Vinicius

This documentary is a must for anyone interested in Brazilian music or culture in general. It's beautifully made and structured, a wonderful mix of performance, storytelling, and biography, and worthy of the man who inspired it. Vinicius De Moraes was an outstanding poet, playwright,and lyricist, best known to most of the world as the writer of the play on which the movie "Black Orpheus" is based, as well as the co-composer of "Girl from Ipanema." Many of the top figures in Brazilian music are here--Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethania, Toquinho--contributing personal and often very funny stories. Interspersed with these interviews are two actors, who "host" it all, reading Vinicius's poetry and presenting the outlines of his life. And, to finish it off, an array of Brazil's major singers performs his songs on stage, in front of an audience. Every moment is enjoyable. Re the comment on the translation, above: My Portuguse is not perfect and I'm sure I missed some things, but the particular example she chose is not so much a matter of translation as of spelling. Almost any native English speaker will realize the mistake instantly and substitute the correct word because of context. Non-Portuguese speakers should not let it deter them from seeing this film--if they can find it. I saw it at a special program on recent Brazilian film offered by the Museum of Modern Art, and it has not yet been released, either in general theaters or on DVD. I hope that will be remedied soon.

Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980) was Brazil's most popular poet & lyricist of the 20th century: he wrote some of the most memorable Brazilian poems of his time, and the lyrics of dozens of the best Bossa Nova & samba songs including "Garota de Ipanema", "Samba da Bênção", "Canto de Ossanha", "A Felicidade". AND he lived life to the hilt: he was also a playwright, screenwriter, showman, full-fledged diplomat, informal "talent scout" (he put on the map some of the most brilliant Brazilian composers of the last 50 years by simply becoming their partner; he was that prestigious and important). And he found time to get married 9 times (!), have a handful of children and a multitude of friends who adored his great sense of humor and inimitable personality, and who helped him through his periods of depression and very heavy drinking.

Vinicius de Moraes revolutionized 1) Brazilian music with the creation of Bossa Nova in the late 50s (with partner Antonio Carlos Jobim) and the Afro-Sambas in the mid-60s (with partner Baden Powell); 2) Brazilian poetry with his unique talent for blending colloquialism, classicism, lyricism, sensuality and urgent commitment to love and life; 3) Brazilian musical theater with "Orfeu do Carnaval" (later adapted as "Black Orpheus", the Oscar- and Cannes- winning film by Marcel Camus). Now Vinicius finally gets a greatly deserved homage by way of this irresistible documentary, directed by his ex-son-in-law (experienced filmmaker Miguel Faria Jr in the best film of his career) and co-produced by his daughter (filmmaker Susana de Moraes). Trust me: by the end of the 110 minutes, you'll be down on your knees for Vinicius de Moraes, the artist and the man.

The film alternates archive footage of Vinicius (including a side-splitting dialog with Jobim about booze; his participation in Pierre Kast's French documentary "Les Carnets Brésiliens" and excerpts of his concerts); interviews with his partners (great composers Edu Lobo, Toquinho, Carlos Lyra, Chico Buarque), friends (Tonia Carrero, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Ferreira Gullar, etc) and family (his witty, funny daughters); on-screen recitation of some of his great poems by actors Camila Morgado and Ricardo Blat (a heart-wrenching highlight is the poem he wrote on his father's death; the ones about passionate love are unequaled in their sensuality and have been used by generations of Brazilian men and women to advance their love lives:)); and musical numbers played live with Brazilian music stars (besides Chico, Caetano, Toquinho, Lyra, Lobo, we have Adriana Calcanhotto, Monica Salmaso, Gilberto Gil, Mart'nália, his granddaughter Mariana de Moraes, etc -- shame on the seminal João Gilberto, now a recluse, who refused to appear in the film). All gels seamlessly, with never a dull moment.

"Vinicius" also has a knockout ending (this is not a spoiler, really). After narrator Caco Ciocler reads Rubem Braga's lyric farewell letter to Vinicius, comes perfect-pitch Monica Salmaso who sublimely sings "Canto Triste" (which HAS to be one of the most perfect and beautiful songs ever written anytime anywhere), and we realize that the sad, longing lyrics by Vinicius about the absence of his loved one now apply as a manifesto on how much HIS death left an eternal void in Brazilian culture. With moist eyes, we then watch Chico Buarque -- who's a serious scene-stealer with his quick wit, infectious smile and blue-eyed charm -- recall a joke Vinicius used to make about his, hmm, sexual "shortcomings". Broad laughter and heartfelt tears mix as we hear Vinicius himself sing his matchless lyrics for "Samba da Bênção" over the final credits.

OK, there are minor letdowns: Blat occasionally gets too theatrical in some of the poems, Morgado destroys some of Vinicius' perfect poetic meters by breathing in the wrong places, and a few of the musical guests are not up to the task (over-dramatic Olívia Byington, bureaucratic Zeca Pagodinho, duck-voiced Renato Braz). But there's so much to compensate that the overall effect is just sweeping. And box-office wise, "Vinicius" has managed QUITE a feat: it scored #2 in the list of all-time B.O. results of Brazilian documentaries, just behind Murilo Salles' "Todos os Corações do Mundo", about Brazil's victory in the 1994 World Cup, but ahead of popular docs about Pelé, Garrincha, Zico, and other soccer gods in this land of soccer worshiping. This tells a lot about the importance and popularity of Vinicius de Moraes among Brazilian people, and it's also a recognition of this film's quality and power of communication.

If there ever was a man who represented a certain Zeitgeist, it was Vinicius de Moraes in the Rio de Janeiro of the 1950s/1960s/1970s; he belonged to that rare breed of artists whose lives are as fascinating and awe-inspiring as their oeuvre. We fall in love all over again with this incredibly generous, talented, funny, full-blooded, witty man who brought out the best in people; in love with his poetry, his music and a Rio that was once beautiful and magical. So thanks Faria Jr and Susana for making my heart warmer, my soul happier and making me kind of proud of having been born in the same country (and city) as this unique man.

I've just watched "Vinicius" this weekend, during the Miami Film Festival and, being fluent on both Portuguese and English, I couldn't help but feel sorry for people who had to rely exclusively on the English subtitles to understand what was being said and sung.

A lot of the more subtle messages and word play of Vinicius poetry and lyrics were obscured by translation, but that would be understandable, almost expected... after all, movie subtitles hardly ever receive the attention a book or poem collection does. What's not understandable, though, is that too many of even the most trivial comments got warped beyond recognition - and I'm not talking here about the never-ending debate about "literal" and "non-literal" translation, or about the reading time constraints specific to subtitles.

One very simple - but very telling - example can be seen in the confusion between "sow" and "sew", when one of the guests is saying Vinicius sowed ("semeou", Portuguese for sowing seeds) the Brazilian culture with this special style, and the subtitles said he "sew" ("costurou", like with needle and thread) the Brazilian culture, or something to that effect. Sincerely, I can't imagine those subtitles were written - or at least reviewed - by a native English speaker.

Certainly this is not the first movie I see that shows that kind of problem, since the neglecting of subtitled translations is nothing new. One early Brazilian version of Blade Runner comes to mind, specifically the scene where android Roy Batty calls Tyrell "father" right before killing him - the caption said something like "Seu f.d.p.", literally "You s.o.b." which means the Brazilian translator understood - and translated - "fu**er", not "father", thus changing completely the significance of a dramatic moment, stripping it of its duality.

Now, considering the time and effort (oh, yes... and the money, too) that is spent on making a movie, would it be too much to ask they get a translator that is good enough to make sure its message doesn't get totally mangled?

"Vinicius" is a wonderful movie, deserved correctly translated subtitles... So the movie is a 10, but the subtitling is a sore 5, at best.