Carlota Joaquina, Princesa do Brazil

A hilarious film, has its theses and way of telling a part of the history of Brazil, when the reign of Portugal, comes to our country. Yes there are some excesses, but it is a beautiful plot, accentuates some personality traits of royalty and does so with brilliance, with creativity. A great movie!

A successful, adventure, by the Carioca actress Carla Camurati, she made two more films after that one, one was Copacabana in 2001. The protagonist was the great actress Marieta Severo (The Man in the Black Cape in 1980 and the Canudos War in 1997.

The movie is funny-at least in view of other Brazilian pictures. But you don't have to be an historian or a patriot to see that the (as usual) leftist bias falsified (again as usual) the real history, mainly in regard to Dom Joào VI. Modern historiography confirmed te vision of Oliveira Lima. His book Dom João VI no Brasil should be read by anyone who wants to know what the King really represented to Portugal and Brasil.

This movie is awful in every single aspect. Gross and without humor, historically naive, bad acting, primitive cutting, inadequate soundtrack, everything in this movie looks and sounds wrong and cheap. The Spanish and European Portuguese accents sound fake to the point of hurting the ears. Moreover, what's this thing about having a Scot guy narrating the movie in English? What nonsense! Additionally, what's this thing about Carlota throwing shoes out of the boat into what is obviously a cheap fish tank? Hallo! Was it supposed to look like the seabed? If the intention was to be satirical, even if gross, they should have watched some Monty Python flicks and learn how to do it. Well, at least there were two interesting points in this movie. First, it shows how much Brazilian aesthetic production values are contaminated by extremely poor soap opera standards. Contrast this poor excuse for a movie with the excellent "Central do Brasil," and the point in mind reveals itself clearly. It's amazing that the two movies were big blockbusters in Brazil, considering that they are at the opposite extremes of the quality scale. Second, it is the ultimate proof of a Brazilian sociological phenomenon, that Brazilians are unable to accept and face their own failures, and need to systematically bring "deus ex machina" motives into play to explain the difficulties of the country. The bitter question that remains after watching this movie is: if the leaders of a nation, imposed or not, are so weak, mean, incompetent and stupid, what thereafter should one conclude about the character traits of the people that accept the rule of leaders like those? Intriguing, even if sad.

Carlota Joaquina is a very awkward movie if you watch it without the proper background, for both the production facts and the Brazilian History. Regarding the production facts, the spectator must be aware that this movie was the first movie produced after the Collor Era (the Brazilian President which canceled all the government incentives for the cinema industry). The movie itself is very poorly produced, but very creative in coming up with alternative resources to tell a story when you don't have the money. After a few years with no Brazilian Production, the audience went back to the theaters to watch Carlota Joaquina very hopeful in giving a new impulse to the local productions. Such a impulse was decisive to regain the trust in the Brazilian Cinema Industry, which later was able to regain strength and produce some internationally awarded titles such as The Trespasser, Central Station, Me,You and Them, Yellow Manga, etc. For the historical facts, anyone who doesn't know the Brazilian social structure during the Portuguese dominion may not understand why the people accept such a negligent government, but the facts related in the movie are proved real. It is very hard to understand it even for the Brazilian people. But if even nowadays we can see the most riches countries of the world being governed by inefficient people, what can we say about a colony of Portugal on the last century? So, to watch this movie the spectator need to be aware that will be watching a very decisive production for the Brazilian Cinema, produced in a very complicated time, but with the noble goal of resurrect a very creative sector of Brazilian Cultural life and taking off all the garnishing commonly added to historical facts. Carlota Joaquina goes straight to the facts and tells the story of real people, not false heroes. These are good reasons to watch this movie.

Director and screenwriter Carla Camurati will be forever remembered in Brazilian Cinema history for her classic CARLOTA JOAQUINA. A huge critical, and (more importantly) box office success in Brazil, this film brought Brazilians of all types back to movie theaters to enjoy their own cinema. Never mind that the film is actually a 100-minute history lesson about the birth of a new nation, Brazil. Never mind the absence of the country's big internationally-known stars. The general public recognized a hilarious, captivating "domestic" film when CARLOTA was released, and embraced it. The film's success has paved the way for a renaissance of made-in-Brazil cinema that is still evident today (not only in economic terms, but particularly at film festivals and at award time). The fact this film was never released in the English and Spanish-world defies any explanation. The film's narration is totally in English, and the Carlota character's dialogue entirely in crystal-clear (if somewhat Brazilian-accented) Spanish. The humor is universal, as are all the elements of the plot. Don't miss it. Since Brazil (like North America) uses NTSC video, the VHS tape released in 1997 is your best chance now to see CARLOTA JOAQUINA. A real must for any lover of Latin American or European film, in fact for all film lovers.