Ó Paí, Ó

2.452 / 5.000 Assisted before 2012, resetting in 2025 (note 8.5) the exaggerated comic style does not attract me, however, the dialogues are very intelligent, and work better with a social criticism with a light and fun, abuse of racist (intentionally) jokes by mixing regionalism, football, religion, and shooting without distinction, indiscriminately, indiscriminately, although a little tiring for those who are not so tiring adherents of the theatrical comedy ...

The lives of the residents of a lively tenement of Pelourinho, Heart of Salvador, on the last day of Carnival. Between the lack of money and the desire to have fun, they survive at the expense of much creativity, irony, sensuality and music.

Ó pai ó is a characteristic expression of the city of Salvador, Bahia, which can be translated as "look at this". And what you look at the screen is a parade of urban stereotypes on the last day of the carnival.

However, what was to be expected is surprising and, through music and the ubiquitous sensuality, the characters gain their own definitions, they dignify themselves, and here and there they take flights always certain, albeit short.

Residents of a tenement in Largo do Pelourinho, the characters have a common characteristic: when they act in the horizontal plane, they are tourist representations: the reveler, the baiana, the stallion, the transsexual, the cowrie shells clairvoyant, the believer, the Bonfim's Church.

On the vertical plane, they are citizens who survive in an unequal society: the unsuccessful artist, the receptionist who wants to go to Europe, the European "wife" returned, the clumsy swindler, the vigilante policeman working "overtime" for the traders.

Although there are no protagonists, the painter Roque, who is also a singer, composer, and dancer, participates in the best moments of the movie, the first one at the beginning, when a carnival block formed by almost every one of the cast decides to parade through the streets of an empty Pelourinho. Expelled from the bar of the funny Neusão, Roque sings the beautiful "Come my love" in a truly epic moment.

The second striking scene, also involving Roque, is a discussion of him with the huckster Boca (which seems to encompass all the vices of the movie). Neurotic, Boca decides to offend the painter by calling him "negro", but Roque makes a passionate speech in defense of blackness.

The only person who does not align herself with sensuous-carnival normality is Dona Joana, an evangelical woman who owns the tenement and, for revenge (divine?) against "sinners, witchers and potheads", closes the water of the building, leaving the locals driving mad.

In the end, joy, sadness, tragedy and romance blend into the streets flooded by the participants of the Araketu block. While the other block, Olodum, protests.

It was nice to rewatch this movie. I liked it more now than before. The several characters are colorful and interact in amusing ways. The recurrent direction of numerous actors at once in the same scene is very skilled and successful. All performances are excellent, but perhaps I must highlight Lázaro Ramos, Luciana Souza, boys Vinícius Nascimento and Felipe Fernandes, and Dira Paes. The chaotic and vibrant atmosphere of Salvador, particularly in Carnival and in heightened reality, amuses. The smart script explores well the multiple situations of friendship, rivalry, prejudice, grief, lust, delinquency, party. There is a strategy in the script that reminded me Jorge Furtado's short film Ilha das Flores and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. In a mostly warm comedy, the message is strong: not everything is celebration in inequal Salvador.

O Pai O veers wildly between genres, and the end simply falls into melodrama and fails.

My only disagreement with the Debblys's (sorry if I misspelled) comment above is that I do think much of the musical soundtrack is good--although not always well-sung by the characters. Caetano Veloso's title song over the end credits (the film is produced by his ex-wife Paula Lavigne) is particularly appealing and catchy. Still, just because I love Bahia so much, I had fun looking at familiar places and listening to the music. I just wish the film had been better. Monique Gartenberg has done some excellent concert videos, but she didn't succeed here.

Somebody wanted to expose the whole life in the poor side of town. It tried to do everything. So it achieved nothing. There are too many characters. Which most probably correspond to some Brazilian stereotype. So probably the movie is much easier to watch to locals. Also the scenes seem realistic, but the acting is theatrical so there might be bad acting or bad directing involved.

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