Elite Devassa

"Elite Devassa" ("Lustful Elite") almost convinces audiences with its seductive and dangerous story revolving a young chauffeur (Thales Pan Chacon), hired to work for a wealthy family in São Paulo, who ends up involved in a lustful scenario when the three women from the family desire him badly. The women are: the boss Marina (Selma Egrei); her sister Luisa (Patricia Scalvi), and Ana Paula (Nancy Galvão), the teen daughter of Marina. As the man of the house is out of the house (if there is one), the chauffeur - who is a fine figure of a man - gets easily seduced by all of them, barely realizing the dark secret of that family and what lies beneath all that sex, money and seduction. This pornochanchada (Brazilian softcore, in a nutshell) threads a messy web of lies, mystery, sex and games of power where the poor man needs to find a way out.

This is one of those films that almost get a pass as it knows how to entertain, to create excitment on audiences and create a nice sense of mystery. Ultimately, it's awfully disjointed in everything it tries to do - but I almost liked it as it does something highly unusual for the genre and for that peculiarity it's slightly convincing.

Pornochanchada genre usually revolves on plenty of beautiful women seducing one or two males with zero sex appeal but guys that have that roughed-up, alpha male quality that you sort of understand why the females are deeply attracted to them. The focus on this one is the male and it's completely understandable why the driver is such an object of desire for all of them: Chacon was a very attractive man in every possible way, a kind of figure you didn't much see on those films, and audiences can believe the appeal he has on them, besides the slight innocent air of a country boy. Not only that but he was also a great actor - it's his film debut, and his voice was dubbed by another actor (why this was needed? His voice was amazing). Gladly, his career went on with better things but we lost him too soon.

But why "Elite Devassa" is such a mess? It doesn't bring anything new to the genre or to the issue of exploring the false morality of upper classes and family relations, the cliche stays strong on this one as each women get their hands on the chauffeur, or other men too (which includes a wild scene of Aldine Muller with two guys); the background characters are awfully introduced to inject mystery in the family's story and it's difficult to find out who they are, and why the appear and disappear in between sequences; and the presentation of everything is so weird, disjointed and cheap that one wonders who's the director behind this.

The editing is an atrocity of sorts, and the inclusion of music is completely bizarre, where the audio makes abrupt stops whenever a different shot comes, and if you're a Pink Floyd fan you'll never hear them the same way again (who can imagine a couple's foreplay with the sound of "Breathe" in the background? It's not a sexy song!).

The sex sequences are the ones we pay attention, since that's what those films were designed for, and they're well-made considering that period of Brazilian cinema. And it was a little fun to enjoy the enigma behind everything - not so original but it can surprise less impressionable audiences. It's watchable for reasons, but it's destined to make you laugh for a long time due to its ridiculous presentation. 5/10.

"Elite Devassa" (roughly translated, libertine elite) is a "brazilian giallo"/pornochanchada that has a good story chaotically told.

Teodoro (Thales Pan Chacon) arrives to the big city of São Paulo looking for a job as a chauffeur. He finally finds a job with the Alcântara Machado family - they have a house in Campos do Jordão, a mountainous city located several hours from São Paulo. Already in the beginning, one notices that there's something different in the Alcântara Machado household. Teodoro had been hired by Marina (Selma Egrei) - her husband is on a business trip in Europe. Marina has a sister, Luisa (Patricia Scalvi), and a daughter, Ana Paula. The sisters are rivals and dislike each other. Ana Paula, Marina's daughter, distrusts not only her mother, but also her aunt, Luisa.

There's an atmosphere of distrust and fear in the house. Significant looks, words full of double meanings, low-voiced conversations….

It doesn't take long for Marina to take her chauffeur, Teodoro, under her wings. They become lovers. But Marina's sister, Luísa, wants her share – after all the good-looking chauffeur is not Marina's property. And Marina's daughter, Ana Paula? Where does she stand in this seduction game?

Every room in the house is wired with cameras and microphones that register everything that is happening. The gardener (!) watches it all. A spy in the house of love? A spy for whom? Renato, Marina's husband, is officially in Europe. Is he? Does he (still) exist? Ana Paula's friends watch also the house and the chauffeur, and so does the police – two former chauffeurs of the family had met death, but there was not sufficient proof to incriminate anyone, and the Alcântara Machado family was powerful and not to be messed with.

Teodoro is warned by the police about the dangerous position he's in, but he doesn't take them seriously enough – how could these women, so nice and pretty, hurt anyone? But there's thunder on the way…. and surprises too!

As you see, the story is good and intricate – but with so many characters, the film "Elite Devassa" loses in depth. The editing is kind of messy and sometimes the film feels jumpy. The soundtrack, in which there's a liberal serving of Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake & Palmer pieces, is in charge of creating the atmosphere of ambiguity and menace existent in the house.

As it befits a good pornochanchada, in "Elite Devassa" all the important female characters will have their sex scenes ( some of them really good). There's a strange homage to Dario Argento during an interesting 3some sex scene (Aldine Müller showing her all and two men), in which we hear the Deep Red's main theme!

As I said before, the story is not well told and the film feels somewhat uneven, but if you take the film for what it is, namely a b-movie, fastly written and shot – cheap and sometimes clumsy - and at times inventive -, you may enjoy it (sex and thrills, what's not to like?).

Teodoro D'Angelo (Thales Pan Chacon) arrives in São Paulo from Florianópolis expecting to have better conditions to support his family working as driver. He is hired by the wealthy Marina (Selma Egrei) to work for her family and Teodoro learns that her husband Renato is traveling in Europe in a business trip. Teodoro is assigned to drive to Campos do Jordào, where Marina has a vacation manor. Marina introduces her sister Luisa (Patricia Scalvi) and her daughter Ana Paula that are spending vacation in the house. Sooner Marina tells Teodoro that her husband is impotent and Luiza is her rival in her love affairs. Marina has sex with Teodoro while the mysterious snooper Clóvis has hidden cameras in every room like in a Big Brother show, watching the infidelity of Marina with Teodoro. Then Luisa seduces Teodoro and they have sex. When Teodoro goes on downtown for shopping with Marina, two strangers approach to him and tells him that the previous family drivers Alfredo and Renato were killed in the house, but he does not give credit to the words of the men.

"Elite Devassa' is a pretentious erotic thriller with elementary story, terrible screenplay and awful edition. The cinematography and the camera work are stylish but the chaotic narration and the silly plot make it a forgettable film. Unfortunately, even the sexy Aldine Muller that was worshiped in the 80's shows many cellulite in her butt in the digital image, but her threesome is very erotic. The soundtrack with Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake & Palmer does not fit well to the plot. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Elite Devassa" ("Debauched Elite")