Chatô: O Rei do Brasil

Mr. Chateaubriand, in real life, could not have been worse than Citizen Chateaubriand as shown in this pseudo-biography supposedly based on a biographical bestseller. Biographer Morais did win his credit, but the biopic is only a nil-biog minor-pix that has nearly nothing to do with facts, except a few characters such as Chatô and Getulio Vargas. While Welles' Citizen Kane showed an à-clef W.R. Hearst more sympathetic than the real-life press magnate, "Chatô the King of Brazil" shows a psychopath, an unlikely sexpot, a lying bastard, a provincial Machiavelli, without even bothering to explain how he ever became a multimillionaire tycoon. This film was shot by the end of the last century and finished in 2015 only thanks to the money newly invested by Francis Coppola. Its script is barely unintelligible to any viewer of any nationality, both high-brow and low-brow. There is no commitment whatsoever with historical reality. Not even the dictator Vargas, in real life, was the s-o-b herein played by Paulo Betti. Everything amounts to sheer mystification, from talent to entertainment value: Fiat Lux became 'Fioluz,' Coca Cola became 'Soda Cola,' and Vivi Sampaio simply never existed in real life. Doris Monteiro, however, did exist (the part's name was changed à clef), she was at the center of a scandal that exemplified major abuse of power: Chateaubriand decided to elect Doris, then his mistress, the 'Queen of the Radio.' He called his treasurer and gave him an order: "Get Cr$5,000,000 right now!" The treasurer managed to extort the money from advertisers and Doris eventually got 875,605 votes! This is perhaps one of the few links with reality in a movie so delirious and poorly photographed, which hollowly falsifies history in a free, self- indulgent and pretentious way.