André, a Cara e a Coragem

The teenager André (Stepan Nercessian) leaves his hometown Carangola, Minas Gerais, and arrives in Rio de Janeiro seeking a better life; however, without professional qualification, he has difficulties to find a job. André lives in a poor room in a low-budget boarding house and works in the kitchen of the public hostel João XXIII and as a collector collecting debts. When he is hit by the car of w wealthy woman, she brings him home but he does not accept to pimp her. Then André works in a dry cleaner and he dates the sixteen year-old employee Marly (Ângela Valério). They have a love affair and Marly gets pregnant; when they lose their jobs, André seeks out a fellow countryman looking for a job. But the life is illusory and not easy.

"André, A Cara e a Coragem" is another great film of Xavier de Oliveira, with the illusionary life of a country boy that arrives in the big city with dreams and ends unemployed, living in a mediocre room in a proletarian area. Stepan Nercessian has another great performance in his second film, in the role of a youngster that has no perspective in life and comes to Rio de Janeiro expecting a better life. The dialog of André with the sailor Marcos is one of the best moments of the film, when Marcos tells about the countries he has already visited and André has only Carangola as reference. Again it is great to see Rio de Janeiro images in 1971. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "André, a Cara e a Coragem" ("André, the Face and the Courage" literally, meaning "André, Heart and Soul")