Macunaima (1969)

Our story begins with Macunaima's miraculous birth to an old woman in a tiny jungle settlement. Born full grown, he discovers his life's purpose which leads him and his family/followers on ... See full summary »

Director:

Joaquim Pedro de Andrade

Writers:

Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Mário de Andrade (novel)

Stars:

Grande Otelo, Paulo José, Jardel Filho

5 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Grande Otelo	...	Black Macunaíma / Macunaíma's son
Paulo José	...	White Macunaíma / Macunaíma's mother
Jardel Filho	...	Venceslau Pietro Pietra
Dina Sfat	...	Ci
Milton Gonçalves	...	Jiguê
Rodolfo Arena	...	Maanape
Joana Fomm	...	Sofara
Maria Do Rosario	...	Iquiri
Rafael de Carvalho	...	Caapora
Nazareth Ohana
Zezé Macedo
Wilza Carla	...	Fat Lady
Myrian Muniz	...	Venceslau's wife
Edy Siqueira
Carmem Palhares

Storyline

Our story begins with Macunaima's miraculous birth to an old woman in a tiny jungle settlement. Born full grown, he discovers his life's purpose which leads him and his family/followers on a journey to the Big City. On the way, more miracles occur, but Macunaima still has the heart and mind of a child. In the Big City, he is co-opted by terrorists who enlist him in their revolutionary schemes. In the Big City he learns that nuts are not always food and other hilarious lessons of life.

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Plot Keywords:

terrorist | jungle | birth | new latin american cinema | brazil | 

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Taglines:

(ma-koo-na-eema)

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Genres:

Fantasy | Comedy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Release Date:

1969 (Brazil)

Also Known As:

Jungle Freaks

Company Credits

Production Co:

Condor Filmes, Filmes do Serro, Grupo Filmes

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Dolby Digital (re-issue) Dolby SR (re-issue)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Venceslau Pietro Pietra: [Macunaíma revealed his disguise as a woman] You're a dude? I don't hold prejudices. Come here!

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Connections

Featured in Cinema Novo (2016)

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Soundtracks

Mandu Sarará
(Mario de Andrade)
Written by Heitor Villa-Lobos (excerpt)

User Reviews

A succesful attempt of entertaining anarchic and modernistic irony

This film is hard to categorise because one can say that it is sincere, naturalist, mocking of urban life of metropols in Brazil; while being very entertaining and relatively easy to watch. Not quite knowlegdeable what is going on at that side of the ocean, I can only find the resemblances with my own country (Turkey), which is on par with Brazil in terms of industrialization, wealth and education. What you see in the film is streets are dangerous in many ways. Thievery, trickery and violence are present and politics are involved too. But it is very fortunate that this film is not totally a cold-hearted judgment of society of Brazil. Fantastic elements are incorporated so well that the result is very amusing in some sequences but it still leaves ashes in your mouth. Characters are greatly genuine and colorful and and script makes you curious about the book it is based upon. You just wanna watch more and you stumble upon its anarchic and modernistic wisdom. You needn't dig very deep to get the best out of this movie yet it touches nicely to the matters of society in Brazil. As you watch just be curious more and more about Brazil's problems. A very impressive movie hard to fault that deserves 8 out of 10.