Absolutamente Certo

Nice Brazilian film from the 50's, directed and starred by Anselmo Duarte. While it shares elements of Chanchada genre (light-hearted comedies from Brazil in the 40's, 50's and 60's), such as campy humor, and musical sketches which does not fit necessarily in the story, it also deviates because of some traits: first of all, filmmaking here is much more sophisticated, with a great cinematography; secondly, it is more action-oriented, with a lot of fight scenes; and the least but not last, while gangsters are not uncommon in Chanchadas, in this movie their portrayal remind more Hollywood noir films. The boxing/TV opening scene is amazing, and many other scenes are also very beautiful. Besides that, as there are many outdoor footage, spectator has a good glimpse of how was life in that decade in São Paulo: the tram, the streets, the cars. Seeing the characters entering and driving Romi-Isetta was particularly nice. Among the musical scenes, I highlight Odete Lara dancing on TV, and Dercy Gonçalves singing Sinhô's "Jura" besides playing a wind instrument.

I found this movie very entertaining. It's a nice, funny movie, and well produced, specially when compared to many films made in Brazil at that time. It's really a "time capsule" that allows the viewer to immerse himself in the "Golden Age" of Brazil, the 1950's. You can see the city of São Paulo at the height of it's economic development, but in a moment of time in which the violence and urban deterioration of the present didn't exist; you can see the early days of television, the TV sets that appear in the movie are of the "Invictus" brand, the first Brazilian TV brand, and the TV studio scenes were shot at the studio of "TV Tupi" , the first South American TV station; you can hear the way people talked and the slangs used in Brazil at the time; see the early days of Rock and Roll. To the nostalgic crowd ( on which I include myself ), it's a movie that not only you must see, but also a movie that you must have in your collection.

"Absolutamente Certo" is one of the last specimens of the "Golden Era" of the so-called "chanchadas" (as Brazilian popular musical comedies were deprecatingly called by film critics). This one is about an ordinary man, Zé do Lino (Anselmo Duarte), who memorizes the entire phone-book of São Paulo (a colossal feat even then) and enters a TV quiz show dreaming of buying a wheelchair for his invalid father (José Policena) and get married to his longtime sweetheart (Maria Dilnah). But baddie Raul (Aurélio Teixeira) and his gang want to profit by placing bets on Zé's failure and will do everything to stop him from winning.

In the 1950s, Anselmo Duarte was the #1 male heartthrob in Brazilian movies, starring in very popular comedies and dramas for the two biggest Brazilian studios at the time (Atlântida in Rio de Janeiro, and Vera Cruz in São Paulo). "Absolutamente Certo" is his debut as director/ writer (he also plays the leading role) and it's symptomatically a "mélange" of styles of the two studios: the technically "sophisticated" treatment of Vera Cruz (good camera-work by British D.P. Chick Fowle, agile editing by Spanish José Cañizares, above average budget) and the "popular" feel of Atlântida (especially because of slapstick comedienne Dercy Gonçalves in the cast and the tacky -- or kitsch if you will -- staging of the musical numbers). Though plagued by a fatally banal plot, Duarte's debut as director is surprisingly assured, undoubtedly helped by the experienced crew. There are two really good sequences in the streets of São Paulo (one in a white Jaguar, the other in a streetcar), better than average sound recording and well-staged fistfights. What it lacks -- direly -- is real laughs.

Besides loudmouth Dercy Gonçalves (who's so over-the-top she's hysterically unfunny; notice she's made up to look like Fellini's Gelsomina), the cast includes gorgeous kittenish Odete Lara in a star turn as a double-cross blonde, parading her sexy hourglass figure, dancing provocatively, doing her own singing, driving a Romi Isetta (which MUST be the frailest, wackiest car ever made) and giving Duarte a French kiss (very bold at the time); Lyris Castellani in the "Zezé" number, who owned the thickest, meatiest pair of thighs ever employed in dancing; and craggy faced Brazilian boxing champ Paulo de Jesus, in the underdeveloped small role of a struggling boxer who has his arm broken by Raul's gang.

Don't expect much, but don't underestimate "Absolutamente Certo" -- it's from the time when a "good director" meant an "efficient director" and a "good comedy" meant a "popular comedy", before the auteur theory and the Cinema Novo (New Wave) movement changed Brazilian movies in the 60s. Duarte tries but can't quite mix comedy and drama (few filmmakers can, anyway), but he had ambition and drive: remember his next film was "O Pagador de Promessas/The Given Word/The Payer of Promises" (1962), big winner of Cannes' Golden Palm (against formidable competition) and Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Film.

Overall, "Absolutamente Certo" is a harmless pastime, an honest film and a curious period piece, if only to see how Odete Lara and São Paulo looked like in the late 50s . But it's certainly ironic that it deals with (and criticizes) the public's fascination with then incipient TV industry in Brazil -- the very same TV industry that in just a few more years would wipe the "chanchadas" off Brazilian screens, by ripping off its themes, stars, style and form.