By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 23 2002 (IPS)

"Madame Satan" is this year’s Brazilian cinema novelty, a film that portrays a reality that contributed to the construction of the national identity seven decades ago, through a figure who, in his own way, overcame all the prejudices against him.

Joao Francisco dos Santos – poor, black, homosexual and illiterate – became a legend of Brazil’s famous Carnival and of bohemian Rio de Janeiro beginning in 1942, after serving 10 years in prison for killing a man who attacked him for his sexual preference.

In addition to stage talent, Santos was handy with a knife and skilled at "capoeira", a form of martial arts developed by African slaves in Brazil, which involves spinning kicks, head and body blows, and today has turned into a competitive sort of sport-dance.

Karim Ainouz, a Brazilian filmmaker of Arab descent, chose this Rio underground figure (1900-1976) as the subject of his first feature-length work. But the central themes are social exclusion and how passion for life can overcome the limitations imposed by others, the director says.

The film underscores one of the most important sources of Brazilian culture today, the encounter of blacks and the marginalized middle classes, which gave rise to the famed Brazilian Carnival and to other expressions of music and dances as popular spectacles in the early 20th century.

Ainouz has made a name for himself as a director at the age of 37, after making several short films that were well received by critics and after spending time in the United States and Canada working in the film industry as assistant director and even as a scriptwriter.

"Madame Satan" has received several international awards and won accolades from audiences at film festivals. It is one of the most important works of the latest generation of Brazilian films, say critics like Luiz Carlos Merten, of O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, and José Geraldo Couto, of the Folha de Sao Paulo.

Much of the popularity of the film can be attributed to leading actor Lázaro Ramos, a new relatively new face on the scene. His work as "Satan" was the unanimous favourite for a special jury prize at the Sao Paul BR do Cine exhibition in October, which included more than 300 films from around the world.

Ramos has acted in eight movies, emerging from the world of non-professional theatre. His is an unusual trajectory for Brazil for an actor so young on a limited market, especially for a black actor.

Furthermore, he is not an Afro-Brazilian of attenuated traits, like many of the mulattos that are seen in Brazil’s famous television serial dramas or soap operas. His dark skin, prominent mouth and thick hair serve as an indicator that to some extent racial prejudices can be overcome in this multiracial society, though discrimination is pervasive.

The character he portrays confronted stronger and more varied forms of bigotry. Joao Francisco dos Santos was born in 1900, one of 18 children in a poor family in Brazil’s poorest region, the Northeast.

Abandoned by his family, he reached Rio de Janeiro at age seven, surviving by doing odd jobs in the central district of Lapa, which in that era was a focal point of prostitution and cabarets.

Ainouz limited his film to the year 1932 in the life of Santos, because that is when he defined his identity as "Madame Satan", in his bid to become a "performer", but was really a transvestite who created costumes that won awards at carnivals and shows.

It is no easy task to reconstruct the life of Santos, a mythomaniac whose singularity and imaginations helped expand his legendary reputation. His fame as a playboy did not impede him from living a relatively tranquil "family" life with a prostitute and her daughter.

It was in 1932 that Santos established himself as an "artist", directing a colourful cabaret-like show. But then came the existential doubts, his stealing from white homosexuals, fights, and a conflict-ridden passion for a young white man.

His success reached an abrupt halt with the shooting death of the white man who insulted him, and the subsequent 10-year prison sentence.

The film uses text to report that Santos became a well-known figure in Rio’s Carnivals after leaving prison, choosing the name Madame Satan as his artistic pseudonym, taken from a U.S. film by Cecil B. de Mille and an indicator of his irreverence and of the style of his shows.

"Madam Satan" has not fared as well at the box office as "Cidade de Deus" (City of God), which has drawn several million to the movie theatres throughout Brazil and recently won the award for best film at the New Latin American Film Festival in Havana. "Cidade" portrays the violence of a "favela" (slum neighbourhood) in Rio de Janeiro and also involves dozens of Afro-Brazilian actors.

Ainouz’s film, with its scenes of homosexual sex, the crude treatment of life in Rio’s Lapa district in 1930, the dirt and the sordid environment is disturbing, but it is a true-to-life rendering of the social wounds of Brazil as it was being built and which persist.

Excerpt:

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 23 2002 (IPS)

“Madame Satan” is this year’s Brazilian cinema novelty, a film that portrays a reality that contributed to the construction of the national identity seven decades ago, through a figure who, in his own way, overcame all the prejudices against him.

Joao Francisco dos Santos — poor, black, homosexual and illiterate — became a legend of Brazil’s famous Carnival and of bohemian Rio de Janeiro beginning in 1942, after serving 10 years in prison for killing a man who attacked him for his sexual preference.

In addition to stage talent, Santos was handy with a knife and skilled at “capoeira”, a form of martial arts developed by African slaves in Brazil, which involves spinning kicks, head and body blows, and today has turned into a competitive sort of sport-dance.

Karim Ainouz, a Brazilian filmmaker of Arab descent, chose this Rio underground figure (1900-1976) as the subject of his first feature-length work. But the central themes are social exclusion and how passion for life can overcome the limitations imposed by others, the director says.

The film underscores one of the most important sources of Brazilian culture today, the encounter of blacks and the marginalized middle classes, which gave rise to the famed Brazilian Carnival and to other expressions of music and dances as popular spectacles in the early 20th century.

Ainouz has made a name for himself as a director at the age of 37, after making several short films that were well received by critics and after spending time in the United States and Canada working in the film industry as assistant director and even as a scriptwriter.

“Madame Satan” has received several international awards and won accolades from audiences at film festivals. It is one of the most important works of the latest generation of Brazilian films, say critics like Luiz Carlos Merten, of O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, and José Geraldo Couto, of the Folha de Sao Paulo.

Much of the popularity of the film can be attributed to leading actor Lázaro Ramos, a new relatively new face on the scene. His work as “Satan” was the unanimous favourite for a special jury prize at the Sao Paul BR do Cine exhibition in October, which included more than 300 films from around the world.

Ramos has acted in eight movies, emerging from the world of non-professional theatre. His is an unusual trajectory for Brazil for an actor so young on a limited market, especially for a black actor.

Furthermore, he is not an Afro-Brazilian of attenuated traits, like many of the mulattos that are seen in Brazil’s famous television serial dramas or soap operas. His dark skin, prominent mouth and thick hair serve as an indicator that to some extent racial prejudices can be overcome in this multiracial society, though discrimination is pervasive.

The character he portrays confronted stronger and more varied forms of bigotry. Joao Francisco dos Santos was born in 1900, one of 18 children in a poor family in Brazil’s poorest region, the Northeast.

Abandoned by his family, he reached Rio de Janeiro at age seven, surviving by doing odd jobs in the central district of Lapa, which in that era was a focal point of prostitution and cabarets.

Ainouz limited his film to the year 1932 in the life of Santos, because that is when he defined his identity as “Madame Satan”, in his bid to become a “performer”, but was really a transvestite who created costumes that won awards at carnivals and shows.

It is no easy task to reconstruct the life of Santos, a mythomaniac whose singularity and imaginations helped expand his legendary reputation. His fame as a playboy did not impede him from living a relatively tranquil “family” life with a prostitute and her daughter.

It was in 1932 that Santos established himself as an “artist”, directing a colourful cabaret-like show. But then came the existential doubts, his stealing from white homosexuals, fights, and a conflict-ridden passion for a young white man.

His success reached an abrupt halt with the shooting death of the white man who insulted him, and the subsequent 10-year prison sentence.

The film uses text to report that Santos became a well-known figure in Rio’s Carnivals after leaving prison, choosing the name Madame Satan as his artistic pseudonym, taken from a U.S. film by Cecil B. de Mille and an indicator of his irreverence and of the style of his shows.

“Madam Satan” has not fared as well at the box office as “Cidade de Deus” (City of God), which has drawn several million to the movie theatres throughout Brazil and recently won the award for best film at the New Latin American Film Festival in Havana. “Cidade” portrays the violence of a “favela” (slum neighbourhood) in Rio de Janeiro and also involves dozens of Afro-Brazilian actors.

Ainouz’s film, with its scenes of homosexual sex, the crude treatment of life in Rio’s Lapa district in 1930, the dirt and the sordid environment is disturbing, but it is a true-to-life rendering of the social wounds of Brazil as it was being built and which persist.

Excerpt: