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.

After the funeral of her father Arnaldo (José Lewgoy), who committed suicide, Engraçadinha (Lucélia Santos) confesses to the priest the motives. On the engagement party of her cousin Sílvio (Luiz Fernando Guimarães) with Letícia (Nina de Pádua), Engraçadinha seduces him in the library, and later she ends her engagement with Zózimo (Daniel Dantas) and lies to Letícia, telling that she is pregnant. Letícia decides to tell Arnaldo what happened, and he says that the child can not be born. He exposes dirty secrets to Engraçadinha, and a tragedy is announced.

"Engraçadinha" is another adaptation of an erotic, amoral and tragic novel about the degradation of the family by Nelson Rodrigues, one of the best Brazilian dramaturge, to the cinema. The performances of Lucélia Santos, Luiz Fernando Guimarães, Nina de Pádua and José Lewgoy are magnificent. The beautiful title song is sang by the Brazilian singer Zizi Possi. Once again I regret that another great Brazilian film has not had a decent distribution. Even in Brazil, I have a very old VHS, bought from a rental, and this movie has not been released on DVD. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Engraçadinha" ("Cute")

Note: On 04 January 2011, I saw this film again on DVD released by Paramount.