Estômago (2007)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Marcos Jorge

Writers:

Fabrizio Donvito (screenplay)
Marcos Jorge (writer)

Release Date:

11 April 2008 (Brazil)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In the great restaurant of life, there are those who eat and those who get eaten. Raimundo Nonato finds an alternative way...

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Jail | Cooking | Italian Restaurant | Prostitute

Awards:

17 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

João Miguel	...	Nonato
Fabiula Nascimento	...	Íria
Babu Santana	...	Bujiú
Carlo Briani	...	Giovanni
Zeca Cenovicz	...	Zulmiro
Paulo Miklos	...	Etectera
Jean Pierre Noher	...	Duque
Andrea Fumagalli	...	Francesco
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Betina Belli	...	Dona da Pensão
Luiz Brambila	...	Lambari
Ed Canedo	...	Travesti
Adriano Carvalhaes	...	Suely
Altamar Cezar	...	Zé Português
Syd Correa	...	Boquenga
Rodrigo Ferrarini	...	Magrão
Lilian Marchiori	...	Rita
Pedro Moreira	...	Edson
Helder Silva	...	Sequestro
Marcel Szymanski	...	Valtão
Tino Viana	...	Guentaí
Marco Zenni	...	Vagnão

Also Known As:

Estômago: A Gastronomic Story (Europe: English title) (festival title)

Runtime:

113 min | Brazil:100 min

Country:

Brazil | Italy

Language:

Portuguese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil

Company:

Zencrane Filmes

Movie Connections:

Remade as Estomago: A Gastronomic Story (2010)

Two Parallel Narratives, One Conclusion

The naive immigrant from the Northeast Raimundo Nonato (João Miguel) has just arrived in São Paulo and is hungry and without money. After eating in a smalltime restaurant, the owner Zulmiro (Zeca Cenovicz) offers him to clean the kitchen to pay the bill. On the next morning, he offers a job to Nonato, cooking and cleaning the kitchen; in return, he would eat and sleep in a small storage room, but without salary. The restaurant becomes a sensation with Nonato's appetizers "coxinha" and "pastel" and attracts the attention of Giovanni (Carlo Briani), the owner of the classy Italian restaurant Boccaccio, who offers a better job for him in the kitchen of his restaurant and teaches him the secrets of a good meal. Meanwhile, Nonato falls in love for the always hungry fat streetwalker Íria (Fabiula Nascimento), who refuses to kiss Nonato in the mouth, but has all sort of sex with him. Nonato proposes her and near to the day of their engaging party, he has a great deception that leads him to a tragedy.

Raimundo Nonato a.k.a. "Alecrim" arrives in prison and shares a cell with seven prisoners leaded by Bujiú (Babu Santana). When the despised Nonato offers to improve their food cooking in the cell, he climbs in the inner hierarchy, sleeping no longer on the floor, but in the bunk bed immediately below Bujiú and earning respect from the other inmates.

Food and cooking is the theme of many successful movies, like for example, Marco Ferreri's "La Grande Bouffe" (1973), Gabriel Axel's "Babettes Gæstebud" (1987), Peter Greenaway's "The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover" (1989), Tony Chan's "Combination Platter" (1993), Fina Torres'"Woman on Top" (2000) and Scott Hicks' "No Reservations" (2007), just to mention a few movies. There are countless good movies and series about relationship and hierarchy in prison, and "Prison Break" is probably one of the most recently famous. Therefore the theme of "Estômago" is not original but is commercial since viewers usually like it; further most of the characters are clichés. However "Estômago" is literally a delightful movie, supported by the great acting of João Miguel that is the reason why this movie works. The two parallel stories have the intention to hide the chronology and unfold only in the very end what had happened first, but unfortunately it fails and the only remaining question is why Nonato ended in jail. In accordance with the summary on the DVD, the conclusion is that in life there are those who devour and those who are devoured, but Raimundo Nonato finds an alternative way of life cooking. Two days ago, "Estômago" had fourteen nominations and was awarded by the Academia Brasileira de Cinema ("Brazilian Academy of Cinema") in the categories of best Brazilian movie of the year, best director and best supporting actor and was elected best movie by popular vote. On 28 April 2009, I watched this movie again. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Estômago" ("Stomach")