Carla Camurati Movies

The stars of the Brazilian production of The Mystery of Irma Vep team with director/co-screenwriter Carla Camurati for a screen adaptation that finds Marco Nanini and Ney Latorraca each assuming duel roles as the remaining parts are filled by actors Thiago Fragosco, Marcos Caruso, Fernando Caruso, and Leandro Hassum. Latorraca portrays ex-stage star and struggling director Darcy and her overbearing mother while Nanini settles into the wheelchair of neurotic ex-star Tony and his booze-guzzling sister Cleide. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The lust for power, land and sex run amok in this off-kilter, comedic look at Brazilian history. The film opens on a rocky Scottish promontory where a bekilted young man begins telling the wide-eyed 10-year old Yolanda an exotic tale of the exploits of 18th-century bratty Spanish princess Carlota Joaquina who journeys to Portugal to marry prince Don Joao. The 10-year old princess is not impressed by the sedate court and her cowardly husband. Years pass, and she grows up, taking many different lovers along the way. In 1808, she and Don Joao are forced to sail to Brazil by the invader Napoleon. Don Joao chooses Rio de Janiero to set up his new court. By this time, Carlota has developed a limp and grown a moustache, but this does not stop her from continuing to have many affairs. She ends up falling in love with Fernando Leao, a rakish black fellow. Joaquina dreams of becoming Queen of the Amazon, but cannot because her husband is afraid to give her too much power. Upon their return to Portugal, their son Pedro fights for Brazil's independence and becomes the country's first emperor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this black comedy, Xavier owns a pharmacy and does well enough at it to support two households comfortably, which is exactly what he does. In fact, he is a bigamist. Not content with two wives, he even has a mistress, a cabaret singer. His male friends and neighbors are privy to his situation, and he is widely envied. That is, until his wives find out about each other -- which goes surprisingly well, all things considered. He nearly weathers that crisis when the two women find out about his mistress. This so outrages them that they get together and kill him. It's not the sex that bothers one of them, but the possibility that the mistress may have violated the sanctity of her intimate relations with her man by cooking for him. Though the murder doesn't go unnoticed by the police, the investigator in the case has another agenda entirely. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

São Paolo is a city with many faces. For tourists, it is still a glamorous hotspot, and it boasts a thriving downtown with many skyscrapers. The favelas on its outskirts play host to hordes of displaced peasants from the countryside. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the city has its criminal underside which comes to life at night. Through flashbacks, the story of Shirley and Anjo, two ordinary denizens of the underworld, are told by a man sitting at the bar in a nightclub. Neither of them is loyal, trustworthy, clean or brave, but there is an unspoiled quality about them that inspires hope even when they are betraying each other. They are victims of two closely allied forces: a corrupt, heroin-addicted police chief, and a "Japo," a Brazilian/Japanese gang lord who rules the roost in the section of town where his people live. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide