O amor natural

Poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade was popular in his native Brazil, but not until his death, in 1987, did fans get a chance to read his erotic works. Here, Dutch filmmaker Heddy Honigmann presents elderly men and women reading these poems aloud and discussing their thoughts on love and sex. The readers, randomly approached by Honigmann on the street, are refreshingly candid, relating details of their own sex lives with hilarious gusto and honesty. Watching two old women on a bus read an ode to anal sex has a certain shocking thrill, though the subtitles create a What's Up Tiger Lily? feeling of misplaced dubbing. An 86-year-old man boasts of the many women he's sampled during his "wild life"; a comparably aged woman describes her fantasies about violent sex, none of "that soft crap."

As these oldsters admire Drummond's poetry and revel in their own memories, it becomes clear that their love of sex hasn't withered with age. It's just changed. The "wild life" man now lives off his memories; another octogenarian offers to prove to Honigmann -- first-hand -- that he still knows his way around the bedroom. Drummond's works serve as the framework for Honigmann to explore human sexuality and aging. In the end we learn that a lust for life and a life of lust go hand in hand, no matter how old we grow. At the Harvard Film Archive February 13 through 16.

-- Dan Tobin