This is overall a wonderfully executed period piece, meticulous in details like the structures & the people of those times. The costuming is A+, although I wish the ladies weren't so much clad in depressing dark clothes like they were in perpetual mourning or something. The evocative Background Score never is overwhelming or intrusive, but is so well paired with the action that the entirety carries the viewer with placidity & tension precisely in the areas they are called for, a trip back in time that feels like a live action (& expanded on) version of the celebrated painting "A Sunday In The Park On The Island ..." which itself was made into an acclaimed musical. That genre is not to my tastes, though, & I shudder that the peaceable serenity of "Santos-Dumont" should be rendered into that format; it would be quite jarring in comparison. "Stories are powerful," as a nice lady in the 4th chapter says, & this tale of a sadly not well enough known influential man in the field of flight is indeed that, without trafficking in physical or musical melodrama to make its case. Even where ... "intimacy" makes an inevitable appearance - these are after all Terran humanoids i.e. (p)eople with wants & needs - there is refreshing delicacy, so to speak, about the presentations that invites lively speculation on the audience's part that a flurry of kissing/frotting/groaning does not; the engrossed viewer could even be inspired to introduce some old-fashioned subtlety into their modern day dealings, "leave em wanting more," as the saying goes. I'm 4/6ths of the way through this & it hasn't ever lost my attention, even though at this point it's lost some steam owing to The Hero Of This Picture having run short on bold & daring innovation, that deprives us of the hitherto heady scrambling energy of both his early forays into the sky & the attendant responses from those around him, positive & not. It isn't all blue skies & pink salmon, though; but to me the single most annoying aspect of this production are the subtitles. Unpleasant in color & all too often situated "overhead" (too far, when a date, from a given date in a lower corner), they also many times provide unhelpful information, as when what they "translate" is easy to tell from the original onscreen info. That this is all in the gripe column for me (I imagine the goof hawks searching with sharp eyes & razor talons) is something of a miracle! Too bad there aren't more like this, but the lack thereof makes appreciation for the standouts that much sweeter.
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