Brazilian Cinema DVDs

Hector Babenco  Bruno Barreto  Sonia Braga   Zé Do Caixão

Nelson Pereira Dos Santos   Carlos Diegues   Carmen Miranda

Fernando Meirelles  Walter Salles  Daniela Thomas VHS Video

Brazilian Films on DVD, A - Z Listing

Black Orpheus (DVD)
"Orfeu Negro" directed by Marcel Camus
(1959)

Bus 174 (DVD)
directed by Jose Padilha & Felipe Lacerda
(2004)

A shocking, hypnotic look at a real-life disaster. In June 2000, an armed gunman hijacked a bus in downtown Rio de Janeiro. An angry, strung-out former street kid, he spent an afternoon threatening his hostages while the lurid drama was broadcast live over the national TV networks. The extensive newsreel footage from this terrible event forms the bulk of Bus 174, but director Jose Padilha takes time to fill in the background, too: the poverty-broken world of the gunmen is detailed, and so is the political situation that led to some ludicrous decision-making on the part of the authorities during the siege. The fact that most viewers outside Brazil don't know how the ordeal ended will add to the suspense, but either way this is a gripping experience. The sight of the crazed hijacker, self-consciously styling his weird version of action-movie villainy, will haunt you long after the film is over. --Robert Horton

Behind the Sun (DVD)
directed by Walter Salles
(2001)

Bossa Nova (DVD)
director by Bruno Barreto and
starring Amy Irving, Antonio Fagundes
(2000)

Carandiru (DVD)
directed by Hector Babenco
(2004)

The setting is grim, but Carandiru is easily one of Brazilian filmmaker Hector Babenco's most living, thriving works, with scores of powerful performances and an engaging style underscoring the cathartic power of storytelling. Based on a bestselling novel, Carandiru concerns an oncologist (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) who treats patients at Sao Paulo's House of Detention, a terrible place largely policed from within by longtime prisoners. The doctor is specifically interested in collecting blood samples for an HIV study, but the more prisoners open up to him, the more compassionate and committed he becomes about their survival. Babenco's episodic structure gives Carandiru a dimension of memory and constant shots of energy, so that even the most horrifying events--drug-related murder, rape, revenge--can't drive this tale into abject misery. Based on actual events, the drama's climactic police raid on the prison (a reconstruction of a 1992 riot called the Carandiru Massacre) is a tour de force. --Tom Keogh

Central Station (DVD)
directed by Walter Salles
(1998)

In the opening scenes of Central Station, colorful crowds of Brazilians stream into and out of a Rio de Janeiro train, pushing through doors and windows. You're immediately pulled into the brutal vitality of a nation in motion, setting the tone for a picturesque road movie that charts Brazil's renaissance in a little boy's search for his father and an old woman's emotional reawakening. Central Station is primarily fueled by the tough/tender performances of Montenegro, Brazil's Judy Dench, and de Oliveira, an airport shoeshine boy Salles cast over 1,500 other hopefuls. (Montenegro was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, and Central Station was in the running for Best Foreign Language Film.) No cloyingly cute child-star, de Oliveira plays Josue as a bracingly idiosyncratic brat. And watching Dora's face and soul slowly, unwillingly unclench as she gets back in motion--and emotion--is potent pleasure, even if Salles's trip does dead-end in soap opera as his Brazilian pilgrim's progress winds down. --Kathleen Murphy
 

Chronically Unfeasible (DVD)
directed by Sergio Bianchi
(2000)

A political comedy that skewers race and class relations with wit and precision, as it views a Brazilian society in chaos. The story revolves around six characters, in and around a restaurant, as they interact and grapple for everyday life in this intelligent and controversial peek at the class struggle.

City Of God (DVD)
directed by Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund
(2002)

City of God lights a fuse under its squalid Brazilian ghetto, and we're a captive audience to its violent explosion. The titular favela is home to a seething army of impoverished children who grow, over the film's ambitious 20-year timeframe, into cutthroat killers, drug lords, and feral survivors. In the vortex of this maelstrom is L'il Z (Leandro Firmino da Hora--like most of the cast, a nonprofessional actor), self-appointed king of the dealers, determined to eliminate all competition at the expense of his corrupted soul. With enough visual vitality and provocative substance to spark heated debate (and box-office gold) in Brazil, codirectors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund tackle their subject head on, creating a portrait of youthful anarchy so appalling--and so authentically immediate--that City of God prompted reforms in socioeconomic policy. It's a bracing feat of stylistic audacity, borrowing from a dozen other films to form its own unique identity. You'll flinch, but you can't look away. --Jeff Shannon
 

City of Men: TV Series (DVD)
 directed by Fernando Meirelles

Brazilian TV series City of Men is a dazzling, propulsive, and fiery exploration of life in a chaotic Rio de Janeiro slum, seen through the eyes of Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha). These two boys prove to be amazingly charming tour guides to a world by turns terrifying and exhilarating. Using the jam-packed storytelling that made the movie City of God such a revelation, the first episode alone is a marvel, merging the history of Napoleon with a cutting analysis of drug lords and class structure in the poverty-ridden neighborhood. The other three episodes of the first series carry on this riveting approach, mingling social observation with rich, compelling characters. From the second series on, the show becomes less overtly political and more about Acerola and Laranjinha's passage from youth to adulthood (embracing, with humor and pathos, the adolescent boys' obsession with sex)--though every episode has some sly or startling observation about race, wealth, and gender. Each series is filmed a year after the previous one, so the boys literally grow before our eyes. Add to this the dynamic musical score of Brazilian pop and samba, and you have essential viewing. World music has already found popularity in the U.S.; welcome to a masterpiece of world television. --Bret Fetzer
 

Coffin Joe DVDs: Brazilian Horror Movies
From Zé Do Caixão (Complete List)
 

Eu Tu Eles (DVD)
"Me You Them"
Director: Andrucha Waddington
Starring: Regina Casé, Lima Duarte
(2000)
limited availability

Four Days In September (DVD)
directed by Bruno Barreto and
starring Alan Arkin, Pedro Cardoso
(1998)
 

Foreign Land (DVD)
directed by Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas
(1995)

God Is Brazilian (DVD)
directed by Carlos Diegues and
starring Antonio Fagundes
(2003)
 

O Homem do Ano: The Man Of The Year (DVD)
Murilio Benacio & Cláudia Abreu
(2002)

Hour Of The Star (DVD)
directed by Suzana Amaral
(1987)

Lower City
directed by Sergio Machado
(2005)

A sexy Brazilian drama chronicling a love triangle between two best friends, Deco and Naldinho (Carandiru’s Lázaro Ramos and Wagner Moura), and a sultry, beautiful young girl, Karinna (Alice Braga, City of God). Burdened with unbridled passion, the threesome navigates the "lower city" of tropical Salvador Bahia, stumbling through a treacherous landscape of sex and jealousy. Suffocated and unable to go on, the three must accept one another as lovers, adversaries and ultimately friends; learning to overlook the defiance of their actions and joining one another down an unthinkable path. A startlingly intimate debut from director Sérgio Machado, Lower City bursts with a sensuality and energy emanating from the unflinching performances of the vibrant young cast.--DVD description

Madame Sata (DVD)
directed by Karim Ainouz and
starring Lazaro Ramos (2003)

Mango Yellow (DVD)
directed by Claudio Assis
(2005)
 

"Me You Them"
See Eu Tu Elesabove
 

O Caminho das Nuvens (DVD)
(The Middle Of The World)
directed by Vicente Amorim
(2003)

Based on a true story, The Middle of the World is the story of a couple and their five children (ages ranging from 6 months to 14 years old) as they travel 3,200 km by bicycle to chase a dream. Romão, an illiterate and unemployed truck driver, and his wife Rose, leave the State of Paraíba in Brazil, and over the course of six months, travel across five states to reach Rio de Janeiro, in a quest for a job and a decent life.

Midnight (DVD)
directed by Walter Salles and Daniella Thomas;
with Fernando Torres, Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos
(1998)
 

Orfeu (DVD)
directed by Carlos Diegues;
with soundtrack by Caetano Veloso
(1999)
limited availability
 

"Orfeu Negro"
See Black Orpheus above

 

Pixote (DVD)
directed by Hector Babenco
(1981)
limited availability
 

Possible Loves (DVD)
directed by Sandra Werneck and starring
Murilo Benicio and Carolina Ferraz
(2001)
 

Quilombo (DVD)
Director: Carlos Diegues
(1984)
 

Saudade Do Futuro (DVD)
directed by Cesar Paes

This is a very beautiful poetic film about the largest city in South America, Sao Paulo told from the perspective of its largest migrant population the Nordestinos. Filled with startling music (forro, repente, embolada) and a cast of warm and humorous characters - it is a Latcho Drom like journey into a mostly ignored side of Brazilian culture. Tremendously photographed and edited a total must have for lovers of all Brazilian, and indeed documentary. Just watched it and I have a very big smile on my face. --an Amazon reviewer
 

Tieta (DVD)
Director: Carlos Diegues
Starring: Sonia Braga
(1996)
limited availability

Vidas Secas (DVD)
directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos
(1963)

VHS Video Editions, New & Used

How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (VHS)

Xica (VHS)

Bye Bye Brazil (VHS)

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (VHS)

The Story of Fausta (VHS)

Also See:

Carmen Miranda