Edifício Master

A total of 53 IMDB voters gave this film a 9.0 I'd like to know EXACTLY what they were smoking while watching this. "Master, a building in Copacabana" is the story of several tenants that reside in a Rio de Janeiro apartment building. We are told it is near the beach but virtually all of this film was shot in the dwellings and halls of this complex. On the plus side, director Eduardo Continho finds some interesting people to talk to. Unfortunately, the entire film is made up of only two things: dozens of interviews with these people, and the film crew shuttling from one door to another. I'll say this; don't expect a Brazilian "action" film! Clocking in at 110 minutes, it's about 20 minutes too long. 6/10

My mother has a friend who has lived in Edifício Master for over 20 years. So I have been to the building several times over all these years, mostly during my childhood. I recently met her and we spoke about the movie. She hated that it was made, and refused to be interviewed. She also did not watch the movie herself. There is a big stigma associated to buildings like Ed. Master (there are a few like it in Copacabana, but not that many). There are even stories about buildings that had their street numbers changed, so bad the reputation they earned, always in connection with prostitution and drug dealing. What I like about the movie, is that it shows that it is true that prostitutes do live there, but also that everyone is a human being, with often complex feelings. It is interesting to see how important it was for several of those interviewed to live in Copacabana, a famous postcard from Rio. Almost all of those are not from Rio, which adds a little to the postcard effect. Copacabana is indeed a very diverse, I'd even say strange place. Many tourists, a lot of violence, many street-kids snorting glue, smoking dope, a huge number of prostitutes. Both female and male (mostly transvestites). The only thing I think was missing was a transsexual interviewee (I'm sure there are some living there).

In Copacabana, in a low middle-class twelve floor building called "Master", with two hundred and seventy-six apartments and more than five hundred dwellers, Eduardo Coutinho and his crew have rented an apartment for a month and have interviewed thirty-seven inhabitants.

This documentary may be an interesting sociological study of the heterogeneous people living in a metropolis like Rio de Janeiro, or for a monograph work of students of cinema, but I found it very boring for a commercial DVD. I have never caught the point, the objective of this footage. I do not like reality shows, I have never watched "Big Brother" or any other similar show and therefore I have no interest in the intimacy of the dwellers of that horrible building. "Edifício Master" was awarded as the best documentary of 2002 "Festival de Gramado", but I did not like it. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Edifício Master" ("Master Building")

The main reason I am writing this response is because I read Kevv's response. This piece isn't about the beach of Rio De Janeiro. The title contains Edificio...basically Edifice...Building. The film is about the people of a building. It beautifully explores the lives of common people. There are many reasons to see this film: understand that Copacobana may not be the glittering paradise people imagine it to be, have an insight into people's lives that are different or perhaps similar to yours, and enjoy humanity. I think this is the "Reality TV" Americans should spend a lot more time watching. I met the assistant director for this film, Cristiana Grumbach. She and Coutinho provide a great window of insight into Brazilian life. Though these people are a small representation of the entire population of Copacobana, their lives are rich with humanity.

I became a big fan of Coutinho, great documentaries, this one is amazing, so beautiful and familiar, people like us talking about random subjects inside a cluster of apartments, loneliness, robbery, suicide, dreams, past and future, and how they have passed 20 years I'm imagining and super curious to know how the real characters in this movie are doing... Beautiful, beautiful... Eduardo Coutinho will be missed...