The success of the Brazilian film "
Ainda Estou Aqui", directed by Walter Salles and winner in the
Best International Film category at the 97th Oscars, resulted in fans' curiosity to know the house where the film takes place, located in the
Urca neighborhood, South Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The property – which will be bought by the city of Rio de Janeiro to become the
Casa do Cinema Brasileiro – went through some renovations to ensure an accurate representation of the time when the film takes place, in the 1970s. As a result, few people know what the property looked like before it became the fictional home of the Paiva family.
Patricia Fendt, the architect responsible for the project and oversight of the property's renovation in the period prior to filming – between 2013 and 2018 – explains that the maintenance was necessary due to the state in which the house was. Built in 1937, the residence of
480 m² was originally yellow with white frames, and the columns of the second-floor balcony were rustic.
Confident that yellow did not enhance the volumetry, Patricia chose to paint the house
white and the windows
green to highlight them and create a connection with the vegetation and the water of the bay. "Furthermore, the white color does not fade with the sun of Rio de Janeiro," mentions the professional.
"The wall was completely restored, but since the property is protected by municipal heritage, it was necessary to find a solution for the safety of the house – since increasing its height would not be allowed," explains the architect about the presence of
iron grates painted in lead gray, an alternative to keep the property as visible as possible. "For the filming, this protection was removed and resulted in a house without grates and with a low wall, a mark of the time that unfortunately we can no longer have," she notes.
In the balcony facing the seafront avenue, a very degraded floor and a bench with original tiles predominated. To preserve these elements, Patricia installed a hydraulic tile that matched the bench and had a light background. For the external steps, she chose another hydraulic tile with the same background as the decorated one that mixes with the house. "It was important to have a material that would age along and create a slime to make it seem like it has always been there," she emphasizes.
At the entrance of the house, the same tiles as the external steps were used. "In the film, the real stains remained, which gives an appearance of use and of time passed, evoking memory," Patricia observes.
The first floor interior was hardly altered by the architect, except the kitchen and the lavatory – where the wooden floorboards, frames, and moldings were restored. The kitchen also gained an integrated kitchenette and a pantry.
Another original element highlighted in the film is the
staircase, seen immediately upon entering the residence, which leads to the second floor along with three slit windows that illuminate the void and compose this path.
Even with few changes on the upper floor, which had two bathrooms, Patricia says that the biggest challenge of the renovation was to split one of them into two. "In addition to these modifications, we built an outdoor area with a pool and a covered gourmet area for residents to have privacy while using it," she comments about the property that currently has four suites, four living rooms, a pool, and an elevator.
