Giovanni Improtta

Irregular but certainly very underrated film directed and starred by José Wilker. Wilker's Giovanni Improtta is based in a character from three decades before by writer Aguinaldo Silva. He became particularly famous just when he had Wilker himself playing the role in a soap opera in 2004. Improtta is a flamboyant gangster that deserves to be included in a Brazilian comedy rogue gallery together with Nélson Rodrigues's Boca de Ouro and Chico Anysio's Nazareno. The script has ups and downs, not everything works, but there are indeed good lines and gags, besides an excellent cast. Some characters mock interestingly on rising elements in Brazilian politics in that moment and still today: the corrupt politician who uses charismatic church to get votes, mafia-like financing of Legislative representatives, the public attorney who pretends to be honest and liked more to speak their poor English than Portuguese... "Jogo do Bicho", an illegal lottery, has been very influential in Rio de Janeiro through the decades (particularly in the 90's), with several iconic criminal characters in real life, and it appears in a nice way in the core of the story.