Walter Lima, Jr. Movies
- 2008
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
- Starring:
- Rodrigo Santoro, Cláudia Abreu, (more)
- 2003
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
- Starring:
- Evgen Bavcar, Antonio Cicero, (more)
- 1997
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leandra Leal, Lima Duarte, (more)
- 1987
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
- Starring:
- Carlos Alberto Riccelli, Cassia Kiss, (more)
- 1986
In this energetic, upbeat comedy-drama, first-time director Lauro Escorel-Filho tackles a story set in the early 1930s about an enthusiastic cineaste, Eduardo Abelim (Carlos Alberto Riccelli). Eduardo is a handsome cab driver with large ambitions, but he is stuck in a town too small to accommodate them. He goes to Rio de Janeiro with high hopes, looking for work in the budding movie industry. His hopes, unfortunately, are higher than his talents, and he quickly ends up on a boat going home again. Luck and his physical charms lead him into a brief affair on his voyage home, an affair that results in considerable monetary reward from the happy woman. Now armed with finances to back his dreams, Eduardo rounds up his friends, orders a movie camera, and is making his first Brazilian Western. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlos Alberto Riccelli, Debora Bloch, (more)
- 1986
Weighing in heavily on the side of atrocities against the black slaves of 18th-century Brazil, this uneven drama is centered on the legend of Galanga, King of the Congo. Galanga is first captured and after the long segments of atrocities have subsided, his owner promises him full freedom if he can find a source of gold on his plantation. Galanga not only succeeds in finding the mother lode, but with that discovery gets his freedom and a mine to go with it. His owner is persecuted by others for his liberal views, while Galanga, in the meantime, has established himself as a leader in the emancipation of the slaves. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Severo D'Acelino, Othon Bastos, (more)
- 1968
Brasil , Anno 2000 was the second directorial effort of ex-journalist Walter Lima Jr. This is the man who in 1987 gave us Dolphin, a fantasy about a man who turns into the title character and goes about seducing every woman in a small fishing community. We're telling you this so that you don't expect a traditional sci-fi effort while watching Brasil Anno 2000. Lima's personal spin on the future may not always be uplifting, but rest assured it's sharp and satirical. As far as we know, Brasil Anno 2000 has not yet been released in an English-language version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
A young boy goes to live with his grandfather on a Brazilian plantation after his mother dies. Haunted by the memories of her violent death, the boy slowly adapts to his new surroundings until death, marriage, and the passage of time breaks up the family. Only when the boy is old enough to experience his first love does he leave to attend a city school. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rodolfo Arena
