desire to live and have reached the limit of their existences.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Limit Movie Reviews

Less than meets the eye

The real Limite, as opposed to its myth, is an elaborate experimental home movie made by a very bright 22-year-old, getting his rocks off about his frustrated love life — an affair with a married woman. The film got produced only because of his family’s wealth and connections — but after it was made, no one in Brazil would distribute it, so it disappeared from sight and gradually languished into a “cult film.”

It’s worth a look for its ravishing flashes of brilliance, and especially for its use of the camera as an active participant — allowed to express the frustration & rage that the characters are “limited” from expressing openly (as extra-marital relationships were still a taboo subject in Brazil in 1930?). But without the musical sound track assembled from well-known compositions by Satie, Debussy, Stravinsky, etc. it’d be unwatchable for most of its 2 hours of meandering and deliberately veiled self-indulgence.

A cinematic masterpiece? On a par with films by Dreyer or Vigo or Welles? That’s just Brazilian hype. Apparently abetted by the director himself who in 1965 — out of yet more frustration & rage at the poor reception his magnum (and only) film opus had received — published a Portuguese translation of a glowing review by none other than “Sergei Eisenstein” — but no one could locate the original, and Peixoto finally acknowledged, shortly before his death in 1992, that he had penned it himself.

Limit

‘Limite’ is a great, poetic, inspiring mystery ride. I dare to say that it is the visually best film I’ve seen from that era. The slow, unique pace and the repeating structure of its main musical motif, Erik Satie’s theme ‘Gymnopédie’, intensify the suggestive effect of the immensely beautifully captured images in a magnificent montage and unfolds one of the great philosophical questions of the 20th century: the unsolvable contradiction between transience of human life and the eternity of the universe. The story is hard to access, because Peixoto almost always works with flashbacks and rare title links, so we have to solve the puzzle for our own. Nevertheless, it’s the imagery that is so fascinating, full of suicidal feelings, desperateness, tristesse and wonderfully compositions of nature – trees, foggy landscapes, waves. An unparalleled cinematic experience I will not forget and of course highly recommended.

Poetic and Impressive Exhibition of Pictures in Movement

In a drifting small boat, two women and a man recall their recent past. One of the women escaped from the prison; the other one was desperate; and the man had lost his lover. They have no further strength or desire to live and have reached the limit of their existences. Why they are together in this boat it is not clearly explained (or understood by me).

“Limite” is a Brazilian piece of art. The storyline is very simple, but the images are amazing, being a poetic and impressive exhibition of pictures in movement. The rhythm is very slow paced and sometimes the viewer certainly will get tired, but it is worthwhile. Mário Peixoto was sixteen years old when he directed this film. The film had been vanished for more than forty years, and was retrieved and partially restored in the 70’s by Saulo Pereira de Mello and Plínio Sussekind. One small part was completely lost, and there is one reel in a very bad condition. The soundtrack, with magnificent musics of Borodin, Cesar Frank, Debussy, Prokofieff, Ravel, Satie and Strawinsky fits perfectly to this movie. “Limite” follows European standards, and in accordance with a Brazilian Video Guide, in a previous exhibition in London for filmmakers, Sergei Eisenstein was the first one to recognize the geniuses of “Limite”, followed by Vsevolod Poudovkine. I believe that watching this movie is basic for any movie lover or student. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): “Limite” (“Limit”)

Obs.: On 12 November 2005 and 28 November 2007, I saw this magnificent movie again.