O Auto da Compadecida

Thats amazing story about heaven, hell and the duality of the human being settled in the poorest region of the Brazilian northeast is a great portrait of the human in the most comic way possible. It isn't the most famous Brazilian movies around the world, but it's surely one of the best.

O Auto da compadecida is comedy about survival, we saw the things through the eyes of João and Chicó, both of them represent a great part of a invisible Brazil, poor and simple people that do everything to survive, we saw that even in the poor places there will have a huge social inequality. To survive this people even have to fool the Devil.

"O Auto da Compadecida," commonly translated as "A Dog's Will" (a translation which, to my ears, waters down the significance, the gravitas, and the poetry of the title in the original) is a sure-classic and a phenomenon of the Brazilian cinema and popular culture of the recent past and of modernity in the rural communities of its countryside. The film has marked the heart and the soul of an entire generation since the dawn of the twenty-first century, and features lines and words still common-parlance among the average Brazilian (e.g., João Grilo's : "Não sei não... Só sei que foi assim. ("I don't know--all I know it was so"))

All in all, the film portrays themes of class, spiritual feelings, and some legendary figures of the folklore and of the past of the Brazilian drylands and Northeast. In a way, "O Auto da Compadecida" memorializes through the friendship of Chicó and João Grilo an entire generation and past, an entire dialectic and language, all done with outstanding actors, actresses, and acting overall.

This is surely a landmark of Brazilian cinema, imagination, and one that is sure to delight those open to receive its humor and themes of love, spirituality, redemption, and forgiveness.

When the 4-chapter mini-series was announced by Globo network, few people expected it to be THAT good, for the simple reason that nothing that good had been done in Brazilian television in the previous 15 years. The adaptation is efficient, departing very little from Cabral de Mello Neto's text and mood, the direction, scenography and art direction are beautiful, the humour is well balanced with adventure and drama, everything works well. But the real treat you get watching this is Nachtergale's performance as Joao Grilo. This is the production that made everyone agree that he is the best actor of his generation by a mile. Let me talk a little of what the story is about. It is not really a 'fantasy' of the writer as some American viewers (understandably) thought. The play's proposal is to be an adaptation of several texts from the tradition of 'cordel literature', typical of the Brazilian northeast (where the play is set). Those texts are mostly long poems that translate the folklore of that region. It is, of course, a very catholic area, but in a very peculiar way. Jesus ('Manuel'), Mary ('the Merciful') and the devil ARE common characters of those folk stories, and they are as 'accessibile' to people as the movie shows in Brazilian Folklore. Also from 'Cordel literature' comes the character of 'Joao Grilo'. Anyone who sees this movie and don't know Grilo should watch for Shakespeare's 'Henry IV' (the character Falstaff) and Moliere's 'Scapino'. It is sort of a universal character – the court's fool, and doesn't belong to Arraes, Mello Neto or even to Brazilian Folklore. So it is not really someone's fantasy – it is the fantasy of an anonymous collective, the people from Brazil's northeastern 'sertao'. It is a great movie anyway, I just thought people would like to know the background.

It is amazing how, from the very beginning of this movie, you notice the influence that Terry Gilliam has had on this Brazilian director. The movie has the twists and craziness you would expect of "Adventures of Baron Munchausen", but from the third world, portraying incredible well the way people try to survive where there is not much for them anyway. "O Auto da Compadecida" is definitely a very good movie, with talented actors and unexpected plot. Must-see.