Antonio Fagundes Movies

The life and career of the renowned Brazilian composer Hector Villa-Lobos is portrayed in this biographical drama, which begins with the legendary musician looking back at his own life in his declining years, then leaps back and forth in time to show the highlights of his story. Villa-Lobos (Marcos Palmeira) first developed a passionate interest in music as a child, and took up the cello at the urging of his father (Othon Bastos). As a young man, Villa-Lobos (now played by Antonio Fagundes) becomes acquainted with a saxophone player named Donizetti (Jose Walker), who invites the young prodigy to join him on a journey through the Brazilian rain forests. Villa-Lobos is seized by indigenous tribespeople, and as he stays with them in the wilds he becomes fascinated with the musical structures of bird songs. In time, Hector begins writing his own music, which leans heavily on "natural" influences, but his young wife Luc'ilia (Ana Beatriz Nogueira) feels his work is too challenging, both for performers and listeners. Villa-Lobos eventually finds an appreciative ear for his work in virtuoso pianist Arthur Rubinstein (Emilio de Mello), who helps to support the composer as he travels to Paris to write and perform. In time, Villa-Lobos leaves Luc'ilia, though she actively contests their divorce, and the personal life of the aging composer (now played by Andre Ricardo) provides him with a number of trials and challenges as his work finally wins him an enthusiastic audience in his native land. Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida De Paixao received its North American premiere at the 2000 American Film Institute Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this drama, a Brazilian news producer wages war on her colleagues in order to force them to cover upcoming political elections from a non-partisan viewpoint. It proves to be an uphill battle. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Carla Camuratti stars as the revolutionary female intellectual Pagu in this film biography directed by Norma Bengell. When she meets writer Oswald de Andrade (Antonio Fagundes), leader of the Modernist movement, Pagu joins the social elite of Brazil who advocate the values of the bourgeois while living in luxurious splendor. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

American gangster movies of the 1940s are spoofed in this complex crime thriller and comedy. Lucas takes time out from his everyday life in a nearly deserted cinema which is playing a gangster movie. One of the other patrons is a woman who looks almost exactly like the heroine of the movie on the screen, and he begins to pay more attention to her than to what's happening onscreen. Afterwards, the sultry siren, whose name is Suzana, leads him on a dangerous wild goose chase, exposing the ex-boxer-turned-businessman to a criminal world of violence and double-dealing. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Every country no doubt has its golden youths who die before they have had a chance to come to full flower and who leave a romantic legend behind them. In the U.S., one of these was James Dean. In Brazil, the fans of the actress Leila Diniz were similarly bereft when she died in the late 1960s. This biographical drama, directed and written by one of her close friends, and produced by a relative, tells the story of a very modern woman who broke new social ground in the conservative society of Brazil. Many of the people involved with the unconventional actress in real life play themselves in this film. The mood of the times are evoked: it was an era when a repressive military dictatorship governed the country, but the ideas and styles of beat poetry and aspirations for social change were fermenting among the young. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Real political events captured on film are mixed in with this fictional story about David (Antonio Fagundes), a television reporter who strays so close to his subjects on the streets of Sao Paulo that his own world seems to merge with theirs. Soon his investigation into murders involving prostitutes is overshadowed by his growing alienation from the political scene, from his family, and from his job. Yet the crimes he investigates do not seem to be completely disconnected from his changing political views - creating a kind of confusion that is never totally resolved in this interesting social, political, and psychological drama from director João Batista de Andrade. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

When a government official arrives to close down a girls' school, he is left alone for awhile to wait for the arrival of the school's administrators so he can give them official notice of the closure. In the meantime, he starts to daydream about the people he will soon be dismissing -- daydreams that constitute the story of this movie, and that center on the sexual yearnings of just about everyone from those in charge down to the custodian. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In a remote mining and railroad town on the Brazilian frontier in 1939, someone is murdering a succession of men. The British owners of the railroad want the murders solved quickly and don't care what has to be done to accomplish this. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Brazilian morality play finds a circus con man talking the authorities into giving a Christian burial to a dog, the beloved pet of the town's wealthy baker. He convinces the local officials and clerics that the dog has left a last will and testament. Appearing for the ceremony is a black monk who is really Jesus Christ in disguise. Motivated by greed, the town officials go through with the burial. All are judged for their sins and blasphemy as bandits enter the town in hopes of robbing everyone and slaughtering the victims in this symbolic tale of religious hypocrisy and greed. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi