Is it safe to call Tinnitus a modern day Suspiria except for with synchronised diving instead of ballet? I hope that’s okay to say and that I’m not just making the connection because it’s an offbeat horror film with a woman-centric cast of characters putting their bodies through extremely physically demanding feats of athleticism. Suspiria’s Dario Argento had style and so does Gregorio Graziosi. Graziosi is the director of Tinnitus, a new Brazilian film shown at the Karlovy Vary Festival that combines a sports comeback story with a psychological thriller.
Joana de Verona plays Marina, an olympic level synchronised diver whose career has been ended by tinnitus, a condition in which sufferers hear a ringing or other noise in their ear. Early images seem to take us through the ear canal and out into frigid open waters full of narwhals. The association makes us feel Marina’s pain vividly by suggesting the sensation of the narwhal’s long tusk piercing an ear drum.
Sao Paulo serves as a massive backdrop. The ever expanding city can be seen from the lonely perspective of the synchronised divers standing atop the 10m platform, just two people isolated from Sao Paulo’s other 22 million residents. The film later showcases a thrillingly high outdoor spiral staircase. Google has led me to believe that this is the 38-storey staircase connected to Sao Paulo’s famous Copan building. Graziosi constantly jumps from the sprawling outer parts of the city to its intimate interiors, all the while jumping from Marina’s outside surroundings to inside her ear canal.
In an early scene, Marina attends a support group for tinnitus sufferers. An older man (Antonio Pitanga) believes his tinnitus has a ghostly origin. We discover the man running the group, a doctor specialising in tinnitus, is also Marina’s husband. In an early sex scene, he really goes to town on her ear with his mouth, the first indication that thing’s are a bit off here.
Marina has spent some of the 4 years since her career ending injury working as a mermaid in the murky looking waters of an aquarium. She bathes in chlorine. Her husband makes sure she takes her medication. She stays away from her former sport for the most part until Teresa (Alli Willow), the diver who replaced her in her two person team, approaches her for help with training for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
Teresa’s interest in Marina teeters on obsession as many personal and professional lines get crossed. Meanwhile, Marina must make amends with her former diving partner played by Indira Nascimento. Their connection goes back to childhood. She’s also Teresa’s current diving partner headed to Tokyo. Marina pushes the level of difficulty in practice, leading to an injury. Marina takes over her former friend’s place on the team. But more twists are yet to come.
Her story’s connection to Japan goes beyond Tokyo being the host city for the games. Google has helped me learn that Sao Paulo contains a large Japanese diaspora. Marina and Teresa make an intoxicated visit to a Japanese neighbourhood in Sao Paulo where Teresa’s obsession is laid bare. Antonio Pitanga returns as the mysterious old man from the tinnitus support group meeting to help guide Marina.
Graziosi has positioned the film as a reaction to Brazil’s fascist government and its conservative culture. He’s said “More than ever, [Brazil] needs female heroes and idealism symbols.” An admirable message, but maybe a bit rich for a movie with a mostly female cast helmed by a male director and written by three men. That said, the film does provide many interesting roles, including a diving coach who first fought against Brazil’s fascistic tendencies in the 1960s.
The film feels strongest in its moments of stylized horror. Some of the early diving scenes feel a little less real than they should. As the film dives deeper into oddity and disturbed psychology the realness of the sport doesn’t matter anymore. The final diving scenes at the climactic Tokyo Olympics finally merge with the tone of the rest of the film. The background goes remarkably black. The two halves of the movie finally meet in a satisfying way.
© 2020-2022. UniversalCinema Mag.