Lisbela and the Prisoner (2003)
Lisbela is a young woman who loves going to the movies. Leléu is a con man, going from town to town selling all sort of things and performing as master of ceremonies for some cheesy numbers, such as the woman who gets transformed into a gorilla. He gets involved with Linaura, a sexy and beautiful woman who happens to be the wife of the most frightening hitman of the place. The hitman finds out his wife's affair and goes after Leléu, who has to leave in a hurry. In another town, he meets and falls instantly in love with Lisbela, who is engaged to Douglas, a hillbilly who tries hard to pass for a cosmopolitan Rio de Janeiro dweller.
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Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Leléu Antônio da Anunciação (Selton Mello) is a con man who travels through small Brazilian towns, scamming the people and sleeping with the townswomen.When he makes the mistake of sleeping with the wife of a hit man's and is caught, Leléu barely gets away with his life. Quickly, he moves on to another town, Vitória de Santo Antão, where he meets and falls in love, for the first time, with Lisbela (Débora Falabella). The daughter of the Police Chief, Lisbela is a sweet girl who enjoys watching movies and usually relates life to the world of films. Leléu has many problems to juggle: The hit-man, Frederic Evandro (Marco Nanini), also known as the Candlelighter, is hot on his trail to kill him; Frederic's wife, Inaura (Virginia Cavendish), claims to be in love with him and has followed him; and Lisbela is engaged to be married to someone else.Some scenes are a little too much, too over the top, but overall Lisbela e o Prisioneiro (Lisbela and the Prisoner) is enjoyable.
Before anything, I must say that in despite of the fact that I'm Brazilian, I usually don't like Brazilian movies. They are poor and weak. But this one surprise me.Technically the movie it's a crap. In both, the script and the scenes in self.But the plot is involving and fun. The performance of actors was very very good and the timing was perfect. One thing that this movie is not is boring. It was fun and really was able of catch my attention all over it.Still, one thing bother me huge time on the plot: For God's sake, the state of Espirito Santo it's NOT on Northeast! Wake up dudes! The movie was pretty nice, but watch out for the littles holes on the plot. In this case, a HUGE mistake.I give 5 from 10 to this movie.
Amazing!Do not waste your time with this amazingly empty, boring movie.Comparable to the worst mass-produced Hollywood crap I've seen.
Lisbela e o Prisioneiro is a good comedy, it will certainly make you have a very good time when you see it. However, this movie is downsized by two factors: it looks like a made-for-TV feature and Débora Falabella, who plays Lisbela, is not convincing, even with the awful accent she tries to speak. The rest of the cast is excellent, a very good team of actors with an outstanding comedic timing. The screenplay (from a play by Osman Lins) has astonishing metalinguistic ideas and inserts several little black-and-white movies inside the movie, as the soundtrack is very vibrating. Quite good. 7/10