Bonitinha Mas Ordinária ou Otto Lara Rezende

In Rio de Janeiro of the 80's, Maria Cecília (Lucélia Santos), the virgin seventeen years old daughter of the wealthy and powerful Dr. Werneck (Carlos Kroeber), is raped by five black men when her car has an engine problem nearby an isolated junkyard. Her upper class family decides that Maria Cecília needs to get married, and Werneck assigns his manager Peixoto (Milton Moraes) to find a fiancée among the employees of the family's company. Peixoto selects Edgard (José Wilker), a simple and single man, and offers him an unusual proposal: if he gets married with Maria Cecília, he would receive a huge amount, as a gift or dowry. However, Edgard has a crush on his neighbor Ritinha (Vera Fischer) and has his own moral principles. An inner fight between greed and moral values divides Edgard, while revelations about Ritinha, Maria Cecília and Peixoto are disclosed to him, ending in a tragedy.

I have just finished watching this version of "Bonitinha, Mas Ordinária" for the fourth or the fifth time, and I found it again a magnificent transposition of an erotic and amoral play of Nelson Rodrigues, one of the best Brazilian dramaturge, to the cinema. Indeed, this is the second transposition to the "big screen" of this play (the first one was in 1963, and I have never find this movie to rent or buy). A Brazilian with short culture, or a foreigner who is not aware of details of our contemporary history, might think that this film is decadent, trash and use other depreciable adjectives to express his opinion. However, it is necessary to see the "big picture" of 1981 to understand this movie. Brazil from the 60's to the beginning of the 80's lived a dictatorship, and the common "relief valve" in the cinema industry was the erotic movies. Being a Catholic country, the common practice in the past (and even in the present days, specially in some traditional families and depending on the region of Brazil) was the woman keep her virginity until her wedding. There are many references to this procedure along the movie. Further, it was a common hypocritical practice, marrying the daughter in an urgent basis when she lost her virginity or got pregnant. Therefore, there is no absurd in the situation of Werneck's family trying to marry Maria Cecília as soon as possible. The writer Nelson Rodrigues had also a very amoral view of the Church, the family and the mankind. In his view, all the families are or become rotten; the middle class is very decadent and false; all the women are bitch and like to be spanked; mankind and church are corrupt and hypocrite. Therefore, "Bonitinha, Mas Ordinária" is a masterpiece in terms of the world of Nelson Rodrigues, and the movie was very successful in 1981, projecting the name of Lucélia Santos on the spots in Brazil. Her performance is really amazing. Just to give an idea to the foreigners (and sorry for the comparison), but Nelson Rodrigues had his rich universe, the same way Pedro Almodóvar has his own outrageous universe and the same way David Lynch has his bizarre universe. If the viewer does not know his universe, probably will not understand and enjoy the story. Another remark is that the Brazilian cinema is one of the best of the world, not in quantity, but in quality. It had a bad moment in the 70's, but fortunately recovered and presently is producing excellent films again. Last but not the least, I regret that this important film has not had a decent distribution. My VHS, horribly recorded in LP, was released by "Isto É" in a collection of important Brazilian movies, and the sound in some parts makes almost impossible to understand what the actors and actresses are speaking. There are only fifty-four votes in IMDb, meaning that probably there is no worldwide distribution of this movie. I feel sorry for the overseas movie lovers, not having the chance to know such film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Bonitinha, Mas Ordinária" ("Cute, But Bitch")

Note: On 22 December 2010 I saw this film again.

On 25 March 2012 I saw this film again.

A trash classic of sorts, "Cute but Ordinary" is another twisted story coming from the dark corners of Nelson Rodrigues plays where he exposes the naked truth behind the false moralisms of a decadent society. For those unfamiliar with his plays and film adaptations one could easily compare him with Tennessee Williams since they both expose characters who live on the margins of society, the excluded ones such as poor people, homosexuals, prostitutes, sexually repressed women (and the opposite too); difference being that Williams doesn't sound like a conservative man who's too critical of those figures. There's way a support for them whereas with Nelson it feels like he's being judgemental.

Anyway, forget about the brainy aspects mentioned since the story of this movie is so weirded just as it is fascinating, and the weirdest aspect of it all: they make it look like a comedy despite its countless dark and twisted elements.

In this 2nd filmed version of same story, Edgard (José Wilker), a simple bank worker is chosen by his superior Peixoto (Milton Moraes) to become the fiyance of a 17-year-old girl (Lucélia Santos), daughter of a wealthy businessman (Carlos Kroeger), his boss basically. Lots of money, benefits such as stay with his job without bothering showing up, and the girl wanted him too, so what's to catch? It turns out that he's a very honest man who doesn't like such fixings, he's already committed with another woman (Vera Fischer) who has a complicated life of her own with a sick mother and three teen sisters, and Edgard's presence in reality it's just a way to "neutralize" the young teen who was brutally raped by five black men.

Throughout the story, Edgard is confronted by his conscience and by a memorable quote from Otto Lara Resende (hence the subtitle of the movie) that says the people from Minas are only supportive in cancer, meaning only through tragedy and disgrace that one can be considered a person of value. That quote is used in a such ad nauseum way that at times it feels forced and either badly written or badly acted.

If made in a serious dramatic manner I'd definitely find it a quite superior and relevant work showing about the human conditions and the way moral and ethics can influence or not a person's life and behavior. Obviously that Edgard could enjoy all the goods that could with such new wife, of whom he doesn't love. He's poor, humble but not dumb, and when he gets humiliated by the wealthy fart - in the infamous "contínuo" scene which is an hilarious meme these days - he's more than inclined to abandon all, including job. But when a big check comes his way he's torn apart the woman he loves (a sufferer in so many ways and her story gets far more dangerous as the plot moves along) or living a safe life. The inner conflict he has with himself alone could make a very worthy movie but the makers decided to include some spicy stuff, many things that either can appeal to audiences in a weird way or make them repulse and reject the film overall.

And that is the raunchy scenes of sex and rape, highly exploitative and the heavy use of humor. Maybe I'm thinking too much like Edgard and I can't find anything funny about such scenario - but I had my share of laughter because there are really funny scenes. But when you have a speech course and dire situations as the ones faced by the major characters in this corruptible world you couldn't make it as a full comedy. As a satire it could be accepted, but they were all funny as a real comedy with some steamy sequences.

I think this duality of sorts can hurt the viewing for not open minded people or contemporary viewers. Not sure if Nelson's play actually goes into humor since most of what he writers it's never treated as a comedy, but if does contain this level of humor than it's his fault that the story cannot be admired to its entirety.

I liked the movie, trust me. But it's one of those experiences where despite the serious tones and themes, it was made in a such a bizarre manner that you have to accept it lightly rather than darkly. It's so unpretentious that you simply don't care about a more elevated piece. But it works. 6/10.

Dirty words, nudity, sexuality and violence! A terrible screenplay and awful performances. A portrait of the decadent brazilian middle class. It is also a portrait of the decadent brazilian cinema.

Having read the review of this film in this section, I decided to give it a look, to try understand something of a foreign culture. I regret doing so. This is just another repulsively misogynistic expression of adolescent male fantasy. It doesn't matter how well it is made, the movie is repellent: just like watching slick Nazi propaganda. Nothing but skillfully-made lies.