Reaching For The Moon special event

Bruno Barreto on Reaching For The Moon: "The traps of charm and seduction." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Eye For Film critic Anne-Katrin Titze will moderate a Q&A at The Paris Theatre in New York City, with Reaching For The Moon (Flores Raras) director Bruno Barreto, co-screenwriter Matthew Chapman, and producer Lucy Barreto on Saturday, November 9, following the 7:00pm screening.

In my conversation with Bruno Barreto during the Tribeca Film Festival, we discussed how Deborah Kerr, co-starring with Cary Grant in Leo McCarey's An Affair To Remember, is channeled by Miranda Otto and how Sydney Pollack's Out Of Africa made for the perfect pitch, even without Meryl Streep or Robert Redford.

At the Crosby Street Hotel we began part 2 of our conversation with the actresses of Reaching For The Moon, onto the exploration of Crô: O Filme, and the Gravity of George Clooney, coming up.

Until then:

Anne-Katrin Titze: We will do a Q&A at The Paris Theatre for your opening, which I think is the perfect place for it.

Bruno Barreto: It's perfect. You know, Dona Flor And Her Two Husbands opened at The Paris Theatre in February 1978. So 35 years ago - it's sort of going full circle opening the film there. The facade, the marquee, is exactly the same. I have a picture of it then and I will take a picture now. Nothing changed there.

The Paris Theatre's iconic marquee logo: "I have a picture of it then [1978] and I will take a picture now." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

AKT: That corner has a wonderful aura. The Plaza Hotel is right there and you can imagine Cary Grant walking out from North By Northwest (1959). You are being kidnapped in time… Between the world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and the American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, you told me that you took out five minutes. Any changes?

BB: No. It's the same. As George Lucas says, there's a moment you have to abandon it. You're never finished, you just abandon your films.

Reaching For The Moon sophisticatedly tells the grand love story between the Pulitzer prize-winning American poet Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto, translucent and captivating), and the Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares (Glória Pires, with every response a marvelous surprise).

The film opens in New York on November 8 and in Los Angeles on November 29. Screening details for the Paris Theatre are available here.

Watch the Reaching For The Moon trailer, below: