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- Brazilian Movies:
Thanks to Law Rouanet, Brazilian culture, and in particular the Brazilian movies, have been seeing a
improvement, both in quantity and quality, since the 1990s. Several Brazilian movies hit the international circuit in the past few years.
Some of them:
- Pelé Eternal: - The most complete movie about the greatest football player of all times.
On the April 30th, the movie Pelé Eterno (Eternal Pelé) was released on Brazilian theaters. For Peléīs fans, itīs a must see movie. The movie is 125 minutes long,
fully dedicated to portray the life of Pelé. The initial ten or so minutes describe Peléīs infancy and childhood (Peléīs mother appear several times; Peléīs father,
Dondinho, is already dead, but he is mentioned a few times, always with reverence); the final ten or so minutes show how Pelé is living today, with his wife and kids.
The rest of time, the audience are presented with a selection of more than 300 goals, from the beginning of the career through his last matches.
If there ever was any doubt (in Brazil, where we who could see other fantastic players like Zizinho, Garrincha, Didi, Rivelino, Falcão, Zico, Romario, Ronaldo, just to name
a few, it is almost unanimity that Pelé was the best), the movie shows why Pelé is the best football player of all time.
Goals, goals, goals. Black and white or color, World Cups or obscure matches, penalty kicks or fantastic rushes, Peléīs goals and Peléīs assistances, friendly and hostile
crowds, goals shown thousands of times and goals rarely shown before.
Among the rare scenes: the first time Pelé with the Brazilian jacket; several goals from the 1950s and 1960s; Pelé in the uniform of Vasco da Gama and Flamengo
(in friendly matches); the matches right before the 1000th goal (with a scene of a defense man being sworn for having avoided a goal); Pelé and his team, Santos, in tours
around the world (with images of the occasion when a war was stopped for Pelé to play). Before television was popular in Brazil (and even further, until the early 1980s), it
was usual to shoot scenes to be exhibited in theaters, before the movies; these scenes were taken from the floor level, right outside the field, with good quality cameras.
These images had been forgotten for a long time, until the producers of Pelé Eternal researched them; the director, Anibal Massaini, was a producer of low budget movies in the
1970s. Massaini, a declared Peléīs fan, used his old contacts to research these rare images, and the result is certainly impressive; many goals had never been shown on TV.
In between the goals, we see other ex-players and football professionals talking about Pelé. Also, many players talk about Pelé (another rarity: footage from another movie
where Pelé attempts to be an actor, from the early 1960s, showing a young Pelé and his Santosī coleagues). The story line was written by Armando Nogueira, one of the most
respected Brazillian journalists.
A few movie critics saw techinal problems with Pelé Eternal. But if what you want to see is a collection of the finest goals of the greatest football player of all time,
this is a movie not to be missed.
Poster of Eternal Pelé plus some photos and comments by surfers (in Portuguese)
Interview with the Director Anibal Massaini (in Portuguese)
City of God Shockingly realistic portray of life in a Brazilian slum dominated by the drug.
The Portuguese name of the movie is Cidade de Deus, name of a very poor district of Rio de Janeiro. The movie follows the lives of people living in the City of God, from
late 1960s to late 1980s. Most actors were amateurs who indeed used to live in the slums; their performing, especially the kid's, are impressive.
The movie won several awards. It was nominated for four categories of the Oscar 2004, including best director and photography.
Visit the City of God official site.
Read comments about City of God at ForeignFilms.com and the
Internet Movies Data Base (IMDB readers rated the movie 8.6/10, putting it among the top 50 movies of the database).
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