O Auto da Compadecida

Thats amazing story about heaven, hell and the duality of the human being settled in the poorest region of the Brazilian northeast is a great portrait of the human in the most comic way possible. It isn't the most famous Brazilian movies around the world, but it's surely one of the best.

Before watching it, get this straight !

1- This movie is an adaptation from a original play and smaller works from the same author (1955).

2- This is not how Brazil is today in the country side but how it was at the beginning of the 20 century (circa 1920). Sort of Brazilian Wild West (in our case Wild East).

3- This was a TV series much longer and was reduced to almost 1/3 of its original size for the theaters and DVD due to the great viewers ratings of the TV series.

4- Much of the jokes and characters are local to the region shown in the movie: Sertão Brasileiro.

5- To understanding the movie you should really know Brazilian Portuguese, some local accents related to the plot and the colloquial words used make it very tricky to translate, and in many cases, impossible. I watched also with English subtitles, and believe me: most of the jokes are gone.

6- There is no parallels between this movie and "Cidade de Deus" (City of God). You can argue about the technical aspects of them but for me, is like comparing "much ado about nothing" (from Shakespeare) and American Pie. To really appreciate "much ado..." you you must master the English Victorian world completely (of course... its out of my league. Eng. is not my first !). Or like old Italian comedies from the 60 and 70 where many joke relay on gestures that a foreign just cant understand.

7- And about the religious ending, its a joke inside the joke. And of course, if you cut a work that takes 3 1/2 hours to just 90 minutes and thinks that its the same thing.

...for example, for a native Brazilian, its just hilarious to see a black Jesus, a Zelot Devil and organized one following rules by the book.

In the other hand, you could compare this movie to DOGMA (Kevin Smith). And its way better than DOGMA.

Thats all folks...

And of course... I'm a Brazilian.

It's hard to find actors with as much charisma and on-screen chemistry as this movie's main duo. Throw in an impeccable script and various Cameos by Brazil's biggest and brightest stars, and you'll have one of the funniest movies ever made (and my personal favorite amongst the post-1980s Brazilian productions. The only downside of this movie is that it was originally a four-hour TV mini-series; the two-hour version is inevitably condensed. If you have the option of choosing between them, go for the complete work. If not... well, half the laugh is still better than no laugh.

"O Auto da Compadecida" figures as the best Brazilian comedy of all times, not only for the jokes itself but for the social and economical context that it shows!! Showing the northeast poor situation it shows an atmosphere that can only be understanded by Brazilians and third world countries citizens.

The movie tells the story of joão grilo and chicó two poor friends that uses their smart to survive. sometimes honestly and sometimes tricking the richer and stronger people. With a smart and simple humor it makes you laugh from the first to the last minute, don't having to appeal to nudity and deliberated violence!!

This one is one of the greatest comedies ever and should be watched by everyone who can understand it context!!

O Auto da compadecida is comedy about survival, we saw the things through the eyes of João and Chicó, both of them represent a great part of a invisible Brazil, poor and simple people that do everything to survive, we saw that even in the poor places there will have a huge social inequality. To survive this people even have to fool the Devil.