Cine Fest Brasil NY ’11: Boca

A vice-lord of the notorious Boca do Lixo district in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Hiroito de Moraes Joanides never had a chance to see Pacino’s Scarface. If he had, he might have understood how bad it is to become one of your own best customers. Indeed, his indulgences lead directly to his downfall in Flavio Frederico’s gangster drama Boca, which screens again tomorrow night during Inffinito’s 2011 Cine Fest Brasil in New York.

More or less based on the memoirs of the late gangster known to many as just plain Hiroito (like “Prince” or “Cher”), Boca chronicles his ruthless rise and chaotic fall. Drugs are most definitely involved, but he started out on the management side of the prostitution business. That is how he meets his wife Aleíde, a new street-walker in São Paulo, who nails her interview with the so-called “King of Boca do Lixo.”

While he looks somewhat like Clark Kent, Hiroito has a real psychotic streak, which his burgeoning drug habit hardly moderates. However, Aleíde displays more gumption than one would expect from the wife of the Brazilian Jacques Mesrine. This will not be a happy marriage, nor will there be peace in the Boca district, with Hiroito picking fights he really should avoid. It is all good clean gangster movie fun though, with a touch of Hunter S. Thompson thrown in for good measure.

Daniel de Oliveira might be intense and charismatic, but he is still something of a cold fish as Hiroito, coming across more serpentine than Mephistophelean. Conversely, Hermila Guedes exceeds expectations, investing Aleíde with genuine grit and sensuality. Yet, like any good gangland saga, the real charm of Boca is its many colorful supporting turns, including Milhem Cortaz as the duplicitous meathead Osmar and Jefferson Brasil as Hiroito’s stone cold rival Nelsinho.

Boca has verve and style in abundance, delivering the dirty deeds in a well crafted period production. Highly entertaining, Boca is one of the best selections of this year’s Inffinito’s festival in New York. It screens again tomorrow (6/18) at the Tribeca Cinemas.

Cine Fest Brasil NY ’11: Malu on a Bicycle

Like a New York-Los Angeles romance, in theory, there is no reason why a night club operator from São Paulo and a free-spirited woman from Rio can’t be a happy couple. In practice, good luck with that. The attraction is real, but so is the jealousy in Flávio Ramos Tambellini’s relationship dramedy Malu on a Bicycle (trailer here), which screens during Inffinito’s 2011 Cine Fest Brasil in New York.

To take a break from womanizing, Luiz Mário, the Peter Gatien of São Paulo, inexplicably heads to the beaches of Rio. However, his trip takes an unexpected turn when Malu bowls into him with her titular bicycle. He quickly resolves to make her his final and permanent conquest. For her part, Malu is quite amenable. Yet, her flirtatious chumminess with guy pals and spontaneous trips back to Rio gnaw at the back of his mind. Before too long, he is raging about like Othello, a player no longer capable of playing the game.

In a way, Bicycle is a very Brazilian film to present at the festival, brimming with nightlife and fun in the sun. Yet, despite the serious turn their relationship takes, the film is somewhat lightweight. Still, it is rather painful to watch Mario utterly undermine his own happiness. It also seems a bit odd that several of his exes are arguably more attractive than Malu, including Daniele Suzuki’s Japanese masseuse and Daniela Galli as the widow of his attorney. Of course, the whole point of the film is the galloping irrationality of love.

Regardless, Fernanda de Freitas has a real presence as Malu and Marcelo Serrado falls apart relatively well as her tormented lover (though his angst certainly tries viewer patience). Yet, perhaps the best work surprisingly comes from Marjorie Estiano as Malu’s best friend Sueli in a late sequence that comes almost out of the blue.

Even when things get melodramatic (and indeed they do), Tambellini keeps the action moving along briskly. Dado Villa-Lobos (great-grandson of Heitor) also helps sets the mood with his snappy score. Though not a good date movie (for obvious reasons), Bicycle falls more towards the higher end of the young urban promiscuous relationship film spectrum. As a representative of popular Brazilian cinema, it can be expected to be a popular selection at Inffinito’s 2011 New York festival. It screens again this Friday (6/17) at the Tribeca Cinemas.

Cine Fest Brasil NY ’11: 180°

Even in Brazil, publishing is a dodgy business. For the sake of publicity, an author agrees to pretend his story of a writer, much like himself, plundering a found notebook for ideas is based on fact. The only hitch is it really is true, at least to extent. The veracity of the authorship of his book might be a bit murky, but the love triangle is real enough in Eduardo Vaisman’s 180° (trailer here), which screens during Inffinito’s 2011 Cine Fest Brasil in New York.

Bernardo is not thrilled with the new title his editor Anna gives his manuscript: 180°. He also has deep reservations about her publicity plans, since they hit awfully close to home. However, he is eager to capitalize on their time spent working together. Of course, their resulting passionate affair strains Bernardo’s relationship with former colleague Russell, Anna’s ex. Yet, they all try to let bygones be bygones as Anna and Bernardo arrive for a Big Chill weekend at Russell’s orange orchard. In fact, Bernardo has more pressing issues on his mind than conventional jealousy. As he confides to Russell, he has been getting threatening notes from the original owner of the fateful notebook.

Fortunately, a John Shooter character never shows up to accuse Bernardo of “stealing his story,” because if 180° started lifting material from Secret Window, taking stock of the film would really get complicated. As it is, Vaisman’s film is probably too tricky for its own good, relentlessly doubling back and flashing forward. Frankly, it boasts an original premise (pardon the expression) and a complex three-way love dynamic, which are sufficient raw material for an engaging film.

Indeed, Vaisman largely privileges style over substance. Viewers often find themselves pulled out of the film, forced to puzzle out where in the timeline each new scene occurs. On the stylistic plus side, Fernando Moura’s lush jazzy soundtrack well serves the material, bringing to mind the noir scores of Mark Isham.

180°’s three principles hold it all together quite well nonetheless, deftly throwing down narrative markers while stewing in their hothouse passions and resentments. Evidently a semi-regular fixture of Brazilian psychological narrative-challenging thrillers, Eduardo Moscovis (whose The Last Madness played the Inffinito circuit several years ago), is again suitably intense and mysterious as Russell. Though probably not an obvious femme fatale, Malu Galu at least makes a credible book editor as Anna, whereas Felipe Abib convincingly conveys all Bernardo’s insecurities, as befits a self-centered writer.

Vaisman certainly deserves credit for his ambition, but 180° overstuffed with puzzle pieces and far too self-conscious in the way it tries to fit them all together. Still, it is all rather intriguing, which is not nothing. The curious should definitely check it out when 180° screens again this Friday (6/17) as Inffinito’s 2011 New York festival continues at the Tribeca Cinemas.

Cine Fest Brasil NY ’11: Hey, Hendrix

The impact of American jazz on Brazilian musicians like Antonio Carlos Jobim is well documented. However, the inspiration provided by American rockers is far less documented. Of course, it is nearly impossible to shoulder a guitar in rock band anywhere in the world without acknowledging a debt to Jimi Hendrix. Fans first and filmmakers secondarily, co-director-producers Pedro Paulo Carneiro and Roberto Lamounier present a detailed account of Hendrix’s London years while also interviewing some of Brazil’s best known rockers and MPB artists about their Hendrix experiences in Hey, Hendrix (trailer here), which screens during Inffinito’s 2011 Cine Fest Brasil in New York.

Everyone in New York knew Hendrix could play like a monster, but the studio musician had a rep for being a little different. Former Animals bassist Chas Chandler shrewdly calculated he could more easily break Hendrix out in the smaller UK market and then capitalize on his British cachet in the USA. That part pretty much went according to plan. As a result, aside from a Monterey Pop here and there, all the best parts of the Hendrix story happened in London.

While we certainly hear some of Hendrix’s classic recordings, most of the film’s musical load is carried eerie dead-ringer John Campbell’s Are You Experienced tribute band, who shred through the Hendrix songbook with love and respect. Yet, for amateur musicologists, the film’s most intriguing sequences involve the Brazilian rockers discussing Hendrix’s enduring influence on their music. Novos Baianos guitarist Pepeu Gomes is particularly eloquent (and cinematic in a hard rocking kind of way) discussing the almost ecstatic aspects of Hendrix’s music.

British music journalist Keith Altham (in a decidedly uncinematic skype interview) likens Hendrix to Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong for the revolutionary changes he wrought on his field of music. It is a particularly apt comparison, in that Hendrix’s popularity continues to cut across genres, much like that of Davis and Armstrong. Hendrix might have been a pioneer of psychedelic hard rock, but he was remained well attuned to the music’s blues roots. This also comes through loud and clear in Campbell’s channeling of the Hendrix spirit.

Watching a group of MPB artists on the London Rock Tour (one of Hey’s official sponsors) is rather fannish stuff largely lost on American audiences. Still, there is plenty of solid material on Hendrix’s life and legacy (especially with respect to Brazilian music). An interesting film for casual Hendrix admirers (hardcores will have to judge for themselves), Hey screens again this Wednesday (6/15) as Inffinito’s 2011 New York festival continues at the Tribeca Cinemas.