A Madonna to call mine: FILTH AND WISDOM

Madonna and her Filth and Wisdom's crew at the film premiere during the last Berlinale

The Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival is gone and me plus hundred of others "hungry" film fans of this town are again back to the normal routine. Among some few surprises of this year's festival I've found Filth and Wisdom an independent film written, directed and produced by... Madonna! Yes, Madonna Ciccone. Of course I firstly thought: " God damn! It might be a flop!". But fortunately I was wrong. I must confess I am a really big Madonna's fan, but her blond ambition can sometimes cause a kind of rejection since people aren't use to face with so much high levels of self-confidence. And obviously it can bothered most of frustrated guys around even whether they secretly liked the film. Madonna is the antipode of frustration. Losers, bitters and frustrated at all should keep distance from her and specially from this film since it must be hard to them to conclude that:

1 . She is highly talented in many ways.
2. She knows how to tell a history.
3. She knows direct actors very well.
4. She made a very good film.
5. She is corageous.
6. The woman is in fact a genius.

I'm not saying 'Filth and Wisdom' is a masterpiece or so. It isn't indeed. But it is a kind of film I would watch over and over again with a little smile in my face. And that's enough for me.



Someone who puts a band like Gogol Bordello in a film knows it all, right?

P.S: If you happen to be in Rio in October don't miss Gogol Bordello's performance at the next Tim Festival!

Pre-Paid Love : Cinderelas, Lobos e Um Principe Encantado

Poster of Joel Zito Araújo's newest documentary

Yesterday I've been at Cine Odeon to watch the first national screening of Joel Zito Araújo's newest documentary "Cinderelas, Lobos e Um Principe Encantado" ("Cinderellas, Wolves, and One Prince Charmed") at Festival do Rio, whose theme is the huge and scary Brazilian sex industry, which also involves pedophilia and traffic of human beings. Joel Zito Araújo is nowadays one of the greatest Brazilian directors and also an amazing thinker. Professor at the Universidade de São Paulo his works aways have got a social and politic glance to controversial subjects, specially those related to racism and poverty. This time hasn't been different. "Cinderelas" is a kind of film which should be watched without prejudice and at same time with distancing. By talking about sex tourism and its exploration such in Brazil (Northeastern cities like Salvador and Recife, two of the biggest nerve centres of sex tourism in Brazil) and as well in Europe (Rome and Berlin), Joel Zito got to get sincere, sad, tragic and funny testimonials such of some lost low class European tourists serching for the perfect "bitch", as well of poor young Brazilian girls trying to find some immediate solution for their own (financial/moral) whole life misery, among others. But he's been crossing borders as well; right there, where some got to get beyond the sunny sex market of Brazilian Northeastern beaches. In Berlin he talked to some "characters" like: couples whom met at such circumstances, a young and pretty lady from Bahia totally disappointed with the lack of "sexual interest" of her husband and a German guy who claims to be a "big fan" of Brazilian women, and whose big apartment is fulfilled with young and "sexy" Brazilian ladies he calls as "friends". "Cinderela" is a very interesting study about sexuality, poverty, degradation, illusions and make us wonder, in many ways, about the difference between interest and necessity. It is also about the (still) very post-colonial view of latin women as a sexual object, who suppost to be aways sexually available in a very cheap way. This very stereotiped view embodies the stigma of the "civilized" and the "savage". Joel Zito's documentary shows us that those roles - "civilized" and "savage" - are in many situations completely and wrongly reversed.

Rio de Janeiro International Filmfestival
"Cinderelas, Lobos & Um Principe Encantado"
Last Screening
Thusday, 30th September
Estação Vivo Gávea (Shopping da Gávea)
1:30 PM - 10:30 PM