Reviews

Malu Mulher was a great TV series on Brazil. It shows a new way to see TV on that country which was going to a civil president governor after hard years of military governors. The story was about a couple who were in crisis. Malu, lived by the Sweetheart of Brazil Regina Duarte was a woman who fought to her independence, her job as writer and to her thoughts, modern thoughts. Her husband lived by a great director and actor Dennis Carvalho was an ordinary man who could not follow his intelligent wife. Divided in the center of the problem there was Elisa, lived by a teenager beautiful and excellent actress Narjara Turetta. It was very easy to Narjara to full the scenes and Brazilian people loved the plot. After Malu Mulher Brazilian women moved by their ideas and they still are fighting for changes.

O Cangaceiro is a great film, with great artists and great songs. We can see a young Vanja Orico singing "Sodade Meu Bem Sodade", a composition by Zé do Norte, an extraordinary Brazilian composer. Now we can hear his songs through his son, the singer Toninho Di Lita, who makes another extraordinary performance, singing with his wife Inajara De Tanduí and his group Bando do Galo Doido, with great singers and musicians like Elísio Paschoal(Hermeto Pachoal's brother), Eliane Carneiro, Chaguinha Lima(Siri Atômico Band), Guto(Siri Atômico Band), Teresa Carvalho(Dama de Paus) and Will Tom(Dama de Paus), who sang with John Phillips in a Tour in Brazil. Toninho Di Lita is a great presence on theaters of Rio de Janeiro, singing songs made by his father and a lot of his own compositions. With new musical cloths Toninho Di Lita sings "Sodade Meu Bem Sodade", "Meu Pião", "Mulher Rendeira" and some hits of his own. "Manto Negro" is a beautiful composition who explains about the personality of the death. Toninho is always worried about education so he also makes performances to Universities and to Public Schools. More about him we can see on "www.orkut.com" - Toninho Di Lita. He is very nice with his fans.

Once more we have a great TV series by the direction of Walter Avancinni. The plot is about a gigolo, the great actor Lauro Corona - unfortunately dead by HIV. Lauro worked with great artists too. Bruna Lombardi, Maria Zenaide and some others. Avancinni could feel a great artist when he invited this one to work with him. Maria Zenaide, with her beautiful brown eyes shows a marvelous talent through interpretation on TV and singing several rhythms in Portuguese, Spanish and other language. We can see her in Rio de Janeiro and some others Brazilian States singing with her band. We can also know more about her in Maria Zenaide - Orkut.

Rabo de Saia is another great mini series from Brazilian TV with direction of Walter Avancinni who had a feeling about good actors. The story is about a man (Osmar Prado) who had three different wives. Three different families living in different places. But we had another present from Avancinni. Maria Zenaide, a great Brazilian Actress with her incomparably and beautiful eyes. An actress who has a strong power and presence on TV and Theaters. In this plot Maria Zenaide also works with her another talent: singing. The song was sung by her and the most important is the rhythm of the song was made by her too. Brazilian people love Maria Zenaide's voice and people can see her on shows and public educational TV commercials. News about her we can see through Orkut Maria Zenaide.

It's a fantastic novel on TV by Janete Clair. In fact, it's a remake. But now we can see a great actress called Maria Zenaide and her mystic deeply eyes on the plot.The same eyes on others TV novels, for instance: "Rabo de Saia", "Grande Sertão-Veredas" and many others.

Maria Zenaide is a extremely good actress but she is also a great singer. Nowadays we can see her singing with her band through Brasil cities. She loves Brazilian songs and her wish is singing in Portuguese to show the beauty of her country. But her talent needs more so she sings in Spanish too and sometimes she sings in English and Hebrew. She makes educational commercials and sings with good singers and musicians: Will Tom, Teresa Carvalho, Chaguinha and Jorge Som, all from a group called Avelloz.

Gabriela is a great romance by Jorge Amado, a great Brazilian writer. In 1975 it was adapted to TV novel. It was very successful and we could see a young Sonia Braga at the beginning of her career. Years later we could see Sonia again but she was not young anymore. But her talent was much better. The movie only shows sexy scenes and the political history was on the second hand unfortunately. But there was a present for us. We could see in a short time a great Brazilian actress called Maria Zenaide, with her beautiful eyes making a little participation. On the other hand we could see her again and we could ask where are the great actresses of Brazil ? Unfortunately Brazil is a country with no memory and only shows what the directors think are good. Thanks God we can see Maria Zenaide making educacional commercial and she still sings Brazilian Songs though her band Grupo Avelloz, with good singers and musicians: Will Tom and Teresa Carvalho(both from Dama de Paus band), Jorge Som and Chaguinha Lima(from Siri Atômico band).

Of course Grande Sertão-Veredas is a great novel on Brazilian TV. Great artists and a good story. Tony Ramos, Tarcisio Meira and Bruna Lombardi are very good on this novel. The story is about two groups of "Jagunços", who were enemies. The story is very regional and it happens in a poor region of Brazil, at the beginning of the twentieth century. But people could see a marvelous work through Maria Zenaide, a Brazilian actress, from Pernambuco State. Her performance always makes deep feelings on people who are watching her. Maria Zenaide is also a good singer and people can see her on theater singing with her group called Avelloz, with others: Teresa Carvalho and Will Tom, good singers and Chagas, Jorge Som and others musicians.

Lauro Cesar Muniz, a great Brazilian author, wrote Carinhoso. The story is about a stewardess called Cecília (Regina Duarte) who was divided between two brothers - Humberto (Claudio Marzo) and Eduardo (Marcos Paulo). There were a problem: Cecilia was poor and her father Felipe (Mr Gilberto Martinho - great always) worked as a driver to the boy's rich family. It's not interesting. But the center of the story turned on to a hippie girl called Leda (Lucia Alves) who was a rebel one, fighting for liberty. Her complex relationship with Paulo (Claudio Cavalcanti) and lots of mystery. Once more Lucia Alves started as a secondary character and passed to the first place, as the protagonist one. Brazilian people could see her every evening on seven p.m. and everybody was keeping one's fingers crossed to see a happy end to the couple. And it happened. Leda married Paulo and Carinhoso is still remembered as a good TV novel.

It's a poor Brazilian work made in a terrible decade. Brazil was on military command and culture was not the priority. To take the young people to the alienation the film try to fix Antonio Marcos as a rock romantic singer. Of course he was a great singer but not a mega star. the story is empty, about young people trying to live without responsibility. The only good thing in the film is the presence of Lucia Alves. Unfortunately we just see her beautiful face and a few of dialogs. Just her mystic expression. We can't forget about Jorge Doria. His character is funny and very truly. The songs were a bubble pop style but it was good for that decade.

This is an interesting film from Brazil. Great artists were there. Claudio Cavalcanti and Paulo Porto came from the theater and Darlene Gloria was always singing on TV programs. But the easy play grew up with a young and beautiful girl called Lucia Alves. This film was the first work of a great actress and people could love her, even if she was on scene for so much little time. It's not a great cine show but the artists made the difference. After that we could see a mega star working years and years on TV to Brazilian people in dinner's time every night. Oh, yes, Darlene Gloria also made a beautiful work. Unfortunately we can't see her anymore. Now she is protestant and she doesn't work on TV anymore. But it's nice to see all of those when they were so young.

Well, this is an interesting TV novel about a poor girl Lucinha (Betty Faria)who would very much like to get married her boyfriend Carlão (Francisco Cuoco) a taxi driver. Lucia was a worker in an important industry and she was a revolutionary about the works rights. Because of that the owner of the industry Salviano Lisboa (Lima Duarte) admired her and felt in love with her. After some strange situations Carlão was involved in a bank assault when a rich woman Eunice (Rosamaria Murtinho) took his taxi with the money of the robbery. After that Carlão and Lucinha broke up. Carlão became a rich man and Lucinha became a famous model helped by Salviano Lisboa. That's the beginning of a great story and lots of tears. Janete Clair could make people feel truly emotions when they're watching her novels. Besides the principal characters, we could affirm the actress Débora Duarte (Vilminha Lisboa) the daughter of Salviano was the center of the TV show. There she represented a girl lost in her own world and looking for love. Thereza Amayo, Elizângela, Lauro Goes, Fabio Massimo and Gilberto Martinho (always) were great too.

This was the first TV novel at 8 o'clock p.m. in Brazil. It was the story about a woman (Glória Meneses) who was a prisoner and worked as a telephonist attendant at the prison. Once, for a a mistake, she could talk to Larry (Tarcísio Meira) and they felt in love each other. Just through their voices. I wasn't a good plot but Brazilian people loved the principal couple. Gloria was a great star and she got so many prizes for her work on movies. One of those is O Pagador de Promessas. This one almost compete to the American Oscar, in 1961, I think. Gloria was separated for her husband in the sixties. People didn't like that situation in Brazil on that decade. But Brazilian people loved Gloria by her works and they loved very much when she married Tarcísio Meira. Even so we can see Tarcísio and Gloria working together on films and TV Novels. Tarcísio, although he is an old man, is a famous and sexy actor to the Brazilian women. This couple is the best of the Brazilian cast. Their son (Tarcísio Meira Junior - o Tarcisinho / that means Little Tarcísio) is also an actor but he has no famous like his parents. In Senhora do Destino we could see both working as the same character Josè Carlos Tedesco when he was a forty man and when he was an old man, when time passed by.

This is another work by Janet Clair, the novel Brazilian Madam. It was an interesting plot that told us the Ciro Valdez (Tarcísio Meira) story. At the beginning Ciro returns to the Earth to finish his mission. He is from another planet. But his story stars when a virgin woman Orjana (Neusa Amaral) was walking through the prairies with her father Hilário (Ênio Santos) and they see a flying saucer. A strange light visited Orjana and she is pregnant. The child grew up in a small place near the sea and all his friends could see special things happening by his side. The time passes by and Ciro is a mystic medicine man. Now he has to fight against Otto Von Müller (Jardel Filho), a nazistic rich man who is Esther's husband. Esther was interpreted by Gloria Meneses and she was a journalist in the plot. Esther loves Ciro and their story was very sad. A curiosity: Tarcisio and Gloria were married in real life and for many years Brazilian people could see them working together. The story was censured by the Catholic Chuch and by the military President Medici.The author had great problems in a military decade and in a Catholic Country as Brazil. People, in 1971, could say Ciro was Jesus Christ and Orjana was Maria. The romantic pair were Tula and Leandro (Lucia Alves and Claudio Cavalcanti).

What a pity! There's no more great artists anymore. Rosa Rebelde was a beautiful TV Novel by Janet Clair, dead in 1982. There we could watch great names like Tarcísio Meira, Glória Meneses, Paulo Araújo,Myriam Pérsia, Glauce Rocha, Claudio Cavalcanti, Djenane Machado and many others. The plot is about Napoleon troupe fighting against rebel Spanish poor people. In this second group there was a beautiful gypsy called Rosa Malena (Glória Meneses) who loves the captain of the opposite soldiers. Rosa was poor and she was a dancer on the streets to get money to the rebellion cause. Rosa lived with an orphan boy and a young girl called Hannah, not Conchita and this character was interpreted by Djenane Machado. We couldn't forget a special scene when Hannah (Djenane Machado) found her lover, a rich man and they were inside a catholic church for the wedding. Then, a rebel arrived and killed the girl by a knife. No one who was watching the novel expected this climax. It was terrible because everybody loved Hannah - (Haninha that means Little Hannah). It was great because the newspapers and magazines didn't know the end of the stories. Unfornatly there are news about every novels and about its ends nowadays in Brazil.

Once more we can certificate the talent of Lucia Alves, a Brazilian actress in this TV show. In Plumas & Paetês she lives Veroca, a model who is always in troubles. She lives with friends and each one has theirs own problems that involved the group. Although Lucia Alves works as a dramatic actress, in this case she shows us her talent for comedy too. The character of Lucia Alves is a woman who loves a teenager Jorge Luiz (Paulo Guarnieri). Her problem is she is poor and he is rich; she is a thirty woman and he is a boy. His mother Rebeca (Eva Wilma) fights against the love affair of her son. This novel discuss the relation of older woman who loves teenager and it was very strange for Brazil of eighties. Claudio Marzo, Myriam Pérsia, José Wilker, Paulo Goulart and Maria Claudia were perfect in this production. It also shows the fantastic top model world and its terrible ways to win and to get fame.

Helena was the first novel at 6 o'clock p.m. in Brazil. This is a great romance by Machado de Assis, a Romantic and Realist author who lived in the nineteenth century, in Rio de Janeiro. The story is about a girl who lived in an orphan house and suddenly she moves to a farm, to live with her half-brother and his family. That is why the testament says the girl was his daughter. So there are so many mysteries around the girl and she has difficulties to be accepted. The girl was interpreted by a great Brazilian actress called Lucia Alves. When things were good, Helena discovered that Estácio (Osmar Prado), her half-brother was falling in love with her. The incest was the theme and Helena loved Estácio too. At the end of the story we can see they're not brother and sister but it is too late. It ends with the death of Helena, who was very ill. Other good point to see is that Helena was a great abolitionist girl. She talked and respected the slaves as they were her relatives.

This is another great work made by Lucia Alves, a Brazilian actress. There she lives a white girl (Geralda), daughter of Clementina (Ruth De Souza), a black, poor and good woman. The conflict is evident and this case shows a great problem in Brazil (Boys and Girls who have parents with different ethnics origem. We can make comparison with an American movie with Sandra Dee and Lana Turner (I can't remember the name of the film, unfortunately). But we can watch a good interpretation by Lucia Alves and Ruth De Souza through this TV novel. The actress Maria Claudia was perfect living Patrícia. It's fantastic to watch good artists working together in a movie. We can't forget the interpretation of Arlete Salles, Dina Sfat, Jardel Filho and Paulo Goulart.

This is a great TV novel in Brazil. It was made to show the terrific military government through methaphores in the seventies. The villain Pedro Barros (Gilberto Martinho) could see as the presidencialism govern fighting against a poor family (Coragem Family) that means all the Brazilian people. Brazil stopped to watch the anthologic scene of the death of the Indian called Potira (Lúcia Alves). No one could take this character better than this great actress. The cast was a great one: Claudio Cavalcanti (Jerônimo Coragem), Lúcia Alves (Potira Coragem, the step daughter of the family), Tarcísio Meira (João Coragem), Glória Meneses (Maria de Lara Barros, with two other identities Diana Lemos and Marcia) and the great Glauce Rocha and Gilberto Martinho (Estela Barros and Pedro Barros) - both are dead, unfortunately. I recommend this TV show. People who love literature and politics will love it.