Samba

Singer and dancer Laura Monteiro (Sara Montiel) is killed by her old protector João Fernandes de Oliveira (Fosco Giachetti), who has found out her love affair with Assis (Carlos Alberto) . Up in the hills , Favela-girl Belén (also Montiel) is the look-alike who takes her place , unaware she is being used by a band of smugglers . Later on , some mobsters force the President of the Salgueiro Samba School to invite Belén to play Chica da Silva in the Carnival .

Musical drama full of songs and attractive scenarios , being paced in a long flashback reminiscing about her glorious spectacles when she was received like a great samba dancer , as well as her lovers , turbulent past and distresses . The film describes the social habits in Rio De Janeiro , the outskirts of the city, stands the favela Salgueiro, a neighborhood formed by hundreds of miserable huts where the poorest of the poor live and toil. Showing a lively community , being quite active preparing for the upcoming carnival in which an ensemble of singers, dancers, musicians, etc. Along with a suspenseful intrigue about a criminal gang who smuggles precious stones sewn in Carnival costumes . It achieved a big hit , thanks to its several songs , played by Sara Montiel . The film had problems with censorship due to some brief erotic elements , as when the original script was submitted to the censors, it suffered strong cuts . It contains a shimmering and shining cinemtography by Gábor Pogány . And an evocative and catching musical score by Gregorio Garcia Segura .



Sara Montiel is frankly well as one very highly sensual Kistch singer and dancer , making lavish utilization of her considerable physical assets , attractive countenance , charms and whatever acting ability was necessary . At the beginning , she won a beauty and talent contest held by Cifesa, the most influential Spanish film studio of that era . In the next four years she appeared in 14 films for Cifesa , including her first international success Locura De Amor (1948), which led to a long term-contract in Mexico. She quickly established herself as one of the most popular film actors of the decade. They starred 14 films between 1950 and 1954. Hollywood came calling and she was formally introduced to American moviegoers in Veracruz (1954), playing Gary Cooper's love interest. Later she filmed she worked at Warner Bros in Serenade (1956) with Mario Lanza, directed by Anthony Mann, who became her first husband. After starring in Samuel Fuller's Yuma (1957) with Rod Steiger, Sarita shot El Ultimo Cuplé (1957) ("The Last Song") in Spain, a musical production that turned out to be the biggest box-office success in Spain's film history. It played for over one year in the same theaters in which it opened. A similar reaction followed in Western Europe and Latin America. Sarita Montiel had become the most popular actress-singer of 1957 and a national treasure for Spain.The unprecedented success of "El Último Cuple" threw a wrench into her Hollywood career, as she was offered a multimillion-dollar contract to star in four films in Europe . Sara made her María Luján from El Ultimo Cuple , the most enticing , heartless and hot-blooded screen heroine of the Spanish cinema . Her next vehicle, La Violetera (1958) ("The Violet Peddler"), confirmed Sara's popularity and broke the box-office records set by the previous movie. The theme song from "La Violetera" became Montiel's signature song as well as ¨El Relicario¨ from ¨El Ultimo Cuple¨.

The motion picture was lavishly produced by Suevia Films/Cesareo Gonzalez that along with Cifesa were the most known production companies during Francoist period , that often financed these false but breathtaking historical spectacles . This movie was professionally realized by Rafael Gil , shooting a hastily assembled attractive picture . Director Gil took advantage of the marvelous exteriors from Andalucia . Being filmed in usual style of the forties and in stylistic scholarship , without leaving a trace the historical issues , in terms of dramatic and narrative excitement . Rafael was one of the best filmmakers from Spanish cinema , directing several classic movies , such as : ¨Don Quijote De La Mancha¨ , ¨El Clavo¨ , ¨La Fe¨ , ¨La Señora De Fatima¨, ¨La Reina Santa¨ , ¨La Guerra De Dios¨ , ¨El Beso De Judas¨ , and several others.

What happens when Sara Montiel, Spain's most popular international star of the 50s/60s, comes to Brazil to make a film playing a legitimate favela girl from Rio? And her character is called Belén (I dare you to find a SINGLE Brazilian woman named Belén)? And she's chosen to incarnate BLACK slave Xica da Silva in a Carnival parade (though of course Sarita just wears her two kilos of regular make-up that makes her skin look the usual tanned beige)? Or when she sings Brazilian sambas like they were boleros or rumbas? Or when the incredibly convoluted plot combines dead ringers (Sarita in a double-role, though I bet you can't tell who's who), sightseeing in Brazil, aging madmen, kidnapping, macumba and smuggling precious stones sewn in Carnival costumes (an idea ripped off by Brazilian writer Rubem Fonseca many years later)? Not to mention a love quartet (Sarita is disputed by THREE men)... Well, the result is the film "Samba", a one-of-a-kind experience, something we Brazilians mockingly call "Samba do Crioulo Doido" -- i.e. a delirious mix of wild improbabilities and factual errors defying ANY standard of verisimilitude... but such kitsch fun!

You haven't lived until you see Sarita appear on a stage amidst dozens of dancers in "typical Brazilian" costumes and a lot of stage smoke as Yemanjá (the Candomblé goddess of the seas) in a bare-legged costume complete with blue wig, glittering make-up and star-shaped magic wand, and start to sing Ary Barroso's classic patriotic standard "Brazil/ Aquarela do Brasil" -- that originally describes Brazil's natural beauties -- in a Spanish version that talks about being dumped by a cruel-hearted lover! You can't miss Sarita bravely climbing up her beloved favela hill in vaporous dress, high-heeled shoes, helmet-like hairdo and lemon-sized jewels, just to be accused -- falsely! -- of being a slut by an envious hag, who provokes Sarita so much they end up in a nasty hair-pulling fistfight, rolling on the ground with "accidental" skirt-raising! Or Sarita dancing the samba (struggling to, anyway) barefoot on top of the Sugar Loaf... or crooning a sort of samba-salsa accompanied by a choir of favela kids singing in totally dubbed high-pitched soprano voices in Spanish! Got the idea?

Though the film was made on fantastic locations (Copacabana, the Corcovado, Rio's Theatro Municipal, the favelas, Brasília, Bahia), to believe that Sarita could play a girl -- hm, let's say "youngish" woman -- from a Rio favela is REALLY stretching it (Claudia Cardinale fared somewhat better in "Una Rosa per Tutti" the following year, her physique and darker skin not too unlike a carioca woman). Well, one could argue -- rightfully -- that John Wayne once played a Mongol, Brando a Japanese and Katharine Hepburn a Chinese...

Kitsch, unbelievable, tacky, for sure, but one thing must be said for Montiel: she's never caught blasé or bored, she really goes for it, whether it's the fistfight, the songs or her prayer for Yemanjá. We get a feeling she's happy as long she can wear fancy costumes, lush wigs, expensive jewels and a ton of make-up. She seems eager to sing her songs and do her close- ups, and the producers wisely valued their 37 year-old star: the only other female roles of any importance in the film are the Hattie McDaniel-ish housemaid Trinidad (how about that for a Brazilian name?!) played by the rotund Zeni Pereira, and Sarita's GRANDmother (!), played by 70 year-old Antonia Marzullo (real-life grandmother of celebrated Brazilian actress Marília Pêra, of "Pixote" fame).

The best in "Samba" are the musical numbers, in the so-outlandish-it's-fun way: Sarita's undeniably expressive singing voice -- perfectly suited to melodramatic Latin torch songs, especially boleros -- found the least adequate possible material here: Brazilian sambas and sambas-canções require either swinging zest or vocal subtlety, neither of which is Montiel's forte. Yet, she does try: she even sings Dolores Duran's classic "A Noite do Meu Bem" in a dialect that vaguely resembles Portuguese:)

This vintage kitsch time-capsule will probably interest only Montiel's fans, but nostalgic/curious Brazilians may want to have a look at mid-60s Rio and then newly-built Brasília, as well as seeing a VERY young Antonio Pitanga (billed as Antonio Sampaio), cameos by Grande Otelo, Wilson Grey and great samba singer Ciro Monteiro as the President of Salgueiro Samba School (it's a shame he doesn't get to sing, but then ONLY Sarita sings in the film). Brazilianist film buffs will add a precious item to their collection on "How Hollywood and Europe got it all wrong about Brazil once again". My vote: 6 out of 10 -- this rating would be higher if the Brazilian DVD copy wasn't so bad: the colors are washed out and the sound sync is awful, but somehow it just adds to the kitsch, and I'll bet Sarita's fans will scream in delight, anyway.

The Brazilian singer Laura Monteiro (Sara Montiel) is murdered in her dressing-room by her jealous lover João Fernandes de Oliveira (Fosco Giachetti) that discovered that she was cheating him with Assis (Carlos Alberto) and she intends to escape from him traveling to Buenos Aires with Assis.

Meanwhile, Belén Moreira (Sara Montiel), who lives in Favela do Salgueiro and is a dead ringer of Laura, goes to Copacabana with her boyfriend Paulo (Marc Michel). Two gangsters of a gang that smuggles precious stones sewn in Carnival costumes see Belén and they force the President of the Salgueiro Samba School to invite Belén to perform Chica da Silva in the Carnival parade. Her costume is prepared with real precious stones to be smuggled to Europe.

"Samba" is a kitsch, tacky and funny stereotypical view of Rio de Janeiro by Hollywood. A couple of years ago I saw "Olhar Estrangeiro", a documentary by Brazilian director Lúcia Murat that made a great research about the clichés and stereotypes of the cinema industry about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro through footages of about eighteen movies entwined with interviews of personalities related to them.

"Samba" has a completely messy and non-sense story and shows Rio de Janeiro in an parallel universe created by Hollywood, where Brazilian speak Spanish instead of Portuguese; Sara Montiel is a mulatto with the incredible name Belén that does not exist in our vocabulary in Portuguese and sings samba in the rhythm of rumba. The landscape of Rio de Janeiro in the initial credits is very old, probably many years before 1965.

The good points that make this film worth watching are the nostalgic view of Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and Bahia in 1965; the musical numbers by Sara Montiel in a strong accent in Spanish; the credited and uncredited cameos of the actors Antonio Pitanga, Grande Otelo, Wilson Grey and the singer Ciro Monteiro, all of them dubbed in Spanish. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Samba"