Sinfonia Carioca (1955) Online

Pretty, witty and pleasant. But color was missing. Sinfonia Carioca (Carioca Simphony ) represents a major leap forward among Brazilian musicals nicknamed "chanchadas", the meaning of which IMDb readers will find in my comments about "Nem Sansão nem Dalila". From the beginning and for beginners, "carioca" means in the Brazilian Tupi Indians language- "the house of whites", more specifically the village that originated the city of Rio de Janeiro. Then their natives were nicknamed like this: "cariocas", the inhabitants of the (big) white's house, Rio. So, Sinfonia Carioca praises Rio de Janeiro, through the romantic story of a girl who escapes a boarding school. She is Suzana (Eliana Macedo or simply Eliana) who then takes a ride given by a stranger, Ricardo (Anselmo Duarte). Suzana falls in instant love with Ricardo, who incidentally is a show-biz producer. Needless to say Suzana spends a great deal of the film time, trying to succeed in show biz and win the heart of Ricardo. In the meantime we know that she's an orphan, daughter of a famous actress and singer, prematurely dead. Her square traditional family, in a certain way, feels ashamed of its deceased unconventional member and doesn't want another similar among them. So the boarding school seemed a solution, for impeaching Suzana of being like her mother. But the trick doesn't work especially when the family's black butler tells how her mother was, thus stimulating the "like mother, like daughter" fate. In such memories, flashbacks provide to the audience how Suzana's mother was on stage and naturally Eliana plays her part. The rest is a bunch of gags, love scenes and pleasant musical numbers. Suzana succeeds in show biz, but doesn't win her producer's heart. Decides to quit and get back to the boarding school. But naturally a film like this couldn't have but a happy end. But I won't tell you. In short: the film is just very good entertainment, leading actors very good. In reviewing the film cast and credits, a surprise: the original music by Lyrio Panicalli. This explains how the musical numbers sounded good, because Panicalli was one of the best arrangers in Brazil. His string arrangements were famous. Yet there was something missing. Brazilian cinema wasn't still able to produce color movies. And Sinfonia Carioca was in B&W…It deserved to be made in color. If somebody asked me which Brazilian film I would indicate to be colorized, no doubt, Sinfonia Carioca would be my choice. When Sinfonia Carioca was produced and screened, nobody would imagine that Anselmo Duarte, one of the most popular actors in Brazil, would win the Palme d'Or, at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival, as the DIRECTOR of O Pagador de Promessas, a feat that boosted the modern Brazilian cinema to the world's screens.

The musical Brazilian of all was considered best the times, earning all the prizes of the critical one, also of Better Film, Better Choreography, Better Managing and of Better Actress. The cast was spectacular, together again Eliana and Anselmo Duarte, this that outing of a terrible attempt to join the couple Anselmo and Ilka Soares in the "Carnaval em Marte"(1955). Afonso Stuart, the uncle of the Oscarito, made a gorgeous participation as grandpa of the Eliana, perhaps the best paper of its career. Other prominences, as Zezé Macedo and the latest Sílvia Fernanda. In the musical ones, detached for "Lola", interpreted for Eliana and the singer Bill Farr. The direction was for account of the genius Watson Macedo. The film was a satire very made of the film "An American in Paris" (1951) of Vincente Minelli, with Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly. Valley the penalty to see the film!