Madame Satã
review by Nicholas Schager,
11 July 2003
At the center of Karim
Ainouz’s tantalizing but shallow biography Madame
Satã
stands João Francisco dos Santos (Lázaro Ramos), a pimp,
prostitute, thief, killer, homosexual, cross-dresser, and cabaret
performer all rolled into one volatile package – even for someone
living in Rio de Janeiro’s seedy Lapa district, where whores and
artists can be found on virtually every trash-strewn street corner,
his was quite a reputation. Mr. Ainouz’s film jumps full throttle
into João Francisco’s life, beginning with his early days doing
make-up for a cabaret singer and then hurtling through the ensuing
decade, in which the charismatic Brazilian swindled unwitting
lovers, avoided the law, and attempted to create a name for himself
as a stage performer while living with his prostitute “wife”
Laurita (Marcélia Cartaxo), her baby daughter, and his girlish
homosexual partner-in-crime Taboo (Flávio Bauraqui). A man of
innumerable contradictions – one minute a nurturing father figure,
the next a raging maniac – João Francisco eventually wound up
garnering the acclaim he had so desperately craved, finding fame
with his most outrageous cabaret character of them all: Madame Satã.
Who was
Madame Satã, the persona that
turned João Francisco into a local legend? Ainouz’s film
is completely uninterested in such details – the Satã
character appears only during the film’s final credits, after
we’ve learned about the tumultuous, unconventional life that led
to his/her creation. Shot through what looks like a layer of chic
grime, the film has an enticingly decrepit visual scheme that
complements its protagonist’s violent underworld flamboyance.
Amidst the decaying apartments and squalid nightclubs is João
Francisco, an imposing six-foot tiger of a man, glistening black
skin and eyes lit by fire and fury. He was many people at once,
alternating between petty crook, barroom brawler (using a
high-kicking fighting style known as “capoeira”), and devoted
paternal figure – at one point, he and Laurita, dressed in their
Sunday best, take her daughter for a peaceful stroll along the water
in a wishful attempt at domestic normalcy – with the explosiveness
of a man not fully in control of his life.
As the film portrays him, João
Francisco’s schizophrenic personality was caused by a collision
between his dreams – of stardom, of quiet family life – and his
reality as a cross-dressing homosexual spurned by Brazilian society,
and newcomer Lázaro Ramos brings him to life with an intimidating
ferociousness. Yet writer/director Ainouz paints a disappointingly
one-dimensional portrait of this outlandish madman, choosing to
focus on his love affairs and crimes, as well as the lively locale
he called home, without ever convincing us that we should respect or
empathize with such a self-destructive psychotic. There’s little
doubt that João Francisco’s grandiosity eventually made him some
sort of icon, but Madame Satã is primarily concerned with his numerous homosexual affairs and bloody
scuffles, both of which seem fueled by a mysterious inner rage he
couldn’t subdue. The camera lingers longingly on Ramos’ sweaty
torso and sculpted jaw during these fierce episodes, as if this
close proximity will reveal the essence of this untamed firebrand.
What’s ultimately exposed, however, is the film’s inability to
move past its frank depiction of homosexual intimacy toward an
insightful revelation about its subject.
One gets
the impression that Ainouz sees João Francisco – who
endured prison stints both small (a few months) and large (ten
years) – as a passionate counterculture artist determined to
destroy established prejudices and long-held notions of propriety.
The problem with such a viewpoint is that the film never convinces
us that João Francisco was anything more than an incendiary
troublemaker with a gift for over-the-top song-and-dance routines
– the unimpressive performance he idolizes, and his subsequent
routines portraying a panoply of wicked characters, all revolve
around the familiar tale of The Arabian Nights. Many may find João Francisco a spiritual (if
not direct) ancestor of cross-dressing stars such as Divine and
RuPaul. But the thinly-sketched man at the center of Madame
Satã
is best characterized as an enigmatic and only intermittently
interesting lunatic with an
extravagant penchant for sex and sequins. |
Written and
Directed
by:
Karim Ainouz
Starring:
Lázaro Ramos
Marcelia Cartaxo
Flavio Bauraqui
Felipe Marques
Emiliano Queiroz
Renata Sorrah
Giovana Barbosa
Ricardo Blat
Guilherme Piva
Marcelo Valle
Floriano Peixoto
Gero Camilo
Orã Figueiredo
Rated:
NR - Not Rated.
This film has not
been rated.
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