From the Beginning to the End (Do Começo ao Fim) (2009) directed by Aluisio Abranches

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Two brothers develop a very close relationship as they are growing up in an idyllic and happy family. When they are young adults their relationship becomes very intimate, romantic, and sexual.

Director: Aluisio Abranches

Writer: Aluisio Abranches

Release Date: 27 November 2009 (Brazil)
26 May 2010 (Seattle International Film Festival, USA)

Genre: Drama

Plot: This controversial Brazilian drama follows the love and sexual intimacy between two men…who are half-brothers.

There are not a lot of topics involving consenting adults that can really shock these days but this searing romantic drama about two brothers who love—incestuously – may well be one of them! Set in a sun-burnished Brazil, two boys, Francisco and his younger half-brother (same mother, different fathers) Thomás, are being raised in upper class comfort in Rio by their doting mother. Five years apart, the boys are best friends and unusually close to each other so much so that their intimacy brings vocal concerns from relatives that maybe they are too close. But the parents reluctantly brush away the concerns. Fast-forward several years with Francisco and Thomás now strikingly handsome, bronzed young men and their childhood intensity has evolved into a torrid sexual relationship. But when Thomás is offered a chance to train for the Brazilian swim team in Russia for a long period of time, the proposed separation brings fears that their love is threatened. Spectacularly shot amidst the mountains, beaches and grand estates of Brazil, this intense drama does not just live on the controversial subject matter but rather is a strikingly evocative romance of two men fighting against societal conventions.

@IMDb
@Amazon: From Beginning to End
@TLA Releasing

 





















Cast (in credits order)
Rafael Cardoso ... Thomás
João Gabriel Vasconcellos ... Francisco
Gabriel Kaufmann ... Thomás
Lucas Cotrin ... Francisco
Júlia Lemmertz ... Julieta
Fábio Assunção ... Alexandre
Louise Cardoso ... Rosa
Jean Pierre Noher ... Pedro 

      
Thomas & Francisco (adults)

 
Thomas & Francisco (children)

And now a little bit of Men Candy for you, remember it's Valentine's Day!

Rafael Cardoso, alone:

























Joao Gabriel Vasconcelos, alone:

















And the two hottie together:

Comments

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

I know this movie was shiny like a fashion magazine, and that the director pointed more on the prettiness of his actors than the strength of the story, especially in the second part of the movie. But I think it was for sure a daring movie, touching a subject that was not easy; is it a fault the director chose to do that without too much emphasis? I think not, probably in this way he was allowed to reach a wider target. In any case the first part of the movie is really good, and the mother's role is perfect.
I'd like to highlight an odd coincidence between the movie and the novel from which is loosely inspired, The Carnivorous Lamb by Agustín Gomez-Arcos: Richard Reitsma, a college professor, teaches a special topic course, The Body Erotic/The Body Politic: Deviant Sexuality as Political Discourse, and Gomez-Arcos's novel is one of the novel he uses as reference and the majority of his students over the years are straight, with a preponderance of females. Common
comments are "I forgot they were brothers,", or "It didn‘t bother me because it was so beautiful,", or "I didn‘t think about it that way, I just saw it as a
metaphor.". That is, I think, the same main reaction to the movie, the preponderance of the fan are females and they didn't stop so much on the fact the characters were brothers, but pointed more that the love story was beautiful.