2021 Blind Spot Series: Pixote

 

Based on the novel A Infancia dos Mortos (The Childhood of the Dead Ones) by Jose Louzeiro, Pixote is the story of a young boy who is used by corrupt military and police officials to commit crimes and smuggle drugs as a means to survive in the chaotic lower-class area of Brazil. Directed by Hector Babenco and screenplay by Babenco and Jorge Duran, the film is a look into the world of corruption where a young boy tries to survive a world that is intense and brutal as the titular character is played by Fernando Ramos da Silva. Also starring Jorge Juliao, Gilberto Moura, and Edilson Lino. Pixote is a gripping and haunting film from Hector Babenco.

The film revolves around the journey of a ten-year old boy who is part of a number of juvenile delinquents who is taken to a reformatory center as he endures a lot of horrors where he would escape with a few other young men and go into a world of crime. It is a film with a simple premise yet it explores the life of a young boy who encounters a lot of what is going on during a period of Brazil’s rule under a military dictatorship where he does what he can to survive. The film’s screenplay by Hector Babenco and Jorge Duran is largely straightforward in its narrative as it follows the many ordeals of Pixote as a boy who had been captured by the police and is sent to this reformatory center where kids would be raped by older kids while they do drugs and all sorts of shit. The first act largely takes place in this reformatory center where Pixote has to accept the new reality he’s in to keep himself out of trouble while he befriends the stoner Fumaca (Zenildo Oliveira Santos), the transgender hooker Lilica (Jorge Juliao), the intense Dito (Gilberto Moura), and Chico (Edilson Lino).

The second act following a riot and later an escape over the deaths of a few kids by corrupt police officials, Pixote, Lilica, Dito, and Chico go to Sao Paulo to become street thieves and later meet a former lover of Lilica in the drug dealer Cristal (Tony Tornado) who gives them a chance to deal with a showgirl in Debora (Elke Maravilha) in Rio de Janeiro where things don’t exactly go well where they return to Sao Paulo where the film’s third act has them teaming with a prostitute in Sueli (Marilia Pera). These trips and encounters that Pixote would have that include moments of violence has him dealing with growing up too fast but also losing so much of his innocence in a world that is just unruly and cruel.

Babenco’s direction is definitely intense in terms of presentation as it has this documentary-like feel to maintain this air of realism of what is happening during this period of military dictatorship in Brazil in its final years. Shot on various locations in Brazil including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Babenco does use wide and medium shots to establish the locations but often maintains an intimacy with the usage of the latter and close-ups including scenes at the reformatory bedrooms where it does feel cramped and over-crowded. Even as Babenco would use the wide shots for some of the exteriors where it doesn’t feel as crowded but there is this air of decay in the building but also an air of hopelessness despite the fact that there’s a few people who at least are trying to be fair despite some awful people living in that building. Notably in a scene where Lilica is having to dance in front of a group of men and is berated with a lot of homophobic and transphobic slurs at him. Babenco also uses a lot of hand-held cameras that include these wide shots of Pixote, Dito, and Chico stealing purses and wallets from people walking in the streets of Sao Paulo.

Babenco also play up the reality of what Brazil is outside of this postcard imagery of gorgeous beaches and vibrancy despite a scene at the beach where Pixote, Chico, and Lilica are thinking about the future and what to do if they succeed. Yet, each act would end with tragedy and violence as the end of the second act has Pixote committing his first murder out of rage, grief, and feeling cheated. It is where Babenco returns to this reality of slums as it is a reflection of what Brazil really is where people live in decayed and poor homes where Pixote and his friends would stay with Sueli. It is a world that is unforgiving but there’s also something lively about it though it also has this tension of what Lilica realizes knowing that he can’t be part of this world while being aware he doesn’t fit in with the conventions of society. For Pixote, the events in the third act are revelations of who he is but also this air of uncertainty for young kids like him who don’t come from stable homes and are forced to fend for themselves. Overall, Babenco crafts an unsettling yet rapturous film about a young boy trying to survive the cruel world of reformatories and crime in Brazil.

Cinematographer Rodolfo Sanchez does brilliant work with the film’s cinematography with its usage of grainy film stock to maintain a sense of realism as well as interior/exterior scenes at night that has some vibrancy in the presentation while maintaining its gritty tone. Editor Luiz Elias does excellent work with the editing as it has elements of style in some jump-cuts and slow-motion bits as it adds to the drama and the film’s intense presentation. Art director Clovis Bueno does fantastic work with the look of Sueli’s home including her bedroom as well as the home of Cristal and the interiors of the room where the kids sleep at the reformatory. Costume designer Carminha Guarana is terrific as it play up the ragged look of the kids along with some of the more lavish clothing of Cristal and the sleazy look of Sueli.

The makeup work of Josefina “Nena” de Oliveira is wonderful to not just play into Lilica’s own look at times to look feminine but also the look of Sueli to play up her sleazy presentation. The sound work of Hugo Gama is superb as it help play up the atmosphere of the locations as well as how music sounds from a radio and the way sounds of angry kids are presented during the reformatory riot. The film’s music by John Neschling is amazing for its understated and plaintive piano-based orchestral score that play into the drama and a lot of the terror that Pixote encounters while the music soundtrack features an array of music ranging from rock, pop, and disco as it plays into the chaotic world that Pixote and his friends live in.

The film’s marvelous ensemble cast feature some notable small roles from Joao Jose Pompeo as the dirty cop Almir, Israel Feres David as the cripple delinquent who is also a singer, Jardel Filho as a reformatory center superintendent who is trying to maintain control as he’s a man that means well despite some of his motives, Claudio Bernardo as a young delinquent in Garatao who was Lilica’s lover, Tony Tornado as a flamboyant drug dealer in Cristal who was one of Lilica’s former lovers, Zenildo Oliveira Santos as the stoner delinquent Fumaca whom Pixote befriends early in the film, and Elke Maravilha as a showgirl whom Dito does a deal with as it would up going very badly. Edilson Lino is fantastic as Chico as a young delinquent that Pixote befriends as he takes part in the world of crime where he hopes he can become a successful criminal. Marilia Pera is excellent as the prostitute Sueli as a woman who is seen as a maternal figure for Pixote despite her alcoholism and cruel demeanor at times where she brings tension within the group as it relates to Lilica.

Gilberto Moura is brilliant as Dito as a mid-teen delinquent who is good at futbol as he becomes Lilica’s new lover only to be more interested in women and crime as he becomes the leader of the gang. Jorge Juliao is amazing as Lilica as a transgender delinquent/prostitute who ventures into the world of crime and acts like an older brother to Pixote while dealing with Sueli’s presence as he feels threatened by her in how she gets Dito’s attention. Finally, there’s Fernando Ramos da Silva in a phenomenal performance as the titular character as this ten-year old boy who endures cruelty, abuse, and uncertainty as he embarks on this treacherous journey where he’s forced to grow up too fast while coping with innocence loss as da Silva just exudes a lot of the anguish and curiosity of this character that adds a lot of realism to his performance.

As part of the 2020 dual-disc box set in the third volume of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project with five other films, the Region A Blu-Ray/Region 1 DVD set presents the film in a newly restored 4K digital transfer with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack for the Blu-Ray release in its 1:85:1 aspect ratio as it shares the disc with the film Dos Monjes and its special features. The special features on both the DVD and Blu-Ray feature a three-and-a-half minute introduction by Martin Scorsese about the film’s restoration as he talks about a lot of what the film needed as its restoration was overseen by the World Cinema Project in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna and permission from the family/estate of Hector Babenco with work from cinematographer Rodolfo Sanchez and one of the film’s original sound engineers in Jose Luis Sasso, along with sound editor Beto Ferraz, who helps restore the sound mixing for the film while Scorsese discuss the film’s impact upon its release and how it served as an international breakthrough for Babenco.

For its U.S. release back in the early 80s, Babenco creates a two-minute prologue about the film with his star Fernando Ramos da Silva to discuss the conditions that the children in Brazil were living in at the time as well as the harsh realities they’re forced to deal with da Silva seen at his home where he lives in a small shack with nine other siblings. The 22-minute featurette on Hector Babenco are excerpts from a March 25, 2016 interview for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Visual History Program Collection just months before his death on July 13, 2016. Babenco talks about his early life as well as his love for cinema as well as his early films prior to Pixote. Babenco also talks about the film as well as his approach to directing the young actors at the time as he admitted that it wasn’t easy to gain their trust but also showed what he had to do as it gave him a lot of confidence in the story he wanted to tell.

The essay on the film entitled Pixote: Out in the Streets by Stephanie Dennison who is a cultural professor and author at the University of Leeds discusses not just the historical context of Brazil when the film was made but also the film culture at the time where some of its premier filmmakers such as Glauber Rocha and Joao Silverio Trevisan were either exiled or forced to make films that weren’t good despite the landmark films they made for the country in the past. Babenco’s role for Brazilian cinema, even though he was born in Argentina, would play into this growing change in Brazil’s political landscape as the years of military dictatorship is coming to an end. Dennison talks about the film and its production as well as the contribution of acting coach Fatima Toledo who was also an instrumental figure in two other landmark Brazilian films in Central Station and City of God who would be the one to help coach the young actors for Babenco’s film.

Dennison also talks about the film in general as well as the struggles that the titular character goes through along with his friends in a world where they live on the fringes of society as kids are often targeted by corrupt policeman who just want to maintain this sense of control. The film’s initial release in Brazil was received with mixed reviews as Babenco was criticized by the left for not doing more to explore the social issues in the film as Babenco stated he is not interested in politics. Despite its mixed reaction in Brazil, the film would win a lot of international critic’s prizes at various film festivals and would give Babenco the chance to make bigger films outside of Brazil including Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ironweed, and At Play in the Fields of the Lord. Babenco would return to Brazil in the late 90s as the country would go into its own period of change but also cope with the things that Babenco told in his breakthrough film still remains as the country is currently another social state of disarray.

Pixote is a tremendous film from Hector Babenco that features a great leading performance from the late Fernando Ramos da Silva. Along with its ensemble cast, gritty visuals, themes of uncertainty in an unforgiving environment, and a somber music score. The film is definitely an unflinching and haunting film that explores a young boy dealing with a world that is cruel as he’s forced to go into crime as a means to survive while dealing with his own loss of innocence. In the end, Pixote is a magnificent film from Hector Babenco.

Hector Babenco Films: (O Fabuloso Fittipaldi) – (King of the Night) – (Lucio Flavio) – Kiss of the Spider Woman - (Ironweed) – (At Play in the Fields of the Lord) – (Foolish Heart) – (Carandiru) – (El Pasado) – (Words with God) – (My Hindu Friend)

© thevoid99 2021