Arduíno Colassanti

"Portraits and excerpts from Brazilian films from all times. Actors, directors and images that affirm cinema."

A Virgem Prometida

Brazil, 1594. The Tupinambás natives are friends of the French and their enemies are the Tupiniquins, friends of the Portuguese. A Frenchman is captured by the Tupinambás, and in spite of his trial to convince them that he is French, they believe he is Portuguese. The Frenchman becomes their slave, and maritally lives with Seboipepe.

Daniel, Capanga de Deus

On Carnival's eve, girl dreams of a man to stay with her during these four days. She meets a photographer, with whom she has an affair.

A Doce Mulher Amada

Middle-class teenage girl has a serious boyfriend that her parents approve of. Suddenly, she meets another boy with whom she is shown to have a greater identification.

Tereza tries to leave her past and forge her own destiny and happiness by going through several affairs.

In a small town in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a woman rebels against local morality after her child dies, with tragic results.

Procura-se uma Virgem

Enterprising youths live many adventures when they decide to start a business specializing in making video clips for rock groups.

In an empty city, scorched by the sun, the young and old confuse the fever of sunstroke with the delicate birth of passion. Like ghosts, they hover around buildings and endless flatlands in search of the ever elusive love. Inspired by 19th century Russian short stories, the plots weave and unravel together in the improbable city of Brasilia – a distorted mirror-image of the Soviet utopia – located in the heart of the Brazilian desert.

The life of Brazilian actress Odete Lara, muse of the movement called Cinema Novo in Brazil, who exchanged stardom for a quiet and religious life.

A young girl named Marcela lives with her dad, Jose, a lighthouse keeper, and old Daniel on an island. The only contact the girl has with the world outside her home is by a boat with four sailors that pays a visit to the island in order to take them supplies. Daniel, who not only protects her from her dad's strictness but also teaches her how to be literate, is her source of tenderness. Her dad thinks she should be away from the world - though she wishes she could spend a few days in town. Then one day, as she has her first period and becomes a woman, she starts feeling sexuality through the blowing wind, which she talks to.

A shockingly irreverent follow-up to the rural austerity of Barren Lives, dos Santos’ Godardian social satire owes more than a nod to the self-conscious antics of the French New Wave. The pampered son of a general, El Justicero is a hipster playboy who fancies himself a James Bond/Jean Paul Sartre urban hero. “Archetypical” yet “full of contradictions,” he sees that justice is achieved for the disadvantaged while taking advantage of certain bourgeois perks. His exploits are closely followed and eventually directed by his biographer who decides a film is not only more lucrative than a book, but it gives him the luxury of reviewing previous scenes. Unlike Bond, El Jus eventually experiences an awakening which threatens to compromise the entertainment value and glamour of his life story. - Harvard Film Archive

Originally produced for German TV, Improvised and Purposeful is a firsthand look at the "Cinema Novo" movement (otherwise known as the 'Brazilian New Wave'). Director Joaquim Pedro de Andrade focuses on six Cinema Novo filmmakers working in Rio in 1967.

Couple whose marriage is at stake delve into the past, with the help of a diary and some home movies. In these movies, Helena, the woman's suicidal friend, has an important role.

American couple move to the State of Ceará, Brazil, in the 1930s. The husband is looking for oil. His beautiful wife, Donna, soon falls in love with a rude but charming fisherman. The forbidden romance may destroy her marriage and upset the morals of the small village where they live.

The life of Fernão Dias, a 17th century Brazilian frontiersman known as "the Emerald Hunter".

Father Simão Bacamarte arrives in the small town of Serafim to investigate a certain phenomenon of madness.

Chronicles the life of a 17 year-old girl living in the upper-class Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Ipanema. Márcia lives a life of parties and spend her days among bohemians, musicians and intellectuals. While seeming happy in the outside, she's extremely anguished inside. Based on the famous song by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes.

In a Rio de Janeiro after the catastrophe, only the hills were immune to a flood that left the asphalt submerged. While the Navy is rationing provisions and some are sacrificing themselves to avoid starvation, a diver goes to the bottom of the sea and finds a submerged civilization there.

Uma Garota em Maus Lençóis

Mestiça, a Escrava Indomável

An extended research tour of US university film programs introduced dos Santos to the American avant-garde filmmakers, among them Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage, who would directly inspire his formally radical adaptation of an allegorical short story about adultery and colonialism by Guilherme de Figueiredo. Filmed in both Manhattan and Brazil and set against the background of the Vietnam War and its protests, Hunger for Love uses a rigorously abstract soundtrack and narrative structure to evoke the acute paranoia of the period building up to the December 1968 military coup that tipped Brazil perilously close to a conservative dictatorship. With its harsh critique of the decadent tendencies of the Sixties counterculture, Hunger for Love offers a key expression of the self-consciously “ideological” phase of Cinema Novo. -Harvard Film Archive

Fantasy comedy about Brazilian writer Oswald de Andrade, one of the most important icons of Modernism in Brazil. In the film, Oswald is played by two actors: Ítala Nandi, as his feminine anima, and Flávio Galvão, as the masculine half.

Year 2000. Brazil was partially devastated by the Third World War. An immigrant family arrives in a small town, which they call "I Forgot." The trio is recruited by an indigenist to pretend to be indigenous during the visit of a general. In the dilemma of integrating into the system or preserving individual freedom, the family moves toward disintegration as the city prepares to launch a space rocket.

Naquela Noite ele Sonhou com um Mar Azul

Married woman only feels well when she's in love. In search of a ravishing love, she has many love affairs, with her husband's consent.

The life of Brazilian actress Leila Diniz.

The film tells the story of an intuitive, adventurous man who loved his country and being Brazilian. This man fought to be loyal to himself. His music is a transparent portrait of his genius, intuition, freedom, adventure and passion for Brazil.

Quilombo dos 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.

The critical success in France of How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman made possible dos Santos’ delirious science-fiction vision of free love in a post-apocalyptic wilderness besieged by flesh hungry zombies contaminated by an unnamed nuclear attack. Who is Beta? follows two statuesque survivors drawn irresistibly together only to be entranced by the arrival and sudden disappearance of a third, the bewitching raven haired Beta. With its cartoon-like depiction of extreme violence and desire, Who is Beta? offers a heady Pop-infused companion to Hunger for Love. Yet beneath its giddy play of surfaces, dos Santos' underappreciated film gradually reveals a darkly ambiguous metaphoric dimension. -Harvard Film Archive

Deep in the Amazon rain forest, there is a lost subterranean city. The place was built by Vikings who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and ventured up the Amazon River, and shelters a mysterious treasure. In order to find the secret location, Bárbara and the children Riacho and Manhã will have to face many challenges. Vicious snakes and dangerous pendulum blades are only the beginning of our heroes' adventures.