Luz del Fuego

The old man and former senator João Gaspar (Walmor Chagas) tells his romance with Luz Del Fuego (Lucélia Santos) to his nurse, while traveling to the "Ilha do Sol" ("Island of the Sun") in a boat. In the end of the forties, he meets the show-girl Luz del Fuego, who becomes his lover. Ahead of time, she shocks the conservative Catholic Brazilian society with her costumes of being naked most of the time, and when she moves to the "Ilha do Sol", a property of her own, it became a nudism colony.

This movie was awarded in Gramado Festival, and Lucélia Santos has an amazing performance, being very natural naked most of the time and dancing with snakes. The story omits many parts of the biography of Luz del Fuego, highlighting her mostly as a low-level woman, and explores the beautiful body of Lucélia Santos. However, in accordance information of the site: http://aolliver.vilabol.uol.com.br/luzdelfuego.html (written in Portuguese), Luz del Fuego was born on 21 February 1917, with the name of Dora Vivacqua, in Cachoeiro do Itapemirim (ES). In 1944, she began her artistic career with the company of two snakes, "Cornélio e Castorina", working in "Circo Pavilhão Azul" ("Blue Flag Circus"), with the artistic name of "Luz Divina". In 1947, she changed her name to the foreign artistic name of "Luz del Fuego", following the advice of her friend, the clown "Cascudo", expecting to attract a greater public. Later, she was hired by the owners of the theater "Follies". Luz del Fuego was an ecologist and naturalist, in a period when these themes were not discussed by the Brazilian society. In 1950, she opened the first nudity colony of the Latin American in the Ilha do Sol ("Island of the Sun"), in São Gonçalo. She wrote two books: "Trágico Black Out" ("Tragic Black-Out", in 1947) and "Verdade Nua" ("Naked Truth", in 1950). Part of her profits with these books were donated to charity institution. The famous Ilha do Sol hosted many international vips, such as Errol Flynn, Ava Garden, Tyrone Powel, Brigite Bardot, Steve MacQueen, César Romeno, Laura Turner and Gleen Ford. On 19 July 1967, Luz del Fuego was murdered by Alfredo Teixeira Dias and Mozart. In 1982, the pictures of Lucélia Santos in this film was the front page and the centerfold of the Brazilian edition of Playboy magazine. Further, it is worthwhile watching this movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Luz Del Fuego"

I'd watched this movie at theatre in 1982 and l left the place with bad feelings where l'd expected more on it, as always brazilian movies that explore many nudity scenes to got some attraction, this one didn't ran of the same way, Lucelia Santos never was a kind of the gorgeous sexy woman, she is skinny and low height, if Luz Del Fuego was this so called glamorous woman whose they tried explose weren't successful, the plot driven to shown an artist of a sort of silly burlesque acting with a snake who living a bohemian lifestyle, now l got a copy in DVD of this picture and stayed with same perception like before!!!

Resume:

First watch: 1982 / How many: 2 / Source: Theatre-DVD / Rating: 5

Sexy LUZ DEL FUEGO was one of the most controversial and outspoken stars Brazil has ever seen. Ahead of her time, she openly advocated and demonstrated for nudism in her famous "Todo mundo nu!" protests. Her attitudes were outrageous in a Catholic country under a right-wing military dictatorship. Maybe not surprisingly, in the last year or two of the dictatorship, this film was released to much fanfare. LUZ was portrayed by the TV superstar, actress and model, Lucelia Santos, who was the 'heir apparent" to Sonia Braga who had just gone to Hollywood. The film is worthwhile for Lucelia Santos' provocative performance of LUZ DEL FUEGO alone. Available in NTSC video.