Bye
Bye Brazil (1979/New Yorker DVD-Video)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C - Film: B
PLEASE
NOTE: The film has had a 4K scan and issued by Film
Movement, but the camera negative still has issues.
The
late 1970s became a key time for cinema to reemerge in Brazil and
some remarkable, important films like Hector Babenco's Pixote
(recently restored and issued on Blu-ray by Criterion and Martin
Scorsese) were among the results. Up there with it is Carlos
Diegues' Bye Bye Brazil (1979), a comedy/drama set around a
traveling carnival that (appropriately considering the chaos after a
quarter century of dictatorship among other upheavals) represents a
wide range and variety of what the country is about in microcosm.
This kind of project is usually high concept and fails, but it is
most ambitious here and works.
Cico
(Fabio Junior, no relation to the romance novel model) sees the
Carnival Rolidei arrive in town, then quickly falls for performer
Salome (Betty Faria) and finds himself involved with a world that is
more interesting than before they showed up. It also becomes a
metaphor for the true nature of the country to slowly open up.
Salome is not able to love back being objectified for so long, while
Cico is unfortunately married with a daughter just arrived.
They
are the main focus of the story, but the Diegues/Leopoldo Serran
screenplay has subtle touches we do not see often enough in films
today offering the kinds of moments that better filmmakers know how
to put up on screen. That also means all kinds of interesting energy
throughout. The cast is very convincing overall and in a nice move,
the actual carnival is not fetishized or made out to be the (stereo)
typical bore we often get in films about them. It's been a long
while since I have seen this film and I was pleasantly surprised how
well it held up.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image starts with some great color
images in the credits, than there is a sudden drop-off in depth,
detail and color fidelity with haze and softness beyond any styling
throughout. Sad, because this is obviously a nicely shot film by
Director of Photography Lauro Escorel Filho. The lossy Dolby Digital
Portuguese 2.0 Mono is not bad for its age with various music sources
as expected, though Chico Buarque supplies original music that works
well. Extras only include a trailer for this and four other New
Yorker releases, but the film is worth getting out there in any form,
though a full restoration is still not with us by 2026.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
