Flavio R. Tambellini Movies

Brazilian filmmaker Walter Lima Jr. looks back on the turmoil of the 1960's as well as the glories of the bossa nova boom in this musical period drama. Dico (Selton Mello) is a filmmaker who obsessively chronicles the career of his close friends in the group Os Desafinados, a bossa nova band who are on the verge of popular success at home and are earning a following among jazz fans abroad. Os Desafinados are the brainchild of composers Joaquim (Rodrigo Santoro) and Davi (Angelo Paes Leme), who with the help of their rhythm section Paolo Cesar (Andre Moraes) and Geraldo (Jair de Oliveira) are taking dance music into fresh and exiting directions. Their sound impresses Leon (David Herman), an American record producer who offers to bring the group to the United States and help them reach a new and wider audience. Joaquim and Davi eagerly accept the offer, and are jetted to New York City where they play a riotously well-received gig at jazz mecca the Village Vanguard. However, they soon discover Leon is more interested on how he can profit from the success of Os Desafinados than in the welfare of the group, and when Joaquim and Davi meet Gloria (Claudia Abreu), a gifted Brazilian vocalist who has relocated to Manhattan, the two become rivals for her romantic and musical attentions, an especially problematic situation for Joaquim since he's already married to Luiza (Alessandra Negrini). The band's career troubles and internal squabbles suddenly seem trivial, however, when Os Desafinados learn that Brazil's political future is up in the air following a violent military coup. Os Desafinados (aka Out Of Tune) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Brazilian filmmakers Joao Jardim and Walter Carvalho ponder the old adage "the eyes are the windows to the soul" as they explore vision and perception in their 2002 documentary A Janela Da Alma (Window of the Soul). Beginning with an interview with Brazilian jazz musician Hermeto Pascoal, Carvalho and Jardim attempt to make sense of how the musician perceives his world with a pair of impaired eyes that appear to simultaneously look in different directions. From there, the Brazilian co-directors interview a number of famous subjects with varying degrees of ocular health, ranging from the non-vision impaired director Wim Wenders to blind photographer Evgen Bavcar, while both the filmmakers and the interview subjects ponder how their lives and existences would be different had their abilities or inabilities to see the world around them been different. Released in Brazil in the summer of 2002 to mixed reviews, A Janela Da Alma was screened at a number of film festivals around the world in late 2002 into early 2003. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

A cinematic study of the bleak realities of modern day Brazil, O Homen do Ano (aka Man of the Year) follows the brooding Máiquel (Murilo Benicio) as he discovers that the smallest changes in life can make the biggest differences. Jobless and insecure to the point where he can't even face himself in the mirror, a terrified Máiquel enters a salon to have his hair died platinum blond after losing a soccer bet to a friend. His new look supplying an unexpected jolt of confidence, Máiquel asks Cledir (Claudia Abreu), the salon employee who died his hair, to join him at the bar in celebration. Taunted by local bully Suel upon arrival at the bar, Máiquel decides to settle the matter by purchasing a rifle and shooting down the loudmouthed Suel in the presence of Suel's young girlfriend (Natalia Lage). Unexpectedly hailed as a hero by his neighbors and the police, Suel's girlfriend subsequently approaches Máiquel and claims that since he killed Suel, it is now Miquel's responsibility to care for her. Simultaneously learning that Cledir is pregnant and anticipating a marriage proposal, Miquel's newfound reputation soon catches up to him as the dubious requests of influential locals begin to take their toll on him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The legendary Brazilian songsmith Gilberto Gil supplies the score for this reality-based comedy, in which an independent-minded woman decides that if one live-in husband doesn't fulfill her needs, she can always add more. The film begins when Darlene (Regina Case) returns to her small, dusty hometown in northern Brazil to receive her mother's blessing for her for young son Dimas. When she arrives, she finds that her mother has died; her funeral occurs the day Darlene arrives. Despondent over her new predicament, she accepts an extemporaneous marriage proposal from her neighbor Osias (Lima Duarte) and moves in with him. It becomes clear to Darlene, however, that Osias wants little more than a live-in maid. Darlene becomes pregnant and bears a child -- who bears no resemblance to the light-skinned Osias. When Osias' cousin Zezinho (Stenio Garcia) comes to town and takes an immediate liking to Darlene, she doesn't turn him away -- before long, she's bearing his son as well. As the eager-to-please Zezinho takes over her housekeeping duties, Darlene decides that the one thing she's lacking in her life is true passion, and fills that void with a sugar cane worker named Ciro (Luis Vasconcelos), who moves in as well. Eu Tu Eles was purportedly inspired by a Brazilian news story about a woman in a similar alternative-living situation; the film screened at the 2000 Cannes, Tokyo, and Toronto Film Festivals before making its stateside premiere. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Um Copo de Colera, which is adapted from a novel by Raduan Nassar, is an experimental film about an odd couple. She is an attractive journalist of twenty-five and he is a recluse in his late thirties who lives in a farm house outside Sao Paulo, where he has created a world of his own. When he comes home, she is waiting for him. They go to the bedroom. There is hardly a word spoken between the two. The next morning, he remembers that ants have chewed a hole in the hedge. He is very angry and the atmosphere changes. The harmony explodes into insults and recriminations. A few hours later, the same ritual is repeated -- desire, fulfillment, humiliation. Um Copo de Colera which was screened as part of the Panorama: art & essai section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999, is a psychological study of the male warrior in the battle of the sexes, and an impressive self-examination and analysis of machismo. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

The fate of a remote Brazilian province will be determined by the passage of a reclamation bill. If the bill goes through the land will be destroyed. Fortunately, Father Stephen Lewis is working hard to stop it. For months he has led numerous high-profile protests, but then just a few days before the assembly retires to decide the bill, he simply vanishes. This off-beat political thriller chronicles the attempts of American reporter Michael Coleman to find the radical priest and interview him. Coleman, who works for a paper in Rio, is obsessed with finding Father Lewis for over the months the two have developed a tempestuous, argumentative relationship over the phone. Privately, Coleman wonders if the outspoken priest's actions mask ulterior motives. Still, he cannot help but respect the father's charisma and drive. So desperate is Coleman to find Lewis, that he stops at nothing, calling in every favor, and even resorting to dirty tricks. In the end it is his blatant abuse of media power that manages to keep the would-be land-grabbers from succeeding. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hugo Assis (Jose Mayer) runs a mining company's operations in the jungles of Brazil. That's not so unusual. What intrigues Elisa Medeiros (Fernanda Torres), an investigative journalist assigned to report on his story, is that he has ties with the native peoples of the jungle. He believes that his wife is long since deceased, and has no qualms beginning an affair with Elisa. Things grow very complicated indeed when Hugo's wife shows up wanting to involve him in a moneymaking scheme which would destroy what is left of the land the natives have been living on. The reporter decides to act as an advocate for the indigenous people, and soon a full-fledged battle has broken out in the media. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Here's one for the ecologists of the world. The Dolphin is nothing more or less than the story of a libidinous sea mammal! Walter Lima Jr., former Brazilian journalist and "auteur" of Brasil Anno 2000 (1969) and Xico Rei (1982), has cooked up the weird tale of a dolphin who, by the light of the full moon, transforms into a man. In this guise, he wriggles his way through a fishing village, mystically arousing the libido of every human female in sight. Normally, the other men in the village wouldn't mind -- except that every time the dolphin-man arrives, he scares away the fish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gabriela was based on Jorge Armado's novel Gabriela, Clove and Cinammon, which also served as the source of a typically steamy Brazilian TV soap opera. Set in 1925 (when the novel was first published), the film stars Marcello Mastrioanni as Nacib, a bartender in the Bahian village of Parati. When a drought descends upon the surrounding countryside, slovenly-but-sexy Gabriela (Sonja Braga) wanders into Parati with some friends and relatives. Immediately entranced by Gabriela's earthy sensuality, Nacib hires her as a cook and potential lover. Jealous of the attentions paid to Gabriela by the local menfolk, Nacib decides to marry her, then orders her to dress and behave in a more prudish fashion. But Gabriela can't help straying sexually, and as consequence it is Nacib who is forced to undergo the film's major character transformation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide