Engraçadinha

I first watched Engraçadinha when I was an ignorant teenager. Even then, I liked what I saw. A few years later, I've come to understand it better and appreciate the tragicomic Beauty of this film.

Lucélia Santos (a popular actress in Brazil, who acts in the Theater, starred in successful films and worldwide famous soap operas in the eighties and also directs) plays the seductive, lolita-type girl, who becomes the object of desire of her cousin Sílvio. They become lovers.

Letícia, who secretly lusts after her is engaged to Sílvio, and Engraçadinha gets herself into trouble when she tells him she is pregnant with his child and her father reveals the dirty secret he's been hiding all those years.

Great performances by Lucélia, Luiz Fernando Guimarães, José Lewgoy, Nina de Pádua and Daniel Dantas, in this effective silver screen adaptation of Nelson Rodrigues' masterpiece "Asfalto selvagem - Engraçadinha: seus amores e pecados".

The film leaves out quite a lot of the second part of the book, however, it succeeds in catching the spirit of the novel, which is a psychological drama. Read the book if you can get a hold of it, and you won't regret it.