Iced Coffee

By RICHARD CORLISS

BYE BYE BRAZIL

Directed and Written

by Carlos Diegues

A Brazilian musical? The words evoke memories of Carmen Miranda, teeth gleaming, hips undulating, r's trilling, balancing a headdress of tropical fruit heavy enough to give the strongest Rio dock worker a hernia. That was '40s Hollywood, whose notion of Brazil was half picture postcard, half Daliesque daydream. Since then, a group of engaged intellectuals, collectively called cinema novo, have created a native awareness of the medium's power to teach and persuade. But before you can send a movie audience marching out to the barricades, you must get them into the theater. Don't cerebrate -- celebrate. Bye Bye Brazil does just that, setting a naturalistic tale to a bossa nova beat. It follows a tatty caravan of entertainers through the backwaters of Bahia, making music and mischief and the occasional friend or lover. The glittery magic means more to the actors than it ever will to the villagers; the show must go on so that the showmen can continue to believe in themselves. The attractive cast does not press this point; they too are here to entertain. That they do, in a film as refreshing as a tall glass of iced coffee on a hot summer day.

-- By Richard Corliss

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