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Carmen Miranda Turns 100

Clip posted by DoniSacramento
 
Carmen Miranda — known as the "Brazilian Bombshell" in the US; as A Pequena Notável (either "The Notable Gal" or "The Notable Little One," I’m not sure) in Brazil — would have turned 100 today.
In the clip above, the Portuguese-born, (as Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, in Marco de Canavezes) Brazilian-raised (in Rio de Janeiro) entertainer can be seen performing, along with the Bando da Lua (Band of the Moon), what may well be her most popular song — Dorival Caymmi’s "O Que É Que a Baiana Tem" ("What Does the Bahiana Have?") — in the 1939 Brazilian musical comedy Banana-da-Terra, directed by Ruy Costa. (According to the youtube poster, the original routine [...]

Brasilia Film Festival Awards 2008

2008 Brasilia Film Festival Awards
2008 Brasilia Film Festival: November 18–25, 2008
 

Kiko Goifman’s FilmeFobia / FilmPhobia, a mockumentary about all sorts of phobias — from fear of spiders and snakes to fear of penetration and buttons — received five Candango Awards at the 41st Brasilia Film Festival, including best film and best actor for Jean-Claude Bernardet, a real-life Brazilian cinema expert who in FilmPhobia plays the director of a documentary whose goal is to present "the truth" by placing phobia sufferers in some very difficult situations. Goifman — who was booed by the Cine Brasilia audience while accepting the best film award — co-wrote the screenplay with Hilton Lacerda. There were only seven Brazilian features — both narrative and documentary [...]

BIRDWATCHERS Clip

 
Marco Bechis‘ Italo-Brazilian co-production, La Terra degli uomini rossi / BirdWatchers, currently in competition for the 2008 Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion, revolves around a sort of Romeo and Juliet romance that develops while agribusinesses and Indians fight in the Brazilian Mid-West. The English-language title refers to the tourists who flock to the area to take a peek at the local fauna.
Screenplay by Marco Bechis and Luiz Bolognesi, with collaboration by Lara Fremder. In the cast: Claudio Santamaria, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Chiara Caselli, Abrísio da Silva Pedro, and Ademilson Concianza Verga.
The original Italian title translates as "The Land of the Red Men."
Official site.
Clip posted by CINEMAITALY.
 

THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION: Q&A with Cao Hamburger

Set in 1970, the year Brazil (or rather, the soccer team representing the country) won the World Cup, O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias / The Year My Parents Went on Vacation tells the story of a (away from) home-alone kid whose parents (Eduardo Moreira, Simone Spoladore) are on the run from Brazil’s brutal military apparatus.
The boy, Mauro (Michel Joelsas), who believes his parents have taken off on a long vacation, is left at the home of his grandfather (veteran Paulo Autran) in the Bom Retiro district of São Paulo. The problem is that the old man died shortly before his grandson’s arrival. Now, who’s going to be taking care of the kid in this ethnically [...]

Dercy Gonçalves, 101, Dies

Dercy Gonçalves, a Brazilian superstar for nearly eight decades, died of pneumonia today at the São Lucas Hospital in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana district. She was 101.
Dercy — can’t refer to someone like her as "Gonçalves" — was a film, stage, television, radio, and carnival star. She was known for her outrageous sense of humor, expletive-filled mouth, and an indefatigable determination to keep on going.
Among her best-known film vehicles, mostly popular comedies, are Feitiço do Amazonas / Naked Amazon (1954), Absolutamente Certo (Absolutely Right, 1957), A Grande Vedete (The Big Star, 1958), Minervina Vem Aí (Here Comes Minervina, 1960), and Cala a Boca, Etelvina (Shut Up, Etelvina, 1960).
"She didn’t believe in old age and criticized those who let themselves [...]

Tiburon Film Festival 2008

The 2008 Tiburon (Calif.) International Film Festival (TIFF), set for March 13–21, will be showcasing more than 225 films from 94 countries.
The festival will open with the US premiere of Miguel Angel Calvo Buttini’s political comedy Dos rivales casi iguales / Twins for President at 7 p.m. at the Playhouse Theater on March 13.
Twins for President follows twin brothers (Andoni Gracia) of different political stripes as they fight for the Spanish presidency. Calvo Buttini will attend the screening, which will be followed by a q&a session.
Among the 2008 TIFF tributes are those to John Wayne, with a screening of John Ford’s 1956 Western The Searchers (March 16 at 4:45pm), which some critics consider one of the greatest movies [...]

THE ELITE SQUAD: The 2008 Berlin Film Festival’s Controversial Winner

The second Brazilian production to win the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear, José Padilha’s Tropa de Elite / The Elite Squad, a violent tale about Rio’s special police unit’s fight against slum-based druglords, was a controversial choice for the 2008 festival’s top award. Unlike the previous Brazilian winning entry, the considerably cozier Central Station back in 1998, The Elite Squad was greeted with strong reservations in certain quarters both in Brazil and elsewhere.
"The Elite Squad is a Hollywood movie spoken in Portuguese," wrote Plínio Fraga in the daily Folha de São Paulo. "José Padilha’s effort is Hollywoodian when it comes to both its technical proficiency, and its social and esthetic conservatism. A quick-paced narrative, solid cinematography, impeccable sound, well-directed [...]

Dercy Gonçalves Turns 100

Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred Zinnemann, Fay Wray, Henri-Georges Clouzot, T.E.B. Clarke, Yves Allégret, Dan Duryea, Paula Wessely, Burgess Meredith, John Wayne, Gene Autry, Run Run Shaw, and the list of 2007 centenarians goes on. Some are being celebrated — Katharine Hepburn has just been honored with a DVD box set; Barbara Stanwyck is the star of a University of California Los Angeles retrospective — others are, whether deservedly or not, being thoroughly ignored.
In Brazil, one who is not being ignored is the much-fêted Dercy Gonçalves, a film, stage, radio, television, and carnival star, in addition to being a gay icon, a cancer and tuberculosis survivor, a topless advocate, an environmentalist, and the owner of the most expletive-filled mouth in [...]

Thessaloniki Film Festival 2006 Winners

The top winner at the 2006 edition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which wrapped today, was Kim Tae-yong’s Korean drama Gajokeui Tansaeng / Family Ties, about different relationships within a dysfunctional family.
In addition to the Golden Alexander Award for Best Film (worth 37,000 euros), Family Ties won a joint Best Actress award (for Moon So-ri, Goh Doon-shim, Kong Hyo-jin and Kim Hae-ok), while screenwriters Sung Ki-young and Kim Tae-yong shared the Best Screenplay award with Maurício Zacharias, Felipe Bragança, Karim Ainouz for the dramatic comedy O Céu de Suely / Suely in the Sky, the story of a woman (Hermila Guedes) from the Brazilian Northeast who dreams of a better life elsewhere. (Last month, O Céu de Suely won [...]

Rio de Janeiro Film Festival 2006 Awards

I’ve finally added the list of winners at the 2006 edition of the Festival do Rio, the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.
Curiously, the festival may be "international" when it comes to the screened films but it’s definitely "national" when giving out awards. With the exception of a FIPRESCI (International Film Critics) Prize for the Best Latin American Film, and an Audience Award for the films shown in the "Generation" sidebar, all other awards are restricted to Brazilian productions. Hopefully, festival organizers will sooner rather than later turn the Festival do Rio into a truly international event by opening up the awards ceremony to non-Brazilians.
This year’s Best (Brazilian) Film winner was Karim Aïnouz’s O Céu de Suely / Suely [...]

Rio de Janeiro Film Festival Awards 2006

2006 Rio de Janeiro Film Festival Awards
2006 Rio de Janeiro Film Festival: September 21–October 6, 2006
 

 
Première Brasil Sidebar
Melhor Longa-Metragem Ficção / Best Feature Film: O Céu de Suely / Suely in the Sky, by Karim Aïnouz
Prêmio Especial do Júri / Special Jury Prize: O Cheiro do Ralo / Drained, by Heitor Dhalia
Melhor Longa-Metragem Documentário / Best Feature Documentary: À margem do Concreto / At the Margin of Concrete, by Evaldo Mocarzel
Melhor Direção / Best Direction: Karim Aïnouz (O Céu de Suely / Suely in the Sky)

Melhor Ator / Best Actor (tie): Selton Mello (O Cheiro do Ralo / Drained) and Sidney Santiago (Os 12 Trabalhos / The 12 Labors)
Melhor Atriz / Best Actress: Hermilla Guedes (O [...]

Gramado Film Festival Awards 2006

2006 Gramado Film Festival – Brazilian and Latin Cinema 2006 Kikito Awards
2006 Gramado Film Festival Awards: August 19, 2006
 

I’ve finally added the list of Kikito winners at this year’s Gramado Film Festival of "Brazilian and Latin Cinema." The Kikitos were handed out on Aug. 19 in the small town of Gramado, located in the Brazilian south.
The Best Brazilian Feature award was given to two films: the semi-documentary Serras da Desordem (literally, "Hills of Disorder") and the social drama Anjos do Sol / Angels of the Sun.
Directed by Andrea Tonacci, Serras da Desordem follows a nomad Indian who, after surviving an attack by local landowners, spends ten years roaming the hills of the Brazilian mid-west. Tonacci also took home [...]

TWO SONS OF FRANCISCO Is a Sertanejo Hit

In the New York Times, Larry Rohter writes about last year’s biggest box-office hit in Brazil, 2 Filhos de Francisco / Two Sons of Francisco. Directed by Breno Silveira, the film tells the rags-to-riches story of two poor rural boys — Zezé and Luciano di Camargo — who grew up to become one of Brazil’s biggest sertanejo (the national "country music") singers. Two Sons of Francisco is Brazil’s submission for the 2006 best foreign language film Academy Award.
Rohter’s article is quite readable, though I do have a couple of quibbles with it. To the best of my knowledge, the current Brazilian president, generally known by his nickname, Lula, was never really a peasant. He was born in the rural [...]

Aurora Miranda

Entertainer Aurora Miranda, Carmen Miranda’s sister, died of natural causes on Wed., Dec. 21, in Rio de Janeiro. She was 90.
Born in Rio on April 20, 1915, Aurora started her show business career in the late 1920s, singing on radio and pairing up with sister Carmen at Rio’s then prestigious Cassino da Urca.
Aurora Miranda’s biggest hit came out in 1934: André Filho’s "Cidade Maravilhosa" (Wonderful City), which became Rio’s official anthem in 1960.
Her film debut took place in 1935, singing "Cidade Maravilhosa" in Alô, Alô, Brasil, a series of musical sketches (which also featured Carmen) directed by Wallace Downey, João de Barro, and Alberto Ribeiro. She also appeared with Carmen in several other Brazilian [...]

Jarbas Barbosa

Jarbas Barbosa, a pioneering producer of Brazil’s Cinema Novo of the 1960s, died of respiratory problems on Dec. 10 in Recife, in the Brazilian Northeast. He was 76.
Among the films Barbosa produced or co-produced are the film noir Boca de Ouro / Golden Mouth (1963), directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos; Ganga Zumba (1963), about the life and times of a runaway slave, directed by Carlos Diegues; and the sociopolitical drama Os Fuzis / The Guns (1964), directed by Ruy Guerra.
Also, Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol / Black God, White Devil (1964, above), the tale of a rural bandit directed by Glauber Rocha; and the highly popular erotic comedy Xica da Silva (1976), also directed [...]

AFI FEST 2005 – Thursday Highlights

This evening’s highlights at the AFI FEST 2005 at the Arclight Theater complex in Hollywood: L’Enfer / Hell (France / Italy / Belgium, 98 min., 7:00pm), a film loosely inspired by the second part of Dante’s Inferno, with a stellar cast that includes Emmanuelle Béart, Carole Bouquet, Jacques Perrin, Jean Rochefort, Marie Gillain, and Karin Viard, and directed by Danis Tanovic, whose No Man’s Land won the 2001 Best Foreign-Language Film Academy Award; Reinas / Queens (Spain, 107 min., 7:15pm), Manuel Gómez Pereira’s dramedy about five mothers (including Verónica Forqué, Carmen Maura, and Marisa Paredes) who must cope with their gay sons’ problems as they all get ready for Spain’s first mass gay wedding ceremony; Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is [...]

More of Those Damned Brazilian Movies!

More "Malditos Filmes Brasileiros!" (Damned Brazilian Movies!) in October, this time at the Cinemateca Brasileira in São Paulo.
Between October 6-9, the Cinemateca will present the series "The Most Important Classics of the Boca do Lixo" ("Boca do Lixo" could be loosely translated as "Trash Alley"), including Rubens da Silva Prado’s 1970 "feijoada" Western Sangue em Santa Maria / Blood in Santa Maria (1970); Luiz Gonzaga dos Santos‘ 1979 bizarre softcore tale, Patty, a Mulher Proibida / Patty, the Forbidden Woman, about the attempts of a perverted children’s clown (Dilin Costa) to seduce one of the divas of Brazil’s pornochanchadas, Helena Ramos; and the 1979 cop thriller Os Depravados / The Depraved Ones, directed by Tony Vieira, who also stars [...]

Nordesterns – Damned Brazilian Westerns!

The film series "Malditos Filmes Brasileiros!" (Damned Brazilian Movies!) continues in September at the Casa França-Brasil in downtown Rio de Janeiro. The theme of the month is the Brazilian "nordestern," also known as the feijoada Western: shoot-em-up flicks shot (no pun intended) in the arid and lawless Brazilian Northeast, where men were born to kill or die, and women were born to get raped and do crochet.
Among the scheduled screenings are Carlos Coimbra’s epoch-making A Morte Comanda o Cangaço (Death Rules the Lawlessness, 1960), a well-received nordestern that became a sizable box-office hit in Brazil; Wilson Silva’s Nordeste Sangrento (Bloody Northeast, 1963), about religious fanaticism in the holy city of Juazeiro; and Tião Valadares and (an uncredited) Rajá de Aragão’s [...]

Damned Brazilian Movies!

Malditos Filmes Brasileiros! (Damned Brazilian Movies!) a film series currently being presented in Rio de Janeiro. Genres include “feijoada” Westerns, pornochanchadas, science-fiction, horror, and cop thrillers, among them Bacalhau (Bacs), Seduzidas pelo Demonio, and Escalada da Violencia.

Gramado Film Festival Awards 2005

2005 Gramado Film Festival Awards
 
Director Tizuka Yamasaki has won both the Best Film and Best Director Kikito awards at this year’s edition of the Gramado Festival of Brazilian and Latin films, which is held annually in this small town in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state.
Gaijin – Ama-me Como Sou / Gaijin – Love Me As I Am, Yamasaki’s follow-up to her well-received 1980 drama about Japanese immigrants in Brazil, Gaijin – Os Caminhos da Liberdade / Gaijin – Roads to Freedom, won the festival’s top two awards despite having been mostly dismissed by critics.
Additionally, the new Gaijin received a Best Supporting Actress nod for Aya Ono and the Best Score award for Egberto Gismonti.
Twenty-five [...]

Premiere Brazil! at MoMA

The Premiere Brazil series at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art will screen a number of Brazilian films, including Lucia Murat’s Quase Dois Irmaos / Almost Two Brothers, Helena Solberg’s Vida de Menina / Diary of a Provincial Girl, Marcos Prado’s Estamira, and the Carmen Miranda vehicle Alo Alo Carnval, co-directed by Adhemar Gonzaga.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET – Fernanda Montenegro

O Outro Lado da Rua / The Other Side of the Street (2004)
Direction: Marcos Bernstein
Screenplay: Marcos Bernstein and Melanie Dimantas
Cast: Fernanda Montenegro, Raul Cortez, Laura Cardoso, Luiz Carlos Persy, Miguel Lunardi
 

As in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller Rear Window, the amateur sleuth in Marcos Bernstein’s feature film début, O Outro Lado da Rua / The Other Side of the Street, believes she has witnessed a murder while spying with binoculars on a neighbor. But has she, or is it all a figment of the imagination of a lonely, embittered older woman?
Unlike Hitchcock, Bernstein (co-writer of Central Station) is less preoccupied with the alleged murder than with the psychological and emotional workings of the two protagonists: a widower (Raul Cortez) [...]

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