Lima Duarte Movies

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, Rovi

Paulo Rocha directed this Portuguese-Brazilian drama which Rocha initially began scripting 30 years ago. Carolina (Isabel Ruth) marries dredging-boat operator Antonio (Brazilian TV star Lima Duarte), but she soon becomes jealous of Antonio's interest in their goddaughter Melita (Joana Barcia), but both Carolina and Melita fancy gypsy gold salesman Ze of Gold (Joao Cardoso). Passions, jealousy, and long-buried secrets begin to surface. Folk ballads performed by Portuguese singer Jose Mario Branco. Shown in the A Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

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, Rovi

Based on a novel by Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro, this film chronicles the determination of a certain Sargeant Getulio (Lima Duarte) to bring a political prisoner from a local village into the capital of the province. The setting is the 1940s in the northeastern area of Brazil, and the sparring between two political parties at the time serves as a backdrop for the story. Although the film was completed in 1978, director Hermano Penna waited five years to release it -- to a very warm reception. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Sexual fantasies among middle-class Brazilians are the material out of which this black comedy has been formed. The adventures of three people are followed to a (usually) humorous or dire conclusion. In the first story, a lawyer who misuses his position for erotic gain finds one client even more determined than himself. The second story tells of a neurotic lad who cannot bring himself to remove his coat and glasses for his erotic encounters, but he is sufficiently chivalrous to leave an aged old prostitute grateful for his attentions. The last story tells a mysterious, symbolic tale of a married couple whose feuding ends in death. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi