Carlos Diegues Movies

Director Olivier Jahan offers an glimpse into The Director's Fortnight, a sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival conceived by a group of filmmakers known as the Société des Réalisateurs de Films who sought to counter the academism of the main part of the world-renowned festival. Pierre-Henri Deleau, the one-time artistic director of the Société des Réalisateurs de Films, and as his successor Olivier Père take movie lovers behind the scenes as the dedicated group of filmmakers prepare for the 2007 Director's Fortnight. Archive footage, film clips, and interviews with over two-dozen directors offer a comprehensive look at forty years of cinematic rebellion. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Directed by Carlos Diegues, Deus é Brasileiro (God Is Brazilian) is based on author Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro's short story The Saint Who Didn't Believe in God. The plot centers around Taoca (Wagner Moura), a part-time fisherman and petty con artist, and a man who claims he is God (Antonio Fagundes). Taoca initially disbelieves the man's heavenly origins when he finds him straddling a buoy several miles out to sea, though he becomes convinced after witnessing some quite miraculous demonstrations. It turns out that God has decided to take a break from his eternity of presiding over humankind and is actively seeking a temp to take over the position. With Taoca by his side, God traverses the nation in hopes of finding someone saintly enough for the job. Eventually, they comes across a young man with all the right credentials with the exception of one, glaring trait -- he doubts the very existence of a higher power. Paloma Duarte makes an appearance as a tough-talking love interest for Taoca, while Bruce Gomlevsky, Stepan Nercessian, Hugo Carvana, Chico de Assis, and Thiago Faria are also featured. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Based on a popular Brazilian novel by Jorge Amado, this lively drama slyly comments upon Brazilian society while telling a tale of reconciliation and subtle revenge had at the hands of the fast-living titular character, a woman who 26 years before was banished from her remote home village of Sant'Ana do Agreste for promiscuity. Cloaked in mystery, she returns home from Sao Paulo. The residents who welcome her know that she is recently widowed from a wealthy man and that she has been sending money to the family, but they know nothing else. The still fantastic looking Tieta is accompanied by her step-daughter Leonora. Still jealous, Tieta's wallflower sister Perptua, who is also a widow, secretly conspires with their father to learn the truth about the scandalous Tieta who is busy stirring up erotic trouble amongst the town's most pious hypocrites. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Dede (Guilherne Fontes) is a Brazilian teen who lives with his middle-class grandparents who are members of the local communist party. When his grandmother dies, his grandfather's health soon fades to the point where he can't speak or walk. The local party officials ask Dede to continue to family tradition and take over his grandfather's position of social authority, but when Dede is introduced to cocaine by his best friend Alpino (Marcos Palmeira), the attraction to drugs is more appealing to him than political activism. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Quilombo de Palmares was a real-life democratic society, created in Brazil in the 17th century. This incredibly elaborate (and surprisingly little-known) film traces the origins of Quilombo, which began as a community of freed slaves. The colony becomes a safe harbor for other outcasts of the world, including Indians and Jews. Ganga Zumba (Toni Tornado) becomes president of Quilombo, the first freely elected leader in the Western Hemisphere. Naturally, the ruling Portuguese want to subjugate Zumba and his followers, but the Quilombians are ready for their would-be oppressors. The end of this Brave New World is not pleasant, but the followers of Zumba and his ideals take to the hills, where they honor his memory to this day. Writer/director Carlos Diegues takes every available opportunity to compare the rise and fall of Quilombo with the state of affairs in modern-day Brazil. Still, the film is refreshingly free of self-righteous oratory, and serves as an excellent introduction to anyone intrigued by the political history of South America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bye Bye Brazil, the gifted director Carlos Diegues' follow-up to his 1978 Xica da Silva, became one of the most popular and fiscally successful imports of late '70s and early '80s South American cinema. Bye Bye is a muted and low-key ensemble drama about a shabby circus crawling from small town to small town through the Brazilian backwaters. As the curtain rises before us, the circus claims three participants: the slightly scary, medicine-show-like leader, Lorde Cigano (Jose Wilker), who sports a carnival-like 19th century mustache and cape, and keeps the audience mesmerized with magic tricks; the erotically charged, raven-haired dancer Salome (Betty Faria), "Queen of the Rumba"; and the deaf-mute strongman Swallow, who doubles as a fire breather. The troupe quickly adds yet another member shortly after the story begins: the strapping young accordion player Cico (Fabio Junior). He signs on with the circus when he catches sight of Salome, and is thus lost to his expectant wife, Dasdo (Zaira Zambelli) forever -- despite his obligation to cart the missus along with the troupe. The preponderance of the drama explores the shifting relationships between the circus members over the course of their journeys; it also reveals how endangered the troupe has become, both by the inability of locals to pay (the performers accept melons and other edible goods as recompense) and by competing entertainments such as television. These endangerments will ultimately force Cigano and co. beyond desperation -- to the point of ending the circus altogether and prostituting out Salome and Dasdo, just to turn a buck. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The uncommonly sexy, clever and ambitious slave Xica Da Silva won her independence and much more in mid-19th-century Brazil by using her feminine wiles and her lovemaking prowess to induce the Portuguese town governor to grant her freedom. In so doing, she became a legend and an inspiration to Brazil's large population of slaves and (eventually) ex-slaves. This film tells her story. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A journalist is tortured by police in the wake of political and social chaos, and the information he reveals leads to the death of a popular rebel leader. The journalist recovers and is sent to interview a plantation owner who is fighting to save his land from being nationalized. Men are helpless to halt the changes that are sweeping the country. The journalist is driven off his father-in-laws land when he voices support of a rebel strongman. His younger brother tries to grab the land for himself and ingratiate himself to the new government. In a pique of revolutionary fervor, the journalist wishes for his brother's death and threatens to have his father arrested. The patriarch commits suicide after burning down his home so it will not fall into the hands of the rebels. The journalist inherits the land and all the problems of the peasants he tried to help. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This Brazilian film was made in 1963 but was not released until 1972 because there was a military coup in Brazil in 1963, and films about revolutions, even those taking place in the 17th century, were considered politically dangerous. Farming huge plantations using Native and African slave labor was the economic backbone of Brazil in its early years. Even today, large estates are farmed for their owners by peasant tenant farmers. From the beginning of European involvement until today, there have been innumerable slave and peasant revolts. Usually they were short-lived, brutally suppressed affairs. This film recounts the story of one revolt, in 1641, in which the slaves formed their own nation or "quilombo" and ran it for over 50 years. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide