Retrospective Carlos Reichenbach

In the 1960s, in the middle of the Brazilian military dictatorship, a film movement arose in São Paulo that broke with the narrative, aesthetic and social limits of the time. It was called Cinema of Invention, Cinema Marginal or Udigrudi, and one of its main figures was Carlos Reichenbach (1945-2012). This avant-garde author explored several genres, including melodrama, porn and experimental. In partnership with Cinemateca Portuguesa and with the support of Heco Produções, Doclisboa presents a rare retrospective of his work. Five decades of filmmaking and life, an ode to utopia, dream and desire.

07 Oct — 15:30 / 113’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro
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14 Oct — 19:30 / 114’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala Luís de Pina

Dreams in Life

Carlos Reichenbach
Two female workers from the outskirts of São Paulo, played by the muses of Boca do Lixo Patrícia Scalvi and Misaki Tanaka, decide to have some fun even with the little money they have. This is the first film by Carlos Reichenbach that portrays the universe of Brazilian working class [...]

Fake Blonde

Carlos Reichenbach
In his last film, Carlos Reichenbach returns to ABC Paulista, a peripheral region with textile and metallurgical plants (also portrayed in Garotas do ABC), exploring the dreams and wishes of a group of young female workers. The main character is Silmara. She lives in a game of appearances that becomes [...]
07 Oct — 19:00 / 90’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

As Libertinas

Antônio Lima, Carlos Reichenbach, João Callegaro
Three episodes on marriage, adultery and sexual adventures. A writer splits his attention between his wife and a young woman. A man convinces his wife to conquer another man so that he can blackmail him. A woman dreams up extramarital fables.
07 Oct — 21:30 / 98’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

Esta Rua tão Augusta is a portrait full of irony of the main shopping street in São Paulo in the late 1960s, which was also an epicentre of alternative culture. Audácia! both wanders around Boca do Lixo and reflects upon the difficulties and pleasures of filmmaking. The story of the Cinema Novo and Cinema Marginal movements until then.

Audácia!

Antônio Lima, Carlos Reichenbach
Audácia! is divided into three parts. The first is a documentary by Reichenbach in which we cross the streets of Boca do Lixo, meeting producers and directors from Cinema Marginal. The second part, A Badaladíssima dos Trópicos x Os Picaretas do Sexo, is a fiction by Reichenbach in which a [...]
Questions and Answers
08 Oct — 15:30 / 104’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro
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10 Oct — 21:30 / 104’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

O “M” da Minha Mão

Carlos Reichenbach
Portrait of Brazilian composer and accordionist Mário Gennari Filho, who wrote Baião Caçula and O “M” da Minha Mão. The film establishes a relation between music and life in the outskirt of São Paulo.

O Paraíso Proibido

Carlos Reichenbach
Celso Félix is a successful radio broadcaster, but he is disappointed and bored with his life. He decides to leave his family, and he moves to a city in the coastline of São Paulo, where he finds an easy work as host at a small local station, and he gets [...]
08 Oct — 21:30 / 96’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

The Island of Prohibited Pleasures

Carlos Reichenbach
Uma agente do Estado é enviada para uma ilha paradisíaca para eliminar um grupo de revolucionários. Fingindo-se jornalista, consegue infiltrar-se e elimina duas pessoas, mas envolve-se com a comunidade e descobre o papel revolucionário do prazer.
10 Oct — 19:00 / 124’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro
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14 Oct — 21:30 / 124’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

A session dedicated to Carlos Reichenbach’s love for art, life and those who question the power. Equilíbrio e Graça tells the story of the encounter between a Trappist monk and an elderly Buddhist.
In O Império do Desejo, several characters enter a spiral of mind-blogging relations about violence, freedom and desire.

Equilíbrio e Graça

Carlos Reichenbach
Trappist monk Thomas Merton decides to meet Buddhist elder D. T. Suzuki. “Suzuki is nearly deaf and uses a tube to hear better. They both laugh a lot at themselves, the world gone mad around them, the impermanence of things and the illusions of men.” Equilíbrio e Graça is Reichenbach’s [...]

The Empire of Desire

Carlos Reichenbach
With the help of a lawyer, Sandra travels to reclaim her illegally occupied beach house. On the way, she gives a ride to a hippie couple that she ends up hiring as housekeepers. At the same time, word is spreading that a killer is on the loose in the area.
10 Oct — 21:30 / 104’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

O “M” da Minha Mão is a portrait of Brazilian composer and accordionist Mário Gennari Filho that establishes a relation between music and life in the outskirt of São Paulo. In O Paraíso Proibido, a successful radio broadcaster is disappointed and bored with his life. He decides to leave his family, and he moves to another city looking for absolute freedom.

O “M” da Minha Mão

Carlos Reichenbach
Portrait of Brazilian composer and accordionist Mário Gennari Filho, who wrote Baião Caçula and O “M” da Minha Mão. The film establishes a relation between music and life in the outskirt of São Paulo.

O Paraíso Proibido

Carlos Reichenbach
Celso Félix is a successful radio broadcaster, but he is disappointed and bored with his life. He decides to leave his family, and he moves to a city in the coastline of São Paulo, where he finds an easy work as host at a small local station, and he gets [...]
11 Oct — 15:30 / 93’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

Sede de amar

Carlos Reichenbach
A mulher de um milionário é raptada com um funcionário modesto da empresa de construção civil do marido. Presos seminus à força num cubículo, terão de enfrentar as agruras de uma noite fria. Convidado como técnico de iluminação, Reichenbach acabaria como realizador.
Questions and Answers

Esta Rua tão Augusta

Carlos Reichenbach
Reichenbach’s first completed film. A portrait full of irony of Rua Augusta, the main shopping street in São Paulo, in the late 1960s, that was also an epicentre of alternative culture. The extravagant storefronts, the control by the police, painter Waldomiro de Deus trying to sell his paintings, youngsters dancing [...]
Questions and Answers
11 Oct — 19:30 / 92’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala Luís de Pina

Extremos do Prazer

Carlos Reichenbach
During the Brazilian military dictatorship, a university professor is chased and suspended, and his wife, a political activist, is violently killed. Desperate, he seeks shelter at one of his nieces’ country house. On a weekend, he is visited by a young couple, whose behaviour rekindles his erotic desires, throwing him [...]
11 Oct — 21:30 / 100’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro
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14 Oct — 15:30 / 100’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

Olhar e Sensação is an ‘anti-symphony’ of the city based on the perspective of the caged animals at the São Paulo Zoo. In Filme Demência, Reichenbach freely adapts Goethe’s Faust. A bankrupt industrialist from São Paulo falls into crisis with everyone around him, steals a gun and descends into hell in São Paulo at night.

Olhar e Sensação

Carlos Reichenbach
An ‘anti-symphony’ of the city. Through the subjectivity of the caged animals at the São Paulo Zoo, we watch and feel the great urbanity. Drafts of the love-hate relationship between Reichenbach and the city.

Filme Demência

Carlos Reichenbach
In this free adaptation of Goethe’s Faust, Reichenbach illustrates the downfall of the Brazilian urban bourgeoisie. A bankrupt industrialist from São Paulo sells his small cigarette factory, which he inherited from his parents, to a multinational company. The straw that broke the camel’s back was separating from his wife, which [...]
12 Oct — 15:30 / 144’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro
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15 Oct — 15:30 / 144’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

Two reflections that explore class conflict, chauvinism, the hardship of life in the outskirts and the precariousness of work. Desordem em Progresso [Disorder in Progress] is a paraphrase of the motto written in the Brazilian flag: ‘Ordem e Progresso’ [Order and Progress]. In Anjos do Arrabalde, three female teachers from a public school have different traumas and hopes.

Disorder in Progress

Carlos Reichenbach
Desordem em Progresso [Disorder in Progress] is a paraphrase of the motto written in the Brazilian flag: ‘Ordem e Progresso’ [Order and Progress]. Coringa works for a film crew making a documentary on the city of São Paulo, and he is in charge of guarding the production’s [...]

Suburban Angels

Carlos Reichenbach
The outskirts of São Paulo are the setting of a film oscillating between melodrama, comedy of manners and social condemnation. We follow the everyday life of three female teachers from a public school who have different traumas and hopes. A political and social portrait of the Brazilian society of the [...]
12 Oct — 19:00 / 122’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro
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15 Oct — 21:30 / 122’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

In Sangue Corsário, two old friends meet. One is still a poet, the other is now a banker. In Alma Corsária, two childhood friends publish a four-handed book in a party. As the night progresses, the film goes back in time, passing by several moments in the history of Brazil until it reaches 1950, when the two friends first met.

Buccaneer Blood

Carlos Reichenbach
Wandering the streets of São Paulo, two old friends meet. They lived the crazy, psychedelic 1960s together, but the economic and political changes in the following decades made them follow different life paths. One is still a poet, the other is now a banker. A tribute to Brazilian counter-culture and [...]

Buccaneer Soul

Carlos Reichenbach
Two childhood friends publish a four-handed poetry book. The launch party gathers a varied group of prostitutes, bourgeois yuppies, outcasts, musicians, intellectuals and journalists. As the party progresses, the film goes back in time, passing by several moments in the history of Brazil until it reaches 1950, when the two [...]
12 Oct — 21:30 / 112’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro

Two Streams

Carlos Reichenbach
No final dos anos 1960, três jovens passam férias numa fazenda em Dois Córregos, no interior do estado de São Paulo. Conhecem um homem estranho e fascinante, envolvido em actividades de extrema-esquerda. O encontro irá marcar profunda- mente a vida de todos.
13 Oct — 15:30 / 125’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala M. Félix Ribeiro
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15 Oct — 19:30 / 125’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala Luís de Pina

Garotas do ABC

Carlos Reichenbach
The young, beautiful, black Aurélia is a worker who lives in the ABC suburb, a São Paulo region with textile and metallurgical plants. Her idol is Arnold Schwarzenegger and she is in love with Fábio, a violent boy that is part of a far-right group.
14 Oct — 19:30 / 114’
Cinemateca Portuguesa Sala Luís de Pina

Reichenbach often focuses on the world of Brazilian female workers. In Sonhos de Vida, two of them from the outskirts of São Paulo decide to have some fun even with the little money they have. Falsa Loura, the director’s last film, portrays the dreams and wishes of a group of youngsters, crossing melodrama, comedy, musical and social chronicle.

Dreams in Life

Carlos Reichenbach
Two female workers from the outskirts of São Paulo, played by the muses of Boca do Lixo Patrícia Scalvi and Misaki Tanaka, decide to have some fun even with the little money they have. This is the first film by Carlos Reichenbach that portrays the universe of Brazilian working class [...]

Fake Blonde

Carlos Reichenbach
In his last film, Carlos Reichenbach returns to ABC Paulista, a peripheral region with textile and metallurgical plants (also portrayed in Garotas do ABC), exploring the dreams and wishes of a group of young female workers. The main character is Silmara. She lives in a game of appearances that becomes [...]