Bye Bye Brasil

At last, a film I can unreservedly recommend--well, at least to adults.

"Bye Bye Brazil" is a film with heart, involving three-dimensional characters I was able to care about, their stories told unpretentiously in a straightforward exposition unhindered by self-conscious special effects, confusing games with the time-frame, etc. as in so many "artistic" films I've been watching lately (and in some cases ejecting from the player before they're finished).

Too bad this film is from 1979. I wish it were brand new, so I could hope for a return to these plain and honest values in film-making.

As soon as I saw that the title song was sung by Chico Buarque, one of my very favorite musicians, I suspected I was in for a pleasant evening, and I wasn't disappointed. The movie would be worth buying (apparently available on VHS only) just for that wonderful song, sung in its lengthy entirety over the closing credits, and briefly at the film's commencement. But "Bye Bye Brazil" offers much more than a pretty (and very funny) song. Time and again I was reminded of Bergman's films, as the interplay between the five chief characters developed. There's a certain visual resemblance to some of Bergman's scenes, too.

You could have a worse model.

Highly recommended--though not for kids.

It is a precious gem. The story of the Caravana Rolidei, a group of poor traveling circus performers, is as fresh today as the first time I saw it. The caravan travels in the Brazilian countryside in a time where television is taking over and making all other sorts of entertainment obsolete. Very touching, very Brazilian, very easy to find in your video store.

More than a discussion on which are the best Brazilian films ever, "Bye-bye Brazil" is certainly one of the most important films made in Brazil. It is a deep sink in Brazilian soul and a portrait of serious changes in Brazilian society in late 70's. Modern vs traditional, pride vs vulnerability, love vs need, arts vs market, big town vs deep country, it is a very layered and encompassing film, abroad movie far from formulae and fancy, a must see for everyone who are interested in understanding and knowing Brazil.

This fantastic movie tell the history of a small caravan of artists that crosses an immense area inside Brazil accomplishing circus shows for simple and poor people. In the road, a couple of beggars that escapes from the drought of the northeast of Brazil associates to the group, and they are going all to seek the wealth and the success in new " Eldorado Brasileiro ": the Amazonian. A film human but also controversial, with a fort social content, that treats of problematic themes of the Brazilian reality: the social poverty, the migration and the environmental destruction.

I first saw this film around 1985, when it was still new, and before I started studying and visiting Brazil seriously. I did not remember much at all, probably because I did not understand the significance of what I was seeing. Now, after four visits to Brazil (mostly Amazon and Northeast), it makes a lot more sense, and I will be recommending it to students.

The movie was made near the end of the (1964-85) military period, when political discourse was possible but still needed to be done cautiously. So the film addresses serious concerns about the government's programs to encourage migration, but it does so with humor and finesse.

It is a brilliant film, and gives some insight to the ongoing suffering of the sertao, the cultural context of forro, the folly of development in Brasilia, and the drivers of deforestation in the Amazon.