Boca de Ouro

In Madureira, Rio de Janeiro, in the 60's, the powerful "bicheiro" (for non-Brazilians: in Brazil, mainly in Rio de Janeiro, there is an illegal and very popular lottery of numbers associated to animals called "jogo do bicho" (game of animals), and the outlaws are called "bicheiros") Boca de Ouro (Jece Valadão) dies. Two journalists look for his former lover, Dona Guigui (Odete Lara), trying to get information of any unsolved crime committed by Boca de Ouro and make a bang news. In accordance with her mood, Guigui tells three different versions of the mysterious murder of Leleco (Daniel Filho) and Celeste (Maria Lúcia Monteiro) to the reporters.

"Boca de Ouro" was the first transposition to the screen of a successful play of Nelson Rodrigues, one of my favorite Brazilian writers. The story is indeed a film-noir, very amoral, as a trademark of Nelson Rodrigues, slightly recalling the storyline of "Rashômon" (the same event told in different versions) and directed by one of the best Brazilian directors, Nelson Pereira dos Santos. Jece Valadão is perfect in the role of an ambitious gangster, who replaces his perfect teeth by gold, and aimed to be buried in a golden coffin. I regret that this magnificent film has not had a decent distribution. My VHS, horribly recorded in LP, was released by "Isto É", and the image does not stop scrolling. There are only fifteen votes in IMDb, meaning that there is no worldwide distribution of this movie. I feel sorry for the overseas movie lovers, not having the chance to know such a great unknown film. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Boca de Ouro" ("Golden Mouth")

this is one of the greatest film Norse ever made period. I have a good DVD copy of it in Portuguese with no subtitles that i just bought in Sao Paulo Brazil. even if you do not understand Portuguese you will enjoy this masterpiece. I found the other comments helpful and excellent and have nothing more to add except let's bring on more Jece Valadao films from his prime period.Jece Valadao was really something before he found religion. There are incredibly beautiful Brazilian actresses in this movie starting with the co-star Odete Lara. Any information on her other films will be greatly appreciated before I return to Brazil next month.

Released just four years after the theatre play itself, this adaptation of Nelson Rodrigues's Golden Mouth by top-level filmmaker Nelson Pereira dos Santos, with a great casting too, works very well. There is a noir atmosphere that is well combined with the ironical text and some violence (contrasting with the light atmosphere of the recent and also good version directed by Daniel Filho). All those immoral characters assembled in different versions of the story makes this a smart and amusing film. Nothing unexpected, as it is one of the best stories by Rodrigues (probably together with The Asphalt Kiss), and Pereira dos Santos is the best Brazilian director ever.

Due the bad storage this picture was almost lost forever, actually it wasn't any copyright in 90', fell in public domain, through many efforts of some people involved with picture, they got a full restoration including the sound, it comes alive in 2008, based in a successful play of the iconic and contentious Nelson Rodrigues it was taken to big screen in 1962 following by a smashing success at box office.

Boca de Ouro is a gangster that ruled in outskirts Madureira around the great Rio de Janeiro, working in "Jogo do Bicho" a sort of game of luck very popular on lower class based in numbers each one means a specific animal, it has a high profits in this kind of misdemeanor including the bribe of the cops to work out properly, Boca de Ouro has this name because he had perfect teeth, however he dictates for all means to an astonished dentist extracts all them to mold a gold denture, the plot is about a gambler that tries borrow some money from Boca de Ouro, who accepts whereas his beautiful wife comes get the money, ended up in his death, like Paul Newman's Outrage, but told in three varyng iterations.

The storytelling is based in an amoral way, a peppery style addressing how Nelson Rodrigues envisioned the fake prudishness of the society, further flowing countless human behavior which he called "how the life really is", indeed a near masterpiece from the director Nelson Pereira dos Santos that stayed with o foot behind when was offered to him let it to big screen dealing with Nelson has been a notorious right-wing and he as communist, such worry doesn't flumbed the real target!!

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First Watch: 1996 / How many: 2 /Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 9.