Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business (1995)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Helena Solberg

Writer:

Helena Solberg (writer)

Release Date:

13 April 1995 (Brazil)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

A biography of the Portuguese-Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, whose most distinctive feature was her tutti frutti hat...

Plot Keywords:

Singer | 1940s | Fruit In Title | Actress | Carmen Miranda Impersonator

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Cynthia Adler	...	Hedda Hopper
Eric Barreto	...	Carmen Miranda, Fantasy Sequences
Mario Cunha	...	Himself
Alice Faye	...	Herself
Aurora Miranda	...	Herself
Carmen Miranda	...	Herself (archive footage)
Leticia Monte	...	Carmen Miranda, teenager
Rita Moreno	...	Herself
Cesar Romero	...	Himself
Synval Silva	...	Himself
Helena Solberg	...	Narrator

Also Known As:

Bananas Is My Business

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK | Brazil

Language:

English | Portuguese

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Channel Four Films

Movie Connections:

Features Alô Alô Carnaval (1936)

A Wax Banana

As a lover of Brazilian culture, I was rather disappointed by the film, which turns out to be a rather conventional 90's showbiz bio.

Yes, Carmen was exploited and broken behind that headdress. The film did a good job of bringing out the pathos - but

that's hardly a surprise.

The problem is, having done that, it didn't go any further in showing us the real woman behind the mask. The film projects her as nothing but a helpless victim of Hollywood, when her early life clearly indicated a strong and wily character. She must have put up a few fights - both internally and out there - and _this_ is the fascinating stuff. Remember that she was financially independent and emotionally not alone. Although in exile, she was always surrounded by family and, quite often, other Brazilian expatriate friends (among them one of the fathers of Bossa Nova, Vinicius --). She had choices. She didn't have to end that way and yet she did -- chose to marry an American brute and chose to leave Brazil again, right out of convalescence. This is the true mystery, and this film brings us no closer.

In the other direction, the film also failed to place Carmen in context of the development of Brazilian music. Was she a true artist, or merely a star - co-opting music of the poor for the consumption of a more respectable audience? And what is her true legacy as Brazil's "cultural ambassador"? Brazil may have rejected her, but it has never forgotten or ignored her (the funeral scene proved that). Yet once again we

had no idea what Carmen means to an average Brazilian today.

Watching this film, I kept getting reminded of Edith Piaf. Like her, Carmen's life has enough paradoxes for two or three movies. Regrettably, we are given less than one.