Cinema
The Bandit
O cangaceiro
Lima Barreto · 1953
Synopsis
In the sertão of the Northeast, the band of Captain Galdino Ferreira plunders, steals and kills. During an attack, it abducts Olívia, a schoolteacher, and entrusts her to the guard of Teodoro, one of the cangaceiros, a man more peaceable than his companions. Teodoro falls in love with her and wants to leave the band to start a new life, and this love sows trouble among Galdino's men.
Context
Shot in 1952 at Vargem Grande do Sul, in the state of São Paulo and not in the Nordeste, the film was produced by Vera Cruz, then in crisis, from a screenplay by Lima Barreto and the novelist Rachel de Queiroz. At Cannes in 1953 it received the prize for best adventure film and a mention for Gabriel Migliori's music. Distributed by Columbia in more than eighty countries, it stayed in cinemas in France from 1953 to 1960 and drew more than 1.7 million viewers there, according to the journal Galáxia. The Cinema Novo later reproached it for borrowing from the western.
Who it is for
An adventure film of one hundred and five minutes, easy to follow; it was released in France under the title Sans peur, sans pitié.
Prizes and reception
One of the first international successes of Brazilian cinema, and the first Brazilian film to win a prize at Cannes.
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