Wilson Grey Movies
- 1987
In this vibrant if somewhat disjointed film, the spirit of Carnival enlivens the visits of two foreigners to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The first visitor is a prominent avant-garde French artist, who comes to the city in 1924, the second visitor is a poet in modern times. Each has a number of parallel experiences in the heady and timeless chaos of Rio during the pre-Lenten celebration, including similar lovemaking scenes at their hotels. Over the course of the film, other poignant stories are briefly recounted, such as the sad fate of a homosexual imprisoned at the turn of the century, or the sweet tale of a romance between a landowner and a pretty girl. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paulo Cesar Pereio, Odete Lara, (more)
- 1987
In this children's fantasy drama, a pair of street puppeteers sell a "magic potion" to the children attending their shows which they claim will bring their dolls to life. Though they don't know it, their potion really works on the dolls made by a local doll craftsman. His granddaughter is the first to discover the potion's power. When others learn of this transformation, greed enters into the picture and all sorts of robberies and kidnappings begin to take place. This Brazilian feature for children is unusual in that it is not a comedy, and children are depicted as persons who are capable of reasoning things through skillfully. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wilson Grey
- 1986
Malandro is a Brazilian musical set in the Rio of the 1940s. Likeable prostitute Fabio Sabag is fired from her nightclub job. Fabio's pimp Edson Celulari vows vengeance upon the girl's odious ex-boss. Celulari sets about to seduce the club owner's daughter Claudia Ohana, but she proves to be no pushover. The play on which this film is based was very obviously influenced by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, especially The Threepenny Opera and Happy Days. Malandro was released in Brazil as Opera do Malandro. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Edson Celulari, Claudia Ohana, (more)
- 1984
This vampire story by Brazilian director Ivan Cardoso is interspersed with humor and nuanced with a 1950s look. A group of young women are performing in a nightclub act called "The Seven Vampires" at a respectable and (apparently) prosperous hotel. While they are play-acting in the beginning, their roles take on another aura after a "killer vegetable" changes a scientist into a vampire. His affinity for the chorus girls threatens to make their vampire personas all the more realistic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alvamar Tadei, Andrea Beltrao, (more)
- 1984
Based on the first-hand writings of Brazilian political-activist Graciliano Ramos, Memories of Prison, stars Carlos Vereze as Ramos. The time-frame is the 1930s, during the dictatorial regime of Getulio Vargas. Because of his anti-Vargas sentiments, Ramos is shipped off to a hellhole of a prison island. Knowing full well that he's expected to die in jail rather than be "rehabilitated," Ramos nonetheless survives, if for no other reason than to expose the sadistic cruelties of Vargas' minions. Placing an unpleasant period in Brazilian history within a personal perspective, Memories of Prison is one of the best of the many films directed by Nelson Pereira Dos Santos. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Carlos Vereza, Gloria Pires, (more)
- 1984
The horror of life in a Brazilian prison from an inmate's view is chronicled in this drama based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Gracilano Ramos. The tale takes place in the 1930s when Brazil was run by dictator Getulio Vargas. It begins as the Marxist oriented protagonist is arrested with no explanation. Once imprisoned, the authorities allow him to write--provided he can find pen and paper. In the end, his writing has such impact on the public that authorities release him. Had they not, he would have died from their brutal cruelty. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1983
Director Neville D'Almeida started out with a screenplay meant to expose the underside of the social elite in Rio de Janeiro but the film itself overdoses on drugs, sex, and corruption. When shown at the Gramado Film Festival in 1983 the picture was dismissed by critics as yet another hyped porno film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joel Barcelos, Jardel Filho, (more)
- 1983
This boisterous Brazilian comedy is set in Dona Esperanzas lively bar and revolves around the tempestuous love between a bitchy soap opera diva and her husband, a writer for her show and an author of pulp romances. The trouble begins because the actress has become too involved with her role and this is not helped by the show's fans who constantly assault her. The other patrons of the bar lead equally soapy lives. When they all hear that the bar is about to be replaced by a shopping mall, they are devastated. Things really get nutty when a troupe of circus performers suddenly shows up. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugo Carvana, Anselmo Vasconcelos, (more)
- 1982
Lucelia Santos plays the controversial Luz del Fuego in this film about the Brazilian striptease maven who performed with equally naked live snakes, in an era (the 1950s) when striptease, with or without live snakes, was a social pariah. She went on to found a nudist colony on an island in Rio's Guanabara Bay, and was regularly linked with one prominent politician or another. The cause of her death in the 1960s has never been revealed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lucelia Santos, Walmor Chagas, (more)
- 1979
This political thriller was prohibited from being shown in Brazil, where it was made. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Renato Coutinho, Ana Maria Miranda, (more)
- 1979
Reality and erotic fantasy are inextricably mixed in the inner life of Coronel Furtado (Mauricio do Valle). His military years are long past, and his inner life poses him some unique challenges as he attempts to cope with his reduced circumstances. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mauricio do Valle
- 1977
Jorden Er Flad or The Earth is Flat is based on the play Erasmus Montanus, from the classical era in Danish literature, by Ludvig Holberg. Director Henrik Stangerup had the play translated into Portuguese, and adapted it for filming in contemporary Brazil. In this comic movie, a group of villagers have scrimped and saved to send their fellow villager Erasmus Montanus (Fausto Wolff) away for an education. When the boy returns to his village, he is stuffed full of book-learning of a kind which is of absolutely no use to those of the village. The boy, rather than seeing his situation clearly, continues to spout learned platitudes, including the incredible observation, "the earth is round," supported by nothing other than his authority as an "educated man." Understandably, his posturing provokes derision. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wilson Grey
- 1977
The rich and vibrant culture of the Brazilian poor enlivens this tragic story of a young thief whose increasingly strenuous and violent efforts to survive result in his death. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stepan Nercessian, Cosme Dos Santos, (more)
- 1972
Revolutionaries in 16th-century Brazil come in for close study in this 1972 Brazilian/Italian film. A group of intellectuals, with the exception of a Corporal Tiradentes, these revolutionaries plotted the overthrow of the Portuguese colonial government. In a compelling scene, an informer slips into the governor's bathtub to tell him of the group's plans. The entire group was rounded up and put in prison where, Inquisition-like, they were tortured until they recanted. Only Tiradentes refused, and was killed. One of the film's ironic moments is a shot of modern Brazil officially celebrating the dedication of this lone patriot. It is ironic, because the country was under the control of an undemocratic, strict military government at the time. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1971
This Brazilian film is set during the period of its initial colonial discovery and settlement. The title refers to a word the native peoples used for the coastal lands: "pindorama," or "place of the small trees." A ponderous and grandiose film, it was roundly booed when it was aired at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1962
1962 is known as the year of Cinema Novo -- the year that the Brazilian film movement broke. Roberto Farias was the author of an influential essay that laid the groundwork for the movement's profound economic model and later became the head of Brazil's national film distribution agency Embrafilme. As a director, Farias produced a number of compelling films in the Cinema Novo style -- loose, edgy editing coupled with stories that reveal the contradictions of Brazil's society. Train Robbery Confidential takes the stock plot of a train robbery a turns it to serve the ends of social commentary. Tiao Medonho is an easygoing gang leader with big ambitions but few plans. After stumbling upon a group of fellow petty criminals, they let Tiao in on their plot to rob a mail train carrying a month's worth of pay out to Brazil's rural areas. The robbery comes off without a hitch and the group splits up each to live the lux life. It doesn't last, however, (when does it ever?) and the police begin to zero in on Medonho. At the film's climax, his partners execute a kind of justice which serves as a revolutionary allegory and as a critique of a society that drives its poorer members to crime. ~ Brian Whitener, Rovi
Political prisoner Valentin Arregui (Raul Julia) and homosexual pederast Luis Molina (William Hurt) share a Brazilian prison cell in this fantastical drama from the book by Manuel Puig. Sensitive and flamboyant, Molina helps pass the time by recounting memories from one of his favorite films, a wartime romantic thriller that just may also be a Nazi propaganda film. He weaves the characters into an ongoing narrative meant to spur Valentin's imagination and distract him from the brutal realities of political imprisonment and separation from the woman he loves. Hard around the edges, and willing to die for his political principles, Valentin nonetheless allows Molina to penetrate some of his defensive shell. An odd friendship forms between the two vastly different prisoners, the dreamer and the activist. As the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that Valentin is being poisoned by his captors, to compel him to reveal names and secrets, and that Molina may have other agendas that belie his honesty and openness with Valentin. The intense character study builds toward a surprising conclusion. Kiss of the Spider Woman received Oscar nominations for best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay, and Hurt took home the best actor trophy for his portrayal of the soulful and conflicted Molina. The film was later adapted into a Broadway musical. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Hurt, Raul Julia, (more)
- 1985
- R
Based on the 19th-century novel by Machado de Assis, this experimental film combines at least two realities at once -- the literary and the cinematic. In this case, characters from the novel are mixed on different levels with director Julio Bressane's own experience to produce an amusing, substantive commentary on Rio de Janeiro and its society. The end product also says a lot about the nature of filmmaking and will be especially enjoyed by aficionados of that art. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luz Fernando Guimaraes, Bia Nunes, (more)
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