Review by guisreis

A very well done film on a XIX century novel. All actors perform very well (it is the very first work by Fernanda Torres in cinema!), and cinematography, costumes and sets are wonderful. Indeed, if the film is not better, it is due the limits of Romanticism itself. At some point, that superficial drama between fast lovers is a little boring. I have not read the original novel by Taunay, but it supposedly portrays Cirino, the man in love, as a tragic good-hearted hero, and the mute dwarf slave Tico as his nemesis. As a matter of fact, the movie still idealizes somewhat that "love" that is simply physicall atraction by a mature man directed to a naive young maid who is easily seduced by him. However, it puts that in a much more interesting way, as Cirino is a schemer and liar, and the most important not phisical trait of Tico is certainly loyalty, as he just protects the maid just as he was asked to. Therefore, as a film Imperial age in Brazil, it deviates from open racism so widespread when the book was written. Worth to be watched.