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There was a large expectation for me to see this film, partially because I talked to the makers through online means for over a year back, but also for the plot had always been a matter of interest. When I finally got it, at the University festival, it didn't disappoint me at all. Although it's an amateur work, evidently, made by students in northeastern Brazil, it is a competent piece of cheap cinema, composed by a good idea and a dedicated crew.

Though a limited audience can understand it (i.e., only regional spectators under 25) and even a fewer might like it, there's an universal storyline: shy guy looks for a girl. This would be the very same plot as thousands of other teen movies, but here we get a distinguishing point: he doesn't make it. Well, at least that's what you'll think to the very final frame.

There are flaws, indeed. The performance of Perazzo is not anything we could call "a promising acting" but nevertheless he does his job. Personally, I'd say he's better writing than performing. Perhaps the dialogues lack some more intelligent humor, the camera is not part of the storytelling, and the sound is terrible (I'd blame their accents too), and any of these will not bother you if you know what the film was made for.

Anyway, there is no presumption at all in "As Aventuras de Lucrécio no Mundo da Paquera", but to have the audience have fun for a few minutes. And this far it surely gets.

Brazilian filmmakers have concentrated their latest efforts in developing an industry, based on European standards, to allow large scale production of national cinema, after the serious crisis in the begginning of the 1990's. Among these, the majority of veterans insist in the necessity of artworks while a younger generation suggests a more commercial-oriented production, with no loss in quality of plot, acting or artistry.

We can never frame "Bellini e a Esfinge" within the latter. There is none sin when producers ellaborate a purely commercial project (and there is even an audience call for it), but care-taking with quality is equally needed. And in this movie we have none.

The camera can't get a single neat shot. The cut impressively destroys all scenes which would look at least fine. The plot is dumb, unlikely true and obvious, what is unforgivable for a thriller. The scenery is fake. The production design is ridiculous. Even the soundtrack, which should be at least reasonable in a movie where the writer, the producers and some actors are musicians, is weak.

But what will make you furious about the complete lack of refinement in the film is the acting. There are a few real good actors (namely Malu Mader) but even they look as false as a seven-dollars banknote. The rest of the cast is just poor. Dialogues are spoken as a computer program or a robot would. Cast direction is absent. They look like they are still on their first rehearsal.

Here we have Bellini, the handsome bachelor private detective, with whom strangely all women want to sleep. And also Fátima, the nice prostitute, but ---- ssshhhh! don't trust her; she might be a suspect killer too. And there is also the beautiful charming assistent, a dedicated working girl above all suspicion, and finally the ruthless-yet-friendly Lobo, the woman (suggestedly lesbian) who takes Bellini in her office in a motherly/patron way. The investigation? Oh, yes, sure, there is one. An Armenian émigré has been murdered after hiring Lobo to find his missing mistress, but don't worry, you will even forget it by the end.

If you still can buy it all and take "Bellini e a Esfinge" for granted, then hurry to the theatre/videostore next to you and get it ---- but please don't tell your friends. Now if you still appreciate good cinema, no matter if it is art or commercial, and you don't want to have a bad feeling about Brazilian movies, then keep the adequate distance. Or, like Bela Lugosi used to say in b&w trash films: "Bevare! Bevare!". At least he was far more convincent than Bellini and his fellows.

I saw this movie 11 years ago, when I was almost the age of the protagonists, and it looked so real and intense to me that even for long later I still was impressed and didn't want to see it again. If you watch it, you'll probably understand why.

Thomas (Régis Arpin) is the 12-year-old son of a millionaire who lives in a big mansion surrounded by woods in France. When his mother dies, his father hires a widow maid to take care of all while he is away. The woman brings her only son, Charles, to live with them and, hopefully, make company to lonesome Thomas. The rich boy and the poor one become enemies from the very first encounter. Moved essentially by jealousy and fear, Thomas decides to turn Charles' life into hell, especially after their parents eventually fall in love. As the title suggests, he wants to make clear to the 'invader' who is the lord of the castle.

American audiences will compare it to "The Good Son", but Macaulay Culkin is a hundred feet below what Régis Arpin does in this movie. Childish cruelty here is not a psycho obsession, but rather a mean of defense which is later surpassed.

Yet, it's the best French film I ever watched, even though I was that young boy the first time. By then, the end of the film seemed quite enigmatic to me. Years later, I thought I had found the clue and I had a certainty about it. By seeing it again, I believe it was really intended to be enigmatic, and there are no certainties to have: only a child's eyes are able to perceive.

If there is something the media in Brazil insistently refuses to talk about, it's the ethics and neutrality policies of the media itself. Lucia Murat, surely the most competent among post-Military Dictatorship filmmakers in Brazil, raises this debate in "Doces Poderes", in a bold, unique way, with a lot of humor and satirical gags. However, it is not a comedy; it'd rather be called "a soft denounce". A drama, indeed.

Based upon her own colleague's experiences, Lucia (who is also a journalist) tells the story of Bia (Mariza Orth, magnificent), a woman next to her 40's who is nominated to head the news staff of in Brazil's capital, just a few weeks before the local elections. The movie is punctuated by "testimonies" of characters who, unlike Bia, left editorial staffs to work in political campaigns ---- both from right and left-wing, in the most honestly mercenary scheme.

Once in Brasilia, Bia meets again her former lover, Chico Silva (Fagundes, surprisingly good), also a journalist who turned out to be a politician and supports a left-wing candidate. Trying to take chance of her command in the TV news, he pressures her to make a fine coverage for the leftists. Of course, her superiors in the broadcast company want just the opposite. As Bia is placed in the middle of the firing-line, discussions about Ethics, Moral, Ideology and her own relation to other colleagues, are raised up.

After the re-birth of Brazilian Cinema, there has never been such a movie like "Doces Poderes", both in background meanings and delightful entertainment. It pokes, it nudges, it annoys the social system and institutions. And it has an all-star cast! Yet, the mass media and communications vehicles simply ignore it most of the time... and the motives for that reaction are perfectly understandable.