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Madame Sata

2002, Movie, NR, 105 mins

Madame Sata: Review

MADAME SATA
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Loosely based on legends surrounding the early life and career of Joao Francisco dos Santos, better known as "Madame Sata," an infamous black Brazilian drag performer who won countless Carnival costume competitions when he wasn't serving time in prison, writer-director Karim Ainouz's sizzling biopic marks an exciting debut. Set in the notorious Lapa district of Rio de Janeiro — Lapa is to Rio what Pigalle is to Paris — the film opens in the early 1930s, a short time before Joao (played with electrifying intensity by Lazaro Ramos) is jailed for theft. A pimp, prostitute and all-around hustler with the dangerous allure of a street criminal, Joao could have sprung full-blown from the works of Jean Genet. His world centers around the Blue Danube, a run-down Lapa bar where Joao romances a handsome heterosexual hooligan (Felipe Marques) and watches over his makeshift family, which includes cocaine-sniffing prostitute Laurita (Marcelia Cartaxo) and cross-dressing "sissy" Taboo (Flavio Bauraqui). But Joao's fantasies come to life at the Cabaret Lux, where he works as a dresser to aging chanteuse Vitoria dos Anjos (Renata Sorrah). Peeking out from behind the dusty curtains, Joao watches Vitoria's every move as she warbles her way through Josephine Baker's signature chanson, "Nuit d'Alger"; Joao dreams of the day that he, too, will become a glittering star. But when Vitoria catches him wearing her costumes and practicing her act, she insults him and unwittingly unleashes the pent-up rage that's never far from the surface. Joao trashes Vitoria's dressing room, and when his boss (Floriano Peixoto) refuses to fork over Joao's back pay, he simply takes it. After serving time in prison for the theft, Joao convinces the owner of the Blue Danube to allow him to stage his own transvestite take on "Nuit d'Alger," and a star of sorts is born. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES this ain't. Like Jenny Livingston's PARIS IS BURNING, Ainouzthis's film deals intelligently with gender flux among those who have been pushed to society's margins — the poor, the black, the gay, the criminal — and whose noms de drag evoke a world of wealth and glamour that has little to do with the reality of their lives. (Forever enthralled with Hollywood, Joao Francisco took the name "Madame Sata" from Cecil B. DeMille's tawdry 1930 musical, MADAME SATAN). However intriguing from a theoretical perspective, this gorgeously shot film is first and foremost a sensual experience. Filled with the sights and sounds of Rio of a bygone era, the whole thing virtually pulses with excitement. (In Portuguese, with English subtitles.) leave a comment --Ken Fox
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