Search - Opera Do Malandro on DVD

Opera do Malandro

Pablo Vargas | Atlanta, GA USA | 11/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This 1986 Brazilian musical has the look of a '40's big-studio musical, but as directed by Ray Guerra, better known to international audiences for his previous film Erendira it's also got more than a few idiosyncrasies, some wonderfully Hollywood, some Brechtian and some typically Brazilian. This movie is based on a stage-musical by Brazil's Chico Buarque. The film is also a musical homage for vintage Hollywood, invoking other classics such as Casablanca, even Cabaret with dozens of visual allusions to many others.

The setting is Rio at about the time of Pearl Harbor. Malandro is a good nature romp that sizzles with its Latin rhythms and aspirations. The characters inhabit cheerfully colorful Hollywood back-lot sets and the film offers many wonderful and unique pleasures which include the sexy choreography by Regina Miranda. There are many highlights, as in the opening number titled 'The Hood is the King of the Slums' in which a group of white suited hoodlums dance in formation on a moonlit street ; there's an unforgettable duet titled "I am His Woman" between the two main female characters disputing their claims to the malandro's affections, filmed from a birds eye point of view; the "The Wedding Tango" with the entire gang of hoodlums dressed in coat tails and top hats, the bolero 'The Pain of Love' performed by a bunch of prostitutes; the climatic duet "You Who Are Part of Me" between the malandro and the heroine with the background of an elegant pax deux between two dancers resembling their young versions. Hundreds of dancers, 'samba passistas', acrobats and 'capoeira players' dance through the hands of Regina and the result is brilliant.

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