Brazil, 1969
92m, 104m
35mm film, Eastmancolor
mono, Portuguese
A Brazilian drama film with religous fantasy elements directed by George Joanas.
Plot Summary
João Grilo annoys everyone in his small town with his bizarre and often criminal antics. When he dies he is put on trial in Heaven, with a black Christ as his judge, the Virgin Mary as his defence and the Devil as the prosecutor.
Credits
Crew
Directed by: George Joanas
Norcine Industria Cinematografica Unifilme
Produced by: George Jonas
Production Manager: Plínio Pacheco
Written by: Ariano Suassuna, George Joanas
Based on the Play Auto da Compadecida by: Ariano Suassuna
Assistant Directors: Lúcio Lombardi, Rosa M. Passos
Director of Photography: Rodolfo Ecsey
Editor: Luiz Elias
Music by: Sergio Bicardo
Sound: Júlio Perez Caballar
Costume Designer: Francisco Brennand
Art Director: Lina Bo Bardi
Production Assistants: Lenildo Oliveira, Cleuza Ritto
Cast
Armando Bógus (João Grilo)
Antônio Fagundes (Chicó)
Felipe Carone (priest)
Jorge Cherques (Bispo)
Aguinaldo Batista (sacristan)
Zéluiz Pinho (Severino)
Ary Toledo (goat)
Neide Monteiro (Mulher)
J.C. Cavalcanti Borges José Carlos Cavalcanti Borges] (Padeiro)
Rubens Teixeira (major/Encourado)
Paulo Ribeiro (Palhaço)
Zózimo Bulbul (Manuel/Frade)
Regina Duarte (Compadecida)
Alternative Titles
Our Lady of Compassion
Press
1969
Variety 9 April 1969 pp.8, 41
Brazil’s official [Rio Fest ’69] entry was the cause of beaucoup polemics and brouhaha. By international standards not a costly pic, in the context of an underdeveloped Brazilian film industry it’s a super-production – the most expensive film made here in recent years. The cinema nova crowd who boycotted the fest pointed it up as the sort of pic not needed here now, it will please neither mass audience nor highbrows, and at least 10 c.n. films could have been made for what it cost, several of which would certainly have been more worthwhile. Indeed, there have been at least 12 recent local films finished in time for the fest and superior to A Compadecida, which would have had more appeal for the international audience. […] Well lensed, and polished for a Brazilian pic, it offers colorful glimpses of Bumba Meu Boi folklore ceremonies, based on primitive religious engravings sold in churches and fairs in small towns. The film however, is a stylistic jumble, with low, broad peasant comedy, badly acted in a realistic style , intercut with stylized supernatural events. It doesn’t work, and the entire film suffers. The folklore elements, excellent in themselves, emerge as picture postcard episodes. This ambitious project comes a cropper as a confused hybrid work” – from a review by Stein
References
Periodicals
- Variety 9 April 1969 pp.8, 41 – credits, review (by Stein)
Books
- Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.1 – credits
