Janeiro in New York: The Mystery of Samba

Meet Marisa Monte, song-hunter. Though known as an international Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) star, Monte has wide-ranging interests in many forms of Brazilian music, most certainly including Samba. Indeed she displays an easy camaraderie with the senior statesmen of Samba affiliated with the Portele Samba School in Rio de Janeiro, while searching for classic unrecorded Sambas in The Mystery of Samba (trailer here), an official selection of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival which screens this Thursday at the 92 Y Tribeca as part of the Janeiro in New York film series.

As our guide to the musical legacy of Portela, Monte also gets valuable assists from samba stars Zeca Pagodinha and Paulinho da Viola, but she is the film’s primary contemporary voice, and for good reason given the warmth of her on-screen presence. Having a family connection to the school, she seems to establish immediate rapport with the veterans of Portela and in some cases their survivors. With a voice beautifully suited to the gentle impromptu a cappella duets she performs with her interview subjects, her interest in preserving these lost songs comes across as a completely genuine Alan Lomax-like impulse. Of course, it also gives her an opportunity to be the first to sing some very cool, previously unheard tunes.

Comparisons to the Buena Vista Social Club are probably inevitable with a film like this, but that is fair enough. Still, Rio’s Samba schools are themselves essentially music-based fraternal organizations, perhaps closer akin to the parading societies of New Orleans. Regardless, the old gentlemen of Samba show they can still get it done, with a party atmosphere pervading throughout Mystery. Most have roots both at the school and in the surrounding neighborhood going back decades. Seu Argemiro is a bit of an exception. Though of the same generation, he is relatively new to Portela, but fit right in when they heard his Sambas.

Directed by Carolina Jabor and Lula Buarque de Hollanda, Mystery is lovely to look at, capturing the charm and vibrancy of the surrounding Madureira neighborhood and the Portela School, with its blue and white colors. It is an elegant film, crafted with respect and affection. It screens the 92 Y Tribeca on Thursday (1/28).

Janeiro in New York: The House of Tom

Tom Jobim and Louis Armstrong belong to an exclusive fraternity of musicians who have had airports renamed in their honor. Such is the place of unrivaled honor held by composer-arranger-musician-vocalist Antonio Carlos “Tom” Jobim in his native Brazil. Yet, it is the private Jobim that his widow Ana faithfully captures in her documentary The House of Tom: Mundo, Monde, Mondo, which screens tomorrow at the 92 Y Tribeca as part of Cinema Tropical’s Janeiro in New York film series.

Blending the influences of American jazz and the French Impressionist composers, Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, started the international Bossa Nova craze with their bestselling soundtrack to Marcel Camus’s Black Orpheus. Many of his hundreds of songs have become familiar jazz standards, like “Wave,” “The Waters of March,” and “Dindi,” several examples of which are heard throughout House. Yet probably more than any other tune, Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema” would define Bossa Nova and Brazil in general for millions around the world. However, in the reminiscences recorded by his widow, Jobim recalls the initial resistance to a song about “Ipanema,” a place few Americans had then heard of.

Much of Ana Jobim’s footage consists of Tom Jobim reading poetry—either Naruda’s or his own. In particular, we hear extended excerpts from his long poem inspired by the process of building their final home in Brazil. Naturally, there is also quite a bit of music in House as well, but instead of polished concert hall performances, Ana Jobim shows viewers the informal Tom Jobim, singing and playing with family and friends during parties or when simply relaxing at home. Of course as a legendary composer, the musical talent of Jobim’s nearest and dearest was well above average, so these relaxed sessions prove to be quite entertaining.

Not surprisingly, Jobim on Jobim is an intimate, highly complimentary portrait of the late Bossa Nova maestro. Only briefly do we hear the composer allude to political controversies, clearly comparing himself to the Brazilian classical composer Villa-Lobos for their shared aversion to ideology.

An accomplished photographer, Ana Jobim also intersperses House with images of Brazil’s natural beauty, which was a major source of inspiration for her late husband. As a result, it is also quite an effective advertisement for Brazilian tourism. Still, it is the many previously unseen interviews, private performances, and candid photos collected in her film that will really interest Jobim’s scores of fans. In many respects, House is like some of Jobim’s finest songs, short in duration, but gently wistful, with some moments of real beauty. It plays tomorrow night (10/29) as Janeiro in New York continues at the 92 Y Tribeca.

Janeiro in New York: Wandering Heart

Arguably the greatest figure of the Tropicália musical revolution, many sides of Caetano Veloso have been presented on film. He appeared as the romantic balladeer performing in Pedro Almodovar’s Talk to Her. Often times, he is presented as an icon of artistic conscience or simply the spiritual godfather of Brazilian music in general, as in films like Carlos Saura’s Fados. However, director Fernando Grostein Andrade offers a different perspective on Veloso, capturing the musician-vocalist’s laidback sense of humor in Wandering Heart, which screens Wednesday as the first of three Brazilian music documentaries in Cinema Tropical’s Janeiro in New York film series at the 92 Y Tribeca.

Loosely structured, Heart essentially follows Veloso during the American media campaign for his first English language album, and his subsequent tour of Japan, where he seems to have remarkably photogenic fans. As a result, the audience gets to hear some of his renditions of American popular song (like the Berlin standard “Blue Skies”) in addition to his traditional favorites.

Veloso’s fans know him as a charismatic performer, but they might be surprised how funny he is in private. Sometimes he even cracks himself up, as when he tells a Lady Di anecdote that is incomprehensible due to his giggling. Still, the music heard throughout Heart is of the consistent high quality his listeners will expect.

While Andrade by-and-large paints a portrait of an artist living the good life, late in the film he includes Veloso’s oblique references to his personal tragedies, which add considerable context to the musician’s apparent happy-go-lucky attitude. Ultimately, Veloso emerges as a genuinely likable individual, joking with fans and laughing off criticism, secure in his estimable place in the Brazilian music scene.

Though Heart’s running time barely exceeds one hour, Andrade uses nearly every second. Viewers should be advised to stay through the entire final credits, because they are liberally interspersed with further candid footage and a brief but complete performance.

Heart is an entertaining profile of Veloso that should please longtime fans and intrigue new listeners. Refreshingly, he comes across like a person who would be fun to hang with—youthful in his sixty-six years, despite his arrest and period of exile during the years of the military regime. It should be a crowd pleaser this Wednesday (9/23), when it kicks-off Janeiro in New York.