Debora Bloch Movies
- 2009
A teenage girl steps over the line into adulthood during a summer abroad in this drama from writer and director Heitor Dhalia. Mathias (Vincent Cassel) is a successful French novelist who packs up his family, including wife Clarice (Debora Bloch) and fourteen-year-old daughter Filipa (Laura Neiva), for a few months of vacation at a beachfront house in Brazil. While their surroundings are idyllic, not everyone is happy, and Filipa is aware of the obvious tension between her bickering parents. The contentious relationship between Mathias and Clarice explodes when she learns that he's been unfaithful with the younger and sexier Angela (Camilla Belle). Filipa, who is all too aware of her growing attraction to the opposite sex, is at once disturbed and excited when she spies Mathias and Angela making love, and she decides to act on her desires for a handsome neighbor in his early twenties. A deriva (aka Adrift) was an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Camilla Belle, Debora Bloch, (more)
- 2000
- R
Recalling late period films from Francois Truffaut and American 1930s screwball comedies, Bruno Barreto directs this elegant romantic comedy set in Brazil. Mary Ann Simpson (Amy Irving) is a middle-aged American widow teaching English in Rio de Janeiro. Since her pilot husband died two years previously, Mary Ann has more or less dispensed with any ideas of a second chance at love. When one of her nubile young students mentions that she found her perfect match, Mary Ann insists that one can only meet Mr. Right in the flesh. Later, she shares an elevator with suave attorney Pedro Paulo (Antonio Fagundes), who is in the throes of a painful transition after his wife Tania (Debora Bloch) dumped him for a tai chi instructor. Pedro is struck by Mary Ann immediately, and he decides to sign up for one of her classes even though he is thoroughly fluent in English. Meanwhile, soccer ace Acacio (Alexandre Borges) is struggling through Mary Ann's language classes in order to play for a U.K. team. The good-looking athlete flirts with his teacher for a while, complicating things for Pedro Paulo, before becoming infatuated with Pedro's sexy law clerk. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amy Irving, Antonio Fagundes, (more)
- 1997
A supply boat sails to a lonely desert island with food and necessities for the lighthouse keeper and his daughter. The crewmen bring the goods to the tower and see before them a strange mystery -- steaming food on the table and a broken, bloody window. There is no trace of the keeper and his kin. Drawn from a novel by Brazilian author Moacir C. Lopes, this haunting, lyrical film chronicles the events leading up to this strange occurrence via the lost girl Marcela's diary. She was 13-years old and but for her domineering father, the island's sparse wildlife, the sea and the wind, she was alone. Having spent most of her life there, Marcela is used to it, but lately, as her body begins changing, she feels a strange yearning to be off the island and to be with other people. Once her father promised to take her to the mainland, but being a hermit, he broke that promise. Marcela was never the same after that. In her diary she writes of the mysterious Saulo who one day became her lover. That Saulo is the wind itself only adds to the mystery which concludes in a tense and gripping sequence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leandra Leal, Lima Duarte, (more)
- 1989
The hero of this picareque comedy has tried many careers in his life: beggar, priest, soldier, world-traveler. Each of his attempts to find his place in society backfires, and he is left as before. However, he finally finds his place as the leader of a group of mental defectives who, with a group of prostitutes, are hoping to capture a government residence. This odd story is based on a novel by Francisco Sabino. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diogo Vilela, Debora Bloch, (more)
- 1986
In this energetic, upbeat comedy-drama, first-time director Lauro Escorel-Filho tackles a story set in the early 1930s about an enthusiastic cineaste, Eduardo Abelim (Carlos Alberto Riccelli). Eduardo is a handsome cab driver with large ambitions, but he is stuck in a town too small to accommodate them. He goes to Rio de Janeiro with high hopes, looking for work in the budding movie industry. His hopes, unfortunately, are higher than his talents, and he quickly ends up on a boat going home again. Luck and his physical charms lead him into a brief affair on his voyage home, an affair that results in considerable monetary reward from the happy woman. Now armed with finances to back his dreams, Eduardo rounds up his friends, orders a movie camera, and is making his first Brazilian Western. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlos Alberto Riccelli, Debora Bloch, (more)
- 1984
Set in the 1950s in the state of Minas Gerais, just north of Rio de Janeiro, this film by Carlos Alberto Prates-Correa is a work of literary and cinematic art, conveying the story of people on a farm with sensual images and evocative dialogue. The film received several awards in Brazil's 1984 Gramado Film Festival, including best cinematography, editing, and sound, among others. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cristina Ache, Debora Bloch, (more)
- 1984
Filled with rock music from beginning to end, this teen-oriented drama tells the story of Bete Balanco's (Débora Bloch) rise to musical stardom from modest beginnings. Bete gets away from under the thumb of her parents and goes to Rio with her photographer-boyfriend to start her climb from nobody to somebody -- all with the support of her best friend Paulinho, her roommate in Rio. Her success story is told through many performances, video clips (as on MTV), and well-constructed characters who talk and act believably for their time and place. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debora Bloch, Diogo Vilela, (more)
