Brazzil
May 1999
Short and Longer Notes
RAPIDINHAS
Behavior
For
Her Eyes
Only
Brazilian women now have the same old excuse as men who are caught leafing through Playboy: "I bought it for the interview." Íntima is the Brazilian response to Playboy, which has published its Brazilian edition for more than two decades. The new magazine, aimed at the female population, is filled with personal articles, interviews, and naturally—naked men. While the presence of nude male pictorials is not new in Brazilian magazines—there are around 30 gay publications which explore that theme—Íntima wants to be a magazine that can be read by the whole family. Or at least that's what Marcos Salles, the director of Salles Editora, which publishes the magazine, says: "Our nude is sensual and not erotic, without embarrassment for the family."
The premiere issue was a success. More than half of the 150,000 copies printed were bought in the first week of release. The magazine has been reluctant to use frontal nudity although 30% of the readers are asking for it. Salles is afraid that such an approach might provoke a backlash. Editorial meetings have also discussed whether the penis should be shown erect or not. Women have also written about the men they would like to see uncovered. Three TV actors top their wish list: Fábio Assunção, Luciano Szafir, and Édson Celulari.
On the cover of issue number 2 of Íntima, however, is Gaúcho (from Rio Grande do Sul) soccer player Renato Gaúcho. He became famous playing for Grêmio from Porto Alegre, but since 1995 has ended and restarted his soccer career several times. The player, who has had a series of mishaps on and off the field, says he only accepted the bare-it-all assignment after being promised there would be no frontal nudity. He also revealed that he needed to drink two Camparis before getting in the mood for the pictures. But he is proud of exposing himself, stating: "This is a high-quality magazine that I can take home without being embarrassed." He wouldn't pose for a gay magazine though, Renato said.
Population
In Pill
Eight million Brazilian women are presently taking birth control pills. Another one million or so would be using this practical and reliable family-planning method if it weren't for the undesirable side effects of the oral contraceptive. It's for them that controversial Brazilian researcher and gynecologist Elsimar Coutinho has created Lovelle, a unique vaginal birth control medicine, which was developed in Brazil and has just started being marketed there.
The new drug is the result of seven years of research, a three-million-dollar investment, and tests with 2,000 patients from Brazil, Mexico, China, and India. Approved by the Brazilian Health Ministry, Lovelle is being distributed by the small Biolab-Sanus laboratory.
Often criticized by his peers and the national press as an opportunist and not very serious scientist, Coutinho expects this will change soon when his 1997 book Menstruation, the Useless Bloodshed is published in June in the United States by Oxford University Press. In the book the gynecologist defends the notion that women can live without menstruation their entire lives. He recommends that women take birth control pills to achieve this.
The main difference between traditional birth control pills and Lovelle is the way the medicine is administered. Both contain estrogen and progesterone, both have to be taken uninterruptedly for 21 days, and they cost about the same.
Environment
Sun Filter
and
Poop ScoopFor two weeks at the end of April and beginning of May, Cariocas (Rio's residents) had to stay off the beach while 997 tons of untreated sewage were discharged into Ipanema, just half a mile from where the Garota de Ipanema, who inspired the celebrated bossa nova tune, used to parade her curves. The pollution release was part of a scheduled repair of an undersea sewage system, but ended up provoking more annoyance and lasting longer than expected. It was also a great opportunity for jokes.
Copacabana, which is called princesinha do mar (sea's little princess), became privadinha do mar (sea's little latrine). Marcelo Madureira from the Casseta & Planeta team of TV humorists, contributed this one: "Instead of curfew or state of siege the mayor should decree that people have a constipation." For veteran humorist Max Nunes, the Atlantic Ocean has become Atlanticocô (cocô means feces in Portuguese). The Casseta & Planeta gang also suggested that Rio's mayor Luís Paulo Conde be called Cocônde. Famous Pepê beach has been renamed Pipi beach and Copacabana became Cocôpacabana.
Meanwhile, residents from the Laranjeiras neighborhood got together to protest against the cocô left by the canine species when being walked by their owners. The event also had touches of humor, with a band, clowns and a children's choir, and marked the debut of a campaign called Xô, Cocô (Out, Dung). The idea is to convince dog owners to carry a plastic bag to collect their pets' body waste. One thousand plastic bags are being distributed through newsstands and shops. Pet shops in Rio carry special scoops, but few people look for them and many pet owners do not even know they exist. The city has ordinances against pets dirtying the streets. There is no enforcement though.
Urban Life
Sky-High
DreamIf everything works according to plan, São Paulo will symbolically start construction on January 1, 2000, of what might be the tallest building in the world. Everything is in place: the project, the financing, the enthusiasm of the politicians, the media, and the population. Most of the money is coming from the Maharishi Global Development Fund, MGDF, an investment institution controlled by Hindu monk Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the same person who served as guru for the Beatles. The project was designed by the Minoru Yamasaki company, the firm responsible for the New York World Trade Center. It's expected the tower will be ready by 2006. Behind the São Paulo tower project is the São Paulo financier Mário Garnero, 61, from the Brasilinvest group.
The new building will cost $1.65 billion and will be 494 meters (1621 feet) high, with 103 stories. There is no building that tall in the world right now, even though a tower being built in Taiwan is designed to be 508 meters (1666 feet) high. The Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 1483 feet, is the world's tallest edifice today. The Brazilian project will bring 50,000 people to downtown São Paulo, an area already plagued with traffic jams, lack of adequate infrastructure, and all kinds of pollution. While some criticize the project, others think it is an important piece in a broader plan to revitalize the town's decaying center. The 1.3 million-square-meter (14 million sq. ft) structure will not only have thousands of offices and apartments, but also a university, hotels, and shopping center.
Obituary
Rebel and
His Cause"God is a good playwright. He is able to get his interpreters fighting desperately for their roles under the illusion that they can improve it with a personal contribution, when He, protective of his work, does not allow improvisation. Only a complaint: He repeats Himself a lot, since all His plays have the same ending—death. I know it is unethical to badmouth a colleague, but God suffers from a millenary lack of imagination."
From Apenas um Subversivo by Dias Domes
Hundreds of people went to the São João Batista cemetery in Rio and thousands more from the sidewalks and from their high-rise building windows accompanied in silence, on May 19, the passage of the cortege with Dias Gomes's body. Some waved white handkerchiefs, others exhibited makeshift banners, many saying "Bem-amado" (Well-beloved), the name of one of his best known works. You might think the illustrious deceased was a great sports figure or TV star and not the controversial playwright who became popular and famous by writing TV novelas (soap operas) that changed the language of this genre in Brazil and created a gallery of memorable characters who are still remembered more than two decades after being created on the little screen. OBem-Amado—arguably his most popular work—a hilarious soap from 1973 depicting life, politics, corruption, and hypocrisy in the little fictitious town of Sucupira, still resonates in the Brazilian collective consciousness.
Despite being 77 years old, Dias Gomes was still very active and going through a happy phase in his life, according to friends. He died in a car accident, May 18, in the early morning, on avenue 9 de Julho, in the southern region of São Paulo, when the taxi in which he was riding with his wife Maria Bernardeth made a wrong turn and was hit by a bus. The writer, who was not using a seatbelt, was thrown out the car. His wife and the driver escaped with minor injuries. The couple had come from Rio (the distance between Rio and São Paulo is 250 miles) to see a presentation of Giacomo Puccini's opera, Madama Butterfly. After the show they ate at a traditional pasta house, the Famiglia Mancini restaurant, where they shared mineral water, Italian red wine, fettuccini, and minced filet mignon, spending $40. They stayed less than 50 minutes in the restaurant, leaving a little before 2 AM.
Bernardeth, 36, with whom Dias Gomes, had two girls—Maíra, 12, and Luana, 8—confirmed earlier reports that she wanted to wait for another taxi: "I didn't want to get into that taxi because the driver had been rude to me and I had the impression that he was a drunkard. The waiter stepped in, trying to convince Dias to wait for a driver known by the restaurant, but he did not want to wait and we ended up taking that taxi." It was past two in the morning. According to the story taxi driver Ozias Patrício da Silva told police, Dias Gomes had chosen his car, instead of one of the fancier taxicabs that stay at the restaurant's door, to help him. "I took you took your car because you work for a fleet and I wanted to give you a hand," the playwright told him.
Dias Gomes had been married to another famous soap opera writer, Janete Clair, until her death in 1983 from intestinal cancer. The couple had three children: Guilherme, Alfredo, and Denise. Nobody would think they could have such a lasting union. They were the opposite of each other. While he was cynical, irreligious, communist and socially conscious, Janet was a romantic Catholic girl who did not care for politics. They first met while working at Rádio Difusora in São Paulo in 1945 and were married in 1950, but started living and writing together before that.
Early Start
Alfredo de Freitas Dias Gomes was born in 1922 in Salvador, the capital of the northeastern state of Bahia. He moved in 1935 with his family to Rio. The author was 15 years old when he wrote A Comédia dos Moralistas (The Moralists' Comedy), his first play. The text was the winner of the 1939 National Service of Theater's Competition for amateurs. Three years later Gomes debuted on professional theater with Pé-de-Cabra (Crowbar), a play that went on tour throughout Brazil starring legendary actor Procópio Ferreira. Dias Gomes would become internationally known in 1962 when his play O Pagador de Promessas (The Payer of Vows), turned into a movie by director Anselmo Duarte, won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. As a play, the work had a long and successful career at the TBC (Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia—Brazilian Theater of Comedy) with actor Anselmo Duarte starring in it.
In 1944 the writer moved to São Paulo where he worked at Radio Pan Americana writing scripts and adapting stories. In 1945 he wrote the novel Duas Sombras Apenas (Only Two Shadows), the first of a series of books written in the ensuing three years that included Um Amor e Sete Pecados (A Love and Seven Sins), A Dama da Noite (The Lady of the Night) e Quando É Amanhã (When It's Tomorrow). In July 1991, Dias Gomes became one of the 40 members of ABL (Academia Brasileira de Letras—Brazilian Academy of Letters). He was buried at the Academy's mausoleum.
Firebrand
A militant communist, he was seen as a threat to national security for most of his life. After a trip he made to the then Soviet Union in 1953, he was fired from Rio's Rádio Clube where he worked writing radio scripts. He then started writing under several different names. During the military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964 to 1985, Dias Gomes was constantly singled out by the censors. He was one of the first victims of the military. In 1964, the same year his O Pagador de Promessas play premiered in Washington, D.C., he was fired from Rio's Rádio Nacional because of the Institutional Act No. 1, issued by the new regime. The Act started the so-called Cleaning Operation, which put thousands in prison, took the political rights of 141 opponents of the regime and placed leaders aligned with the military in command in universities and labor unions.
One of Gomes' most famous soap operas was written in 1975, but was vetoed by the military and shown on TV only ten years later. It was Roque Santeiro (Roque the Saint-Maker), a caustic satire of corrupted politicians, which when aired reached up to 90% of the Brazilian TV audience tuned in. Besides Roque Santeiro, he had other texts censored, including O Berço dos Heróis (The Heroes' Cradle), A Revolução dos Beatos (The Revolution of the Blessed Ones), Vamos Soltar os Demônios, (Let's Free the Demons), and A Invasão (The Invasion).
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, himself a victim of military arbitrariness, said in a statement, "As a citizen, Dias Gomes was a democrat. As a dramatist and novelist, he always showed the best of the Brazilian people. We will miss his talent.''
"He was courageous in his positions, mostly when defending the citizenry," said writer Carlos Nejar, adding: "The most interesting thing about Dias Gomes was that he linked with much wisdom the popular and the erudite. He created characters with the face and the soul of Brazil. He also helped to bring together the population and the Brazilian culture through television."
Among the unforgettable characters created by him were the corrupt mayor Odorico Paraguaçu, the goody-goody Cajazeira sisters, Dona Redonda, the widow Porcina, and Roque the Saint Maker. In 1976 he introduced the fantastic realism on TV soap operas with Saramandaia, in which a woman would set on fire everything around her when sexually aroused, a man had wings and another one had ants coming out of his nose. He protected as a jealous mother his texts and did not like to see them changed even when adapted to cinema. "Of all my works adapted to movies I only like O Pagador de Promessas," he said once. "In the others I don't even recognize my text." To actors who improvised over his text he used to send this message: "I can do without contributions."
Dias Gomes was not writing novelas anymore, but kept working on smaller projects. One, which he finished, was Vargas, a mini-series based on the life of President Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (1883-1954). He was also working on another mini-series he called Ninguém É de Ninguém (Nobody Belongs to Nobody).
In an interview with weekly magazine Época, he said, "Today I avoid novela. There is not enough time to polish the text. For me, to write a novela is a solitary work. It's only you and God. It's almost like a marathon, the shortest way to a heart attack. Today the novela has become a group work. They have found an industrial solution for the novela, but with this it lost its authorship."
In Apenas um Subversivo (Just a Subversive), a memoir released in May 1998 by Editora Bertrand, the author wrote: "I am able to pilot my boat through the winds, but I know there is plenty of sea ahead. Maybe I will never reach port. I hope I never do because the best part of the trip is to be in it." That release was also the beginning of the publication of the seven-book complete works by Dias Gomes, whose last volume, a book with short stories, is scheduled to appear in early 2000.
HIS WORK
Plays
A Comédia dos Moralistas (1937)
Pé de Cabra (1942)
João Cambão (1942)
O Homem que Não Era Seu (1942)
Amanhã Será Outro Dia (1943)
Zeca Diabo (1943)
Eu Acuso o Céu (1943)
Beco Sem Saída (1944)
O Existencialista (1944)
A Dança das Horas (1949)
O Pagador de Promessas (1959)
A Invasão (1960)
A Revolução dos Beatos (1961)
O Bem-Amado—Odorico, o Bem-Amado, e os Mistérios de Amor e da Morte (1962)
O Berço do Herói (1963)
O Santo Inquérito (1964)
O Túnel (1968)
Vargas—Dr. Getúlio, Sua Vida e Sua Glória (1968)
Amor em Campo Minado (1969)
O Rei de Ramos (1968)
Campeões do Mundo (1979)
Novelas (Soap Operas)
A Ponte dos Suspiros (1969)
Verão Vermelho (1970)
Assim na Terra como no Céu (1970)
Bandeira Dois (1971)
O Bem-Amado (1973)
O Espigão (1974)
Saramandaia (1977)
Sinal de Alerta (1978)
Roque Santeiro (1985)
Mandala (1987)
Araponga (1990)
Irmãos Coragem (1995)
Fim do Mundo (1996)
Miniseries
O Pagador de Promessas (1988)
As Noivas de Copacabana (1992)
Decadência (1995)
Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (adapted from Jorge Amado's novel) (1998)
TV Specials
Um Grito no Escuro (1971)
O Santo Inquérito (1979)
O Boi Santo (1988)
Um Grito no Escuro (1971)
Cinema
O Pagador de Promessas, directed by Anselmo Duarte (1962), Golden Palm in Cannes
O Marginal, directed by Carlos Manga (1974)
O Rei do Rio, directed by Bruno Barreto (1985)
Amor em Campo Minado, directed by Pastor Vera, Cuba (1998)
TV Series
O Bem-Amado (1980, 1984)
In the Bookstores:
Amor em Campo Minado
Apenas um Subversivo
O Bem Amado
O Berço do Herói
Os Caminhos da Revolução
Decadência
Derrocada
Os Espetáculos Musicais
Os Falsos Mitos
A Invasão
Meu Reino Por Um Cavalo
Odorico na Cabeça
O Pagador de Promessas
Peças da Juventude
As Primícias
Rei de Ramos
O Santo Inquérito
O Santo Inquérito
Sucupira Ame-a ou Deixe-a
Culture
On stage,
on screenIn a daring and treacherous cultural endeavor, Brazilian weekly newsmagazine Isto É has decided to choose the century's top Brazilians in the scenic arts. The ambitious proposition includes creative minds working in movies, legitimate theatre, TV drama, and dance.
The initial list containing 33 names was prepared by a panel of experts including moviemakers, playwrights, dancers, writers, and media critics. The final choice will be made by the magazine's readers. Isto É has been promoting other categories of high achievers including musicians and sports figures. In the latter category, while soccer Pelé was unanimously chosen as the century's top athlete by the experts, he lost to Formula One race driver, Ayrton Senna, in the popular vote.
At least 246 names were listed by the panel of experts, giving an idea of the Brazilian culture's wealth in the scenic arts field. Even though there was no unanimity this time, writer, journalist, playwright Nélson Rodrigues (1912-1980) came in first on the experts' choice. Rodrigues, who used to call himself pornographic angel, would probably approve of this choice. In one of his most cited sayings he wrote: "All unanimity is stupid."
Despite the abundance of names cited, some important figures didn't make the preliminary list. And they include people of weight like respected moviemaker Joaquim Pedro de Andrade; stage, motion-picture and TV actor Lima Duarte; and theater diva Tônia Carrero. Late Janete Clair, the mother of all soap opera scribes, has also been snubbed.
Some of the chosen are not Brazilian. For some people it might come as a surprise that comedian Oscarito, for example, was born in Malaga, Spain or that theater innovator Gianfrancesco Guarnieri came from Milan, Italy.
The A List
Nélson Rodrigues, 24 votes, 1912-1980
The playwright from Pernambuco was a right-wing reactionary immoral moralist. Bonitinha, mas Ordinária (Quite Pretty, but a Harlot), Beijo no Asfalto (Asphalt Kiss) and Vestido de Noiva (Wedding Gown) were some of his masterpieces. His tragedies are populated by crooks, prostitutes and adulterous men and women.
Fernanda Montenegro, 23 votes, born 1930
This Carioca (from Rio) virtuoso actress has been in the world's spotlight since starring on Central do Brasil (Central Station), a film that gave Montenegro a nomination for the Oscar this year. She is considered Brazil's greatest living actress. Other movies she acted in: Arnaldo Jabor's Tudo Bem (Everything's Fine) from 1978 and Leon Hirszman's Eles Não Usam Black-tie (They Don't Wear Black-Tie). Nobody would know her by her real name: Arlete Pinheiro Esteves da Silva.
José Celso Martinez Corrêa, 22 votes, 1937
From Araraquara, in the interior of São Paulo. He revolutionized the Brazilian stage starting in 1961 when he founded Grupo Oficina in São Paulo. Corrêa directed memorable plays like Chico Buarque de Holanda's Roda Viva and Oswald de Andrade's Rei da Vela.
Cacilda Becker, 21 votes, 1921-1969
Legendary stage actress whose life parallels the story of the theater in Brazil. Died on May 6, 1969 while performing on stage in Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot.
José Alves Antunes Filho, 20 votes, born 1929
Stage director from São Paulo, he has been a drive and inspiration to actors and directors all across the country. He is the founder of Centro de Pesquisa Teatral where hundreds of actors have learned about work on stage. Antunes has traveled the world with his experimental Macunaíma group.
Gláuber Rocha, 19 votes, 1939-1981
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker, he was considered a genius by colleagues and critics alike. Among his best movies, which where shown all over the world, are Terra em Transe and Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol. Considered a cultural agitator he was the main force behind Cinema Novo in the 1960's and proposed a "hunger aesthetic" to fight the commercial cinema.
Grande Otelo, 17 votes, 1915-1993
From Uberlândia, state of Minas Gerais, diminutive Sebastião Bernardes de Souza Prata formed with Oscarito in the '50s Brazil's most genuine comedian duo. Worked on stage, movies and TV.
Zibignew Ziembinski, 17 votes
This Russian stage director introduced in Brazil the Russian Konstantin Stanislavsky method of interpretation. He was also an innovator in staging and lighting.
Nélson Pereira dos Santos, 16 votes, born 1928
This Paulistano (from São Paulo city) working in Rio started the Cinema Novo movement of filmmaking at the end of the '50s with Rio, 40 Graus (Rio, 104 Degrees Fahrenheit). His 1964 Vidas Secas (Barren Lives) has become an international movie landmark.
Paulo Autran, 16 votes, born 1922
This Carioca is considered by many the best Brazilian actor ever. Graduated from law school he never worked as an attorney.
Oduvaldo Vianna Filho, 14 votes
Playwright tuned with the times he portrayed with details the harsh era of the country under the military dictatorship starting in early 1964 and throughout the '70s.
Humberto Duarte Mauro, 13 votes, 1897-1983
From Volta Grande, state of Minas Gerais. Started the so-called Cataguases cycle in the pioneer years of the Brazilian movie industry starting at the end of the 1920s. He made more than 300 movies. Among the better known are Brasa Dormida (1928), Ganga Bruta (1932), and Voz do Carnaval (1933) in which Carmen Miranda made her movie debut.
Oscarito, 13 votes, 1906-1970
The most popular comedian in Brazil in the '40s. Oscar Lourenço Jacinto da Imaculada Conceição Tereza Dias was one of the original creators of the chanchada, a burlesque theater transposed to the screen.
Marília Pêra, 12 votes
Stage, movie and TV actress from Rio. Internationally known for her role as a prostitute in Hector Babenco's Pixote, a Lei do Mais Fraco (1980).
Plínio Marcos, 11 votes,
Enfant terrible of Brazilian drama his favorite characters are from an underworld populated by prostitutes, outlaws, and jailbirds. Infamous for a text laced with four-letter words, his most important plays are from the '60s, among them Navalha na Carne (Razor in the Flesh) and Dois Perdidos numa Noite Suja (Two Lost Souls in a Dirty Night).
Augusto Boal, 11 votes, 67 years old
From Rio, Boal is a playwright and theoretician. According to his theory of Theater of the Oppressed, everyone is an actor.
Ariano Suassuna, 10 votes, 71 years old
From Paraíba in the Northeast he has fused Greek and classic literature with the Northeast folklore producing such masterpieces as Auto da Compadecida (The Compassionate Lady's Play) and O Santo e a Porca (The Saint and the She-pig). Creator of the Armorial movement
Procópio Ferreira, 10 votes, 1898-1979
In 60 years on the stage this Carioca played more than 500 characters all across the country. During the '30s, he performed 3,621 times his role in his biggest hit: Joracy Camargo's Deus lhe Pague (May God Pay You).
Mário Breves Peixoto, 10 votes, born 1910
Brazilian Orson Welles, he directed in 1931 at age 20 the masterpiece movie Limite (Limit). He never made another movie, however.
Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, 10 votes, born in 1934
Born in Italy he moved to Brazil with his parents when he was two. Guarnieri wrote some of the best Brazilian plays including Eles Não Usam Black-tie (They Don't Wear Black-tie) and Arena Canta Zumbi (Arena Sings Zumbi).
Alfredo de Freitas Dias Gomes, 9 votes, born in 1922, died in May 1999
Having started as a playwright, Dias Gomes became famous and popular by creating a new language for the Brazilian novelas (soap operas) in the '70s. Some of the best-known feuilletons he penned were O Bem-Amado (The Beloved One) and Roque Santeiro (Roque, the Saint Maker).
Dercy Gonçalves, 9 votes, 91 years old
Almost a centenary and still very active Dercy has made a career playing rude and obscene characters on stage, screen and TV. This Carioca participated in 52 films.
Dulcina de Moraes, 9 votes, 1908-1996
Legendary stage actress from Rio de Janeiro became famous interpreting classic plays like Cleopatra and Caesar.
Maria Clara Machado, 8 votes
She is renowned as an author of children's plays, but she also is an actress and director. Machado created in 1952, in Rio, the Tablado, a theater group that has formed many generations of actors.
Sérgio Cardoso, 8 votes, 1925-1972
Virtuoso actor, Cardoso debuted in 1948 interpreting Hamlet. Among his biggest hits: A Raposa e as Uvas (The Fox and the Grapes) by Guilherme Figueiredo and Arlequim, Servidor de Dois Senhores (Harlequin, Servant of Two Masters).
Leon Hirszmann, 8 votes, 1937-1987
Director of São Bernardo (1972) and Eles Não Usam Black-tie (1981), which won the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival. He founded in Rio the Museu de Arte Cinematográfica.
Bibi Ferreira, 8 votes
Actress Abigail Isquierdo Ferreira is the daughter of renowned Procópio Ferreira. Having started in 1941 on stage she reached the top of her career in the '70s with Chico Buarque de Holanda's play Gota d'água (The Last Straw).
Flávio Império, 7 votes
An innovator in scene painting, Império in the '50s and '60s worked with Oficina and Arena, two avant-garde theatrical groups.
Décio de Almeida Prado, 7 votes
Theater critic and playwright, he authored several books including Teatro em Progresso (Theater in Progress).
Luís Carlos Barreto, 7 votes
Legendary movie producer of such hit movies as Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands) and O Quatrilho.
Paschoal Carlos Magno, 7 votes
A diplomat, theater critic and playwright, he invested in the stage and discovered and developed theatrical talent starting in the 1930s.
Franco Zampari, 7 votes
An Italian businessman involved with the arts, who founded the Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia, in São Paulo in the '40s.
Paulo José, 7 votes
Working in movies for close to 40 years. He had his debut in the big screen with Joaquim Pedro's O Padre e a Moça (The Priest and the Young Woman) from 1965. He has also been very active on stage and TV.
In charge of these nominations were filmmakers Tizuka Yamasaki, Carla Camurati, Carlos Reichenbach, Sylvio Back, Ugo Giorgetti, Marcos Fayad, PX Silveira, and Aurélio Michiles; first ballerina Ana Botafogo; actors Fernando Bicudo, Renato Borghi, Fernanda Torres, José Wilker, Sérgio Mamberti; critics Jean-Claude Bernardet, Astrid Fontenelle, Rodrigo Carrero, Gabriel Priolli, Luiz Carlos Maciel, Marcelo Tas, and Bárbara Heliodora; theater directors Gerald Thomas, Marcelo Marchioro, and Cacá Rosset; writers Nelson Nadotti, Maria Tereza Vargas and Marcelo Rubens Paiva; choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras; playwright Renata Pallottini; and film professor Giba Assis Brasil.
They were people from all over the country _ not only from Rio and São Paulo. Michiles is from Amazonas, Carrero from Pernambuco, Marchioro from Paraná, and Brasil from Rio Grande do Sul.
