Paulo Villaça

"Portraits and excerpts from Brazilian films from all times. Actors, directors and images that affirm cinema."

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Daniel is a taxi driver who’s married to Adalgisa. When she starts acting in low-budget movies, he forbids her from seeing their son, Joaquim. For more than a decade, Daniel nurtures a feeling of revenge for his ex-wife, which gains strength when their now adult son finds his mother in full professional decay.

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When Cunda, a man living deep in the Brazilian rainforest, is bitten by a snake, he has a hallucination of four chimpanzees. Once he recovers, he is shocked to find the four chimpanzees waiting for him at home, and, believing them to be special, decides to take them to the city in order to sell them.

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At the end of the 19th century, Italian immigrants settled in the municipality of Palmeira, Paraná, creating Brazil's first anarchist society, Colônia Cecília. Giovanni Rossi suffers from the failure of the experiment. He is a veterinarian, agronomist, biologist, and journalist. But above all, he is an idealist, with a strong personality and obsessed with the desire to live with free humanity.

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Based on a book by Machado de Assis (1839-1908) and adapted to the present time. After the death of the philosopher Quincas Borba, his friend and disciple Rubiao inherits all he possessed: his fortune, his dog, his philosophy and the germ of his madness. Rubiao's passion for Sofia, a friend's wife, places him at the center of a game in which she is the main piece while he is the only one who ignores the rules. The story of a dreamer and delirious man facing a reality to which he is not prepared.

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Fátima Accioly is a young, callous woman who wants to be rich and successful at any price. After selling her family's house in the country, she heads to Rio and gets to know dress man César who is unscrupulous himself. Meanwhile, her mother Raquel stays behind without home and money, but finally tries to find her daughter in the big city. Both women come in contact with the rich Roitman family which changes their lives forever.

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The story of the great train robber Ronald Biggs.

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After meeting a beguiling woman in a movie theater, a realtor becomes embroiled in a mysterious plot involving murder, double identities and movies.

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Eternamente Pagu is a biographical film about Patrícia Galvão, best known as Pagu, a Brazilian political, literary and artistic activist. An important figure of the Brazilian Modernism, Pagu was also a militant for the Brazilian Communist Party after she married writer Oswald de Andrade. She broke up with Andrade and, as a journalist was arrested by the Dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas. After she left prison, she abandoned Communism in favor of Trotskyist Socialism, married Geraldo Ferraz, and started a career as theatre director.

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In the 1950s, Lurdinha and Marcos fall in love at the first sight. She studies at the Institute of Education, and he studies at the Military College. Two traditional educational institutions in 'Tijuca', in the North Zone of 'Rio de Janeiro'. But Lurdinha's conservative parents reject Marcos because he is son of separated parents and try, in every way, to keep him away from her.

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Biography of Brazilian congressman Tenório Cavalcanti, who used to appear in public carrying a machine-gun, and wearing a black cloak.

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Movie director in his forties and in existential crisis falls in love with an unknown teen girl he sees walking down the streets, without knowing she's the daughter of the woman he's having a relationship with.

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The story begins when the police find a murdered young woman and link the crime to the activities of a drug gang. One of the central characters of this gang is Lucien, protagonist of the miniseries. He is one of the main mafia leaders in the country and the son of the powerful boss of União Corsa. Lucien disputes authority within the organization with Lorenzo, his antagonist. Still in the first chapter, Lucien meets the model Heloísa. The young woman comes from a middle-class family and dreams of social mobility. He falls madly in love with her, and the two begin a rapturous romance.

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A public relations man is invited to guide an American millionaire during his stay in Rio de Janeiro. He gets involved in the most bizarre situations, from orgiastic mega-parties to confrontations with the police, meetings with drug dealers and movie stars, facing corruption and even murder.

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The miniseries addresses the difficulties in romantic relationships through the story of five middle-class couples with different views on marriage, love and fidelity. The protagonists, housewife Alice (Marília Pêra) and dentist Jorge (Cláudio Marzo), married for eight years, seem like a perfect couple. However, the union is in crisis because they are unable to have a child. Jorge discovers that he is sterile and, disappointed, does not reveal the fact to Alice, who suffers from not being able to get pregnant. The relationship becomes increasingly difficult due to the lack of dialogue and they become violent towards each other. A murder connects the plots: in the first chapter, the viewer learns that there was a crime, but does not know who the victim is: Jorge or Alice. The mystery is only revealed in the last chapter, when it is discovered that Jorge is the murderer.

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Young guy from the poor Northeast region of Brazil comes to Rio de Janeiro to try his luck. Naturally, he is faced with many adversities along the way.

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Four teenagers, each facing a major conflict. Majô, the daughter of separated parents, has fallen in love with her mother Raquel’s husband, the teacher Túlio. Caíto, who is gay, lives in a dysfunctional home where his parents' marriage—Dirceu and Marilu’s—is going from bad to worse. Doca is a drug addict, and his sister Bia has become pregnant by her boyfriend, Michel. Their parents, Odilon and Paula, are deeply unhappy as well. Interwoven with their stories is that of Túlio—a former addict turned upstanding teacher—who encounters a haunting figure from his past: his ex-sister-in-law, Fernanda.

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A caboclo's soul wanders through purgatory (or hell), visiting many places until he boards a ship whose destination is unknown.

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Zionists hire a hitman to kill a Nazi war criminal exiled in a Latin American country, where he's being protected by the local dictator. Get ready for gunshots; sex scenes; strange form of tortures; a cocaine-addict priest who helps the dictatorship; contemptous remarks and behavior from the main "hero"; amusing sequences of Chuchu having fun with beautiful women pretending to be James Bond; and the wimp colonel who is in love with a male prostitute. It's all good and fun to watch but remember that this is a product of its era, so it's quite possible to see some objectionable things. But for the most part it's never crass or insanely offensive.

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In 1970, the Esquadrão da Morte (Death Squad)' crimes for the refinement of violence provoked a wave of reactions throughout the country. The photos of the victims, adorned by the skull, symbol of the group, caused an uncomfortable indignation. This is the story of Mateus Romeiro, the most famous of the policemen, who was part of the Homens de Aço (Steelmen) group, one of the factions in which the squadron was divided.

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In São Paulo, a businessman wants to rehabilitate street children, called "trombinhas", through a social project. After being discouraged by the police, he seeks help from the coach of the Santos Futebol Clube youth team.

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In a financially troubled farm in the 1930's, its depraved owners become attracted to their new handsome and young handyman.

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Solange is a recently married young woman whose wedding night did not end well. After constant fights with her husband, she decides to live through her sexual frustration by sleeping with strangers she picks up on crowded buses in Rio de Janeiro.

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Toquinho is a young man living in Marechal Hermes, a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, together with his widow mother and a younger sister. Although he is poor, he is also ambitious, and wants to change his life. He spends all his time on the beach, at Arpoador, Ipanema, where he dreams to become a famous surfer. Besides, he usually finds Patricia there, a rich and liberated young woman, whom he likes a lot. To impress Patricia and satisfy some of her wishes, he lets himself be seduced by André, a gay guy who, in return for his sexual favors, promises him a trip to Hawaii for a surf championship.

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Tadeu, a poor lad from the Northeast of Brazil, comes to Rio de Janeiro to try his luck. His good looks and education win him the favor of rich people. In his spare time, he becomes the favorite among lonely and rich ladies. Soon he gets involved in trouble.

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In the 17th century, to guarantee the possession of the region, disputed with Spanish and Dutch pirates, the Portuguese built a fort at the point where the dark waters of the Rio Negro meet the clear waters of the Rio Solimões, forming the Amazon River. Around the fort, the city of Manaus was born. Alli lived the Manaús Indians, warriors who worshiped Manari, the Good, and from him they received the order to fight all the invaders of the forest.

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Inspired by "Voyage to the land of Brazil" by Jean de Léry, this short follows the adventures of Nicolas Durand, from Villegagnon, and the estabilishment of a French colony in 16th-century Rio de Janeiro.

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Four thieves enter a house and terrorize a family.

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A millionaire lives in a sinister cottage where strange events unfold. A damned creature, he transforms himself in a werewolf and leads a following whose adepts spread horror and despair in the neighboring city, becoming themselves a clan of assassins. One day, the werewolf confronts Branca Justiça (White Justice), who summons benign forces to scathe them and frees him of his own wickedness.

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