jofilho This movie is a film adaptation of a very funny and traditional Brazilian story. The actors are very good and the director created the perfect ambiance for the scenes. It's a movie about a very particular Brazilian way of life. You will not find at this movie big cities like São Paulo or Rio, or big forests like Amazon, nothing. You will find the Sertão: a deserted area in Brazil where a lot of people lives with few resources and needs to use the creativity to survive. Maybe, for non-Brazilians, the language can be a problem, because most of the jokes have some linguistic aspect. But this is not a very big problem. The film is funny for everybody and have a good message at the end.

felipe23 That's an excellent movie. It shows that Brazil has achieved a mature level when it comes to movies. It exploits Brazilian culture and social problems, just like the great productions made in our country. It worries those that care about our cinema, because our directors always use this kind of plot, what may be dangerous. We should vary our themes. But that's a higher degree, and we gotta take one step after another. However, it is, in my personal opinion, the best comedy ever made in Brazil. A must see film. If you're not from Brazil and, occasionally or not, found yourself in this web page, be sure that's a good sample of contemporary Brazilian productions. I recommend also "Cidade de Deus" (but this one you should have already seen), "O Homem que Copiava" and "Dois Filhos de Francisco". If you like comedy, Os Normais (this one may be more difficult to find outside Brazil) is a great choice. Oh, coming back to O Auto da Compadecida, it's an adaptation of a very famous Brazilian book and the acting is great, just like the direction and the photograph (the film takes place in the Sertão Nordestino, like many others, and, like I said, shows Brazilian poverty in a satiric way.

Elori I must confess, I think O Auto da Compadecida is the only Brazilian movie I have seen. Nevertheless, I certainly hope this isn't the best the country has to offer. What you have here is a religious screwball comedy, and unfortunately, neither side of that equation works.As a screwball comedy, the movie is based simply on the characters shouting a lot and acting like complete idiots. That is supposed to create comedy, but there is nothing funny about the characters' complete turnovers on the weakest possible motivations. Some of the plot line is good, like the early introduction of the bandits, but most of it is just a detached mess to make the characters run all over their village with little reason.The religious part is even worse. The movie is firmly based on the Catholic interpretation of the Christian faith, including some of its more dubious folklore. When it comes to religion, the characters of the movie are at their most gullible, showing no sign of intellect at all. The bigger problem is that it's completely impossible to tell if the religious aspect of the movie should be taken seriously or as a mockery of the common beliefs. The second part of the movie is the worst offender here. It presents a surprising and somewhat imaginative plot twist based on the Catholic mythology. Unfortunately, the drawn-out scene drones on, ultimately becoming much too serious and overly long to keep the viewer's interest.The movie is not completely worthless, but its high points are much too few for a 100-minute movie. I shudder to think of the longer TV version. Many of those minutes are used to strech the movie by dull bickering and shouting, making the viewer again and again wish that the story would move on. On all accounts, O Auto da Compadecida is a severely underwhelming movie, even despite its flashy presentation and supposedly snappy script. As a short film of 30 minutes with a lot more editing, it might have worked, but not as a full-length film.

fabiogaucho When the 4-chapter mini-series was announced by Globo network, few people expected it to be THAT good, for the simple reason that nothing that good had been done in Brazilian television in the previous 15 years. The adaptation is efficient, departing very little from Cabral de Mello Neto's text and mood, the direction, scenography and art direction are beautiful, the humour is well balanced with adventure and drama, everything works well. But the real treat you get watching this is Nachtergale's performance as Joao Grilo. This is the production that made everyone agree that he is the best actor of his generation by a mile. Let me talk a little of what the story is about. It is not really a 'fantasy' of the writer as some American viewers (understandably) thought. The play's proposal is to be an adaptation of several texts from the tradition of 'cordel literature', typical of the Brazilian northeast (where the play is set). Those texts are mostly long poems that translate the folklore of that region. It is, of course, a very catholic area, but in a very peculiar way. Jesus ('Manuel'), Mary ('the Merciful') and the devil ARE common characters of those folk stories, and they are as 'accessibile' to people as the movie shows in Brazilian Folklore. Also from 'Cordel literature' comes the character of 'Joao Grilo'. Anyone who sees this movie and don't know Grilo should watch for Shakespeare's 'Henry IV' (the character Falstaff) and Moliere's 'Scapino'. It is sort of a universal character – the court's fool, and doesn't belong to Arraes, Mello Neto or even to Brazilian Folklore. So it is not really someone's fantasy – it is the fantasy of an anonymous collective, the people from Brazil's northeastern 'sertao'. It is a great movie anyway, I just thought people would like to know the background.