Crioulo Doido

Carlos Alberto Prates Correia's film is a confusing and slightly upsetting experience since he uses of a quite interesting dramatic proposition but makes into a weird comedy. While the genre is indicated here as a comedy, I failed to notice it and end up reading some opinion he shared about the movie which made it sound as a critical drama. But early on, some humored bits started to show (some were good, others were pitiful and unfunny) then the movie was all downhill.

It tells the story of Felisberto (Jorge Coutinho) a successful black tailor conducting his own business of which has plenty of satisfied costumers in a rural area of Minas Gerais. A very hard worker who sometimes suffers racism on the hands of bigoted people, others who barely look on his face but his costumers always put him in high regards. The turn of events come when he falls in love with a white woman (Selma Caronezzi) who doesn't care at all about him until she finds out that his business is becoming more prosperous to the point where he can hire more workers, and later on she becomes more friendly towards him.

But she's a very demanding woman who pushes him to do things, buy more things, all of which he does after selling his business in order to buy a farm and make some new investments. Due to some obscure situations, a hint to the early days of the military coup where a new form of government took over, Felisberto is warned about upcoming changes in the country of which he believes it will be the end of the world, and that makes his completely aloof to everything around him, making a very erratic being to be around with.

Had it been a solid drama showing the difficulties of a black man succeeding in the white man's world this movie could be an interesting and relevant piece about such issues, considering that at time race relations were hardly ever discussed on films - it was mostly on literature. But treated as comedy, those issues can't never be funny in no possible way. Correia succeeds in some moments such as when Felisberto begins to pray and curse after suffering a racist attack on his shop; or when he tries to make a move on the girl and he finds himself saying he's embarassed himself. Coutinho is used here almost as if acting like comedian Mantan Moreland or some similar black comedian, but less over-the-top, and the movie has almost like a silent film technique with reduced camera movements, close-up shots or the way everything was framed.

Truth is it was hard to care for the movie, and for the characters. It's a pity that Felisberto loses his self-respect and pride as the story moves along, and I hated his relationship with the woman, she's ridiculous and obnoxious yet the guy loves her for some odd reason. He's too clueless to see that all she cares is about his money. If the idea is to show his descent to madness and how he got crazy, then it all starts when he meets this lady. The rest is a just a case of jealous people who couldn't accept his success. That's the tragedy of life and some folks really lived those things. A pity.

I really don't understand how writers and directors find ways to make comedies about prejudice issues or find humor in attacks against minorities. It simply does not work. 5/10.