Brazil

THE BEGINNING OF THE EXPLOITATION OF BRAZIL
In 1594 in Brazil, the Tupinambás Indians are friends of the Frenches and their enemies are the Tupiniquins, friends of the Portugueses. A Frenchman (Arduíno Colassanti) is captured by the Tupinambás, and in spite of his trial to convince them that he is French, they believe he is Portuguese. The Frenchman becomes their slave, and maritally lives with Seboipepe (Ana Maria Magalhães). *Contains Spoilers* Later, he uses powder in the cannons that the Portuguese left behind to defeat the Tupiniquins in a battle. In order to celebrate the victory, the Indians decide to eat him.Read More »

From the book “Brazilian Cinema” – Edited by Randal Johnson and Robert Stam:

“The Third Bank of the River” is a coproduction (French and Brazilian) and, like the Guerra film, it too ingeniously interweaves diverses stories by its source author. Beginning with the story that provides the title for the film – the virtually wordless drama of a man who abandons his family to live on a boat in the middle of the river – Nelson Pereira dos Santos integrates four other stories. Liojorge (Ilya São Paulo) the son (in Nelson’s re-creation) of the enigmatic boatman of the first story, follows an enchanted cow and thus becomes the protagonist of another story (“Seqüência”) in which the cow leads him to the most beautiful woman in the world (Sonja Saurin).Read More »

A close friend of “Padre Cicero” (Jofre Soares), the “Lebanese”Mascate” Benjamin Abraham (Duda Mamberti) decides to film “Lampião” (Luis Carlos Vasconcelos) and all his gang, believing that the film will make them rich. After some initial contacts he talks directly with the famous “Cangaceiro” and exposes his idea, but the dreams of “Mascate” are hampered by the dictorship of the Estado Novo.Read More »

José Araújo, an attractive, happy traveling salesman, arrives at the little town of Jardim dos Caiacós where he meets “Turco,” owner of the grocery and Dualiba’s father, a virgin forty-year-old woman. Excited at the pretty woman, Zé Araújo does what nobody else had ever dared to do. Dualiba tell her daddy what happened, and he looks for Zé Araújo to make an irrefutable proposal: marry his daughter. Years later, apparently resigned to his fate, Zé Araújo discovers he’s the joke in town. Unexpectedly, there’s a change from an attractive traveling salesman into a fearless Ojuara, who rides into the Northeatern Brazilian backlands to fight for the unprotected along a journey full of adventures and love conquersRead More »

“Comedy in which three friends are on the table in a bar to drink and tell his adventures. What is exaggerating the sailor drinks while listening to a narrative of an exciting strip poker which ends in a huge orgy. The binge was so great that when you arrive home the sailor has a nightmare where he is pursued by wild women on an island … “Read More »

This is the story of father and son who work as clowns Puro Sangue/Valdemar (Paulo Jose) and Pangare/Benjamin (Selton Mello) in a circus which travels through the Brazilian country side. Benjamin is a clown who does not have id or social security number. Going through a phase where he starts questioning his ability to make people laugh and his future, Benjamin decides to follow a different path to find his answers and pursue his dreams: a fixed address and the ideal woman. In the adventure, he meets several people on the way to find his own identity. (~IMDb)Read More »

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A Brazilian masterpiece, fascinating, powerful and still contemporary, waiting to be (re)discovered by the world, 12 October 2006

The first thing you’ll remark when you see “Os Cafajestes” today (if you are lucky enough to find a copy of it) is how surprisingly modern, daring and mesmerizing it still is. The existential drama of 4 characters — two men (low-life scum Jandir, small-time playboy Vavá) and two women (used up Leda, provocative Vilma), who indulge in dangerous, deceitful games that include sex, photos, cars, beaches, drugs and blackmail — is amazingly contemporary in its visual style, boldness and acid criticism of amorality and egotism. That, combined with the virtuoso camera-work by Tony Rabatoni, the blazing summer whiteness of Cabo Frio beaches and dunes, the surprising turns in the plot, the edgy dialog and the non-linear treatment of sound vs image make this an unforgettable film, one of the most impressive directing debuts in the history of cinema (that’s not an overstatement), regrettably little known outside Brazil.Read More »

If you like early John Waters pieces, you have to see this one. In fact, this movie was released a year earlier than Pink Flamingos. The director was also writer, art director and set decorator, in the traditon of underground cinema – the movie is considered part of the movement called Cinema Marginal and was banned by the military Brazilian authorities. –mandragoruRead More »

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The history of Brazilian popular music in the 20th Century, focusing specially on the life and works of intriguing singer Mário Reis, a loner who, with his special way of singing – whispering and softly saying the words – in a time when singers with potent voices ruled, was in a way a forerunner of Bossa Nova style.Read More »