VIPs (2010)

Director:

Toniko Melo

Writers:

Mariana Caltabiano (book)
Bráulio Mantovani (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

25 March 2011 (Brazil)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Who do you want him to be?

Plot:

The life of a real conman and one of the biggest frauds in Brazil.

Plot Keywords:

Acronym In Title

Awards:

6 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Emiliano Ruschel	...	Fausto
Wagner Moura	...	Marcelo
Juliano Cazarré	...	Baña
Milhem Cortaz	...	Eike Gomes
Jorge D'Elía	...	Patrão
Augusto Madeira	...	Lima
Marisol Ribeiro	...	Lica
Norival Rizzo	...	Pai de Marcelo
Roger Gobeth	...	Renato Jacques
Gisele Fróes	...	Silvia
Amaury Jr.	...	Himself
Arieta Correia	...	Sandra
João Francisco Tottene	...	Marcelo criança

Directed by
Toniko Melo

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Mariana Caltabiano		book "VIPs - Histórias Reais de um Mentiroso"
Thiago Dottori		screenplay
Bráulio Mantovani		screenplay

Produced by
Bel Berlinck	....	executive producer
Fernando Meirelles	....	producer
Paulo Morelli	....	producer

Original Music by
Antonio Pinto

Cinematography by
Mauro Pinheiro Jr.

Film Editing by
Gustavo Giani

Casting by
Cecília Homem de Mello

Art Direction by
Frederico Pinto

Makeup Department
Donna Meirelles	....	makeup artist
Katia Teivelis	....	assistant makeup artist

Production Management
Rodrigo Castellar	....	unit production manager
Hugo Gurgel	....	post-production manager
Tina Marie Remedios	....	production acountant
Renata Rezende	....	first assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pedro Barbalho	....	third assistant director
Júlia Pacheco Jordão	....	first assistant director
Suzy Milstein	....	second assistant director

Sound Department
Paula Anhesini	....	sound re-recording mixer assistant
Andre Azoubel	....	foley editor & mixer
Henrique Bertol	....	dialogue editor
Andressa Cor	....	sound effects editor
Roger Hands	....	foley artist
Alessandro Laroca	....	sound re-recording mixer
Alessandro Laroca	....	supervising sound editor
Eduardo Virmond Lima	....	sound designer
Lilian Nakahodo	....	sound effects editor
Débora Opolski	....	dialogue editor
Priscila Pereira	....	sound effects editor
Romeu Quinto	....	sound mixer
Anderson Tieta	....	sound effects editor
Armando Torres Jr.	....	sound re-recording mixer

Visual Effects by
Renato Carone	....	digital compositor
Martin Cobelo	....	digital compositor
Eduarda Domenici	....	visual effects
Rodrigo Elias	....	visual effects artist
Fernando Faustino	....	animator
Wanderson Ferreira	....	visual effects artist
Fabio Freitas	....	media manager
Ricardo Laganaro	....	3D coordinator
Christopher Newman	....	match move artist
Fabio Rossi Sciedlarczyk	....	visual effects
Marcelo Souza	....	digital effects
Rafael Vormittag	....	digital compositor

Camera and Electrical Department
Allan Almeida	....	grip
Luiz Gonzaga de Almeida	....	grip
Pablo Hoffmann	....	first assistant camera
Rondinelli de Oliveira Pinto	....	gaffer
Marilia Scharlach	....	second assistant camera
Vaninho	....	grip

Casting Department
Biz Cherto	....	casting producer
Diana Galantini	....	casting assistant
Victor Ribeiro	....	casting assistant
Raquel Toledo	....	extras casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Diogo Costa	....	second assistant costume designer
Verônica Julian	....	costumer
Fernanda Marques	....	first assistant costume designer

Editorial Department
Bernardo F.C. Caron	....	assistant colorist
Rafaella Giannini	....	post-production coordinator
Alexandre Palo	....	first assistant editor

Music Department
Samuel Ferrari	....	composer: additional music
Thacio Palanca	....	score engineer
Fil Pinheiro	....	composer: additional music
Patrícia Portaro	....	music clearance

Other crew
Cristina Abi	....	production coordinator
Claudia Büschel	....	business and legal affairs
Rogério Jacyntino	....	production accountant assistant
Adolfo Oliveira	....	production accountant assistant
Célio Souza	....	engineer

Thanks
Eduardo Lyon	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Focus Features
• O2 Filmes
• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Focus World (2011) (USA) (all media)

Other Companies

• Yazbek e Portaro Advogados  music clearance

Runtime:

Brazil:95 min

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Brazil:12

Company:

Focus Features

Soundtrack:

Eu Sei

Brazilian cinema comes of age

I had a really nice surprise watching this movie. Having watched, not long ago, many Brazilian movies where acting looked like caricatures at best, or perhaps like an extended cut of the ever so popular soap operas, I must confess I didn't usually hold expectations too high when going into a Brazilian movie. VIPS was one of the movies that changed that for me.

It seems that finally we're coming of age in terms of acting, solid story lines, emotional development of characters and how all of this is put together into a coherent and entertaining story.

Based on the true story of Marcelo Nascimento da Rocha, acted brilliantly by Wagner Moura, we get to know some of the cons of one of the biggest con men of the century. "Catch me if you can" comes to mind a lot when watching this movie, and the lives of Frank Abagnale Jr and Marcelo do have striking resemblances.

We don't get to see all of it in the movie, but Marcelo started out his cons early on as a teenager, impersonating police officers and eventually coming to pass as a very well known Tigre (equivalent to the BOPE, or SWAT in his home state of Paraná) agent, carrying out police duties, such as making arrests and taking part in secret investigations. He also passed as a soccer scout for the Brazilian soccer team, as a member of the criminal organization PCC in São Paulo, as one of the owners of the Gol Brazilian Airlines, as both an agent for famous musicians and as famous musicians himself, tricked the army into thinking he was a jujitsu national champion in order to get benefits during military duty, and many other impressive feats.

When I left the movie I thought there might have been some exaggerations to the story, but in fact not only all the cons presented there were true to the actual story (which is reported in the book as well as in the Documentary by Mariana Caltabiano), they are even more impressive. For instance, both the Amaury Jr interview and the incident with the DEA in Bolivia, not only happened as wee see in the movie, but also have many other twists in real life, such as when he was called to witness on the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on narcotraffic in 2000.

The movie also has a very interesting take on his motivations for this, which even though might border a more fictitious approach, are very convincing and add a good deal of depth to the storytelling. Therefore, the story works on many different levels, not only as depicting some of the impressive events in this con man's life, but also building an independent interpretation for his motivations.

I'm rating this 9 out of 10 only because I thought the run time was a little shorter than I had expected. The movie ended but leaving a certain taste for more. Nicely though the book and the Documentary complement the movie very well, and I managed to get an even greater experience later on reading the book and watching the documentary than I would have had if the movie was just a direct line by line adaptation of the other versions. Recommend it greatly. If you enjoyed "Catch me if you can", you're definitely going to enjoy this (and even if you didn't, I'd suggest giving it a try).