Via Appia (1990)
Frank, a HIV infected former Lufthansa steward, goes back to Rio from Germany with a film crew to look for Mario, a young man with whom he had a one night stand. Before Mario departed the morning after, he left a message scrawled in soap on the bathroom mirror: 'Welcome to the AIDS club'. Frank and his director hire a fast talking hustler named José (Guilherme di Padua) to help them to find Mario who seems alway to have just left whenever they arrive. Via Appia is the nickname of a Rio district where male prostitutes hang out...
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a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
This is a bit of recursive movie making. It's the story of a Lufthansa flight attendant who has gotten AIDS from a Rio hustler. The hustler was `kind' enough to advise the guy by scrawling `Welcome to the AIDS-Club' on the hotel mirror before stealing the flight attendant's camera and disappearing. Its also about the making of a movie about a flight attendant who...The flight attendant has now hooked up with a filmmaker who thinks it's a good idea to film the flight attendant's return to Brazil in search of this guy. We get to see the mean streets of Brazil, the boys who earn their living there, and the sex tourists who prey upon them as they are in turn preyed upon. Probably the most interesting aspects of the film involve a savvy Brazilian boy of the streets who attaches himself to the filming party and joins the search. When it was released in 1990, AIDS was more of a death sentence than it is today and the mystery surrounding the disease has been reduced. This movie is no longer as topical as when it was first made and its `indie' roots are not as easy to gloss over as they once were but it is still an interesting film and worth the time to view it, if nothing better presents itself. I wouldn't choose it over most of the more current releases though.