Pixote DVD available, finally!


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Written by The Poor Farang am 06 Jun 2001 17:00:55:

Pixote, Brazilian Portuguese slang for "Pee Wee" has finally been released on DVD.. It was scheduled for release around March 15 and then mysteriously delayed until this week's official release date: yesterday, June 5, 2001. Suppliers all have copies and began shipping yesterday. Pixote is a classic film about youth, that would interest most BL. Brazilian films are on a par with quality US films, but, of course in Portuguese. Pixote is on several "Best" lists of foreign films. I am expecting my DVD to be subtitled.

Ramos de Silva was a boy from the slums of San Salvador, the largest Brazilian city. A brief introductory, documentary, accompanying the VHS, shows Ramos, and several siblings along with his single mother. These "non-professional" street boys do a superb job of acting, possibly because they simply acted life as they lived it? This is back in 1981, when the film was first released.

Cute and diminutive Ramos, certainly fits his Pixote nickname. After spending his small stipend from the film, Ramos slipped into a life of drugs and petty crime, much like the character Pixote. De Silva was found dead in the early nineties, a direct result of his life-style. This resulted in a more documentary film called "Who Killed Pixote" in 1994. Several of the lyrics from both movies, as well as new songs are still very popular in Brazil and available on CD.

Pixote is divided into two main parts. As the film opens, Police are sweeping all the boy problems off the streets, because of the recent murder of a socialite. Pixote is arrested with the other rapscallions and sent to the most notorious Brazilian reform school. We see al the horrors we expect and perhaps some we do not. Numerous shirtless and sexy scenes throughout the movie, but most of the nude scenes are in this first half of Pixote. This includes the tasteful scene with a supposedly sick, but naked young Pixote. What would happen if a excitable, young boy, had to do a nude scene on a camera schedule that could not wait for personal problems?

There is a potential scandal at the reform school. Boys overhear administrators planning to eliminate several more boys, to contain the problem. Pixote and four other youths escape. A gay adult friend of one boy takes them in for a few days and then fronts them some drugs to sell to his client in Rio de Janeiro. The boys hop freight to Rio, where they learn how to be hoodlums and murders. Gangsters, prostitutes, pimps and con-artists teach the boys their trades. Most of the escaped boys die, as they struggle to survive in Rio's seamy under belly.

My favorite film, at the moment! Will that change if I ever find a criterion. Copy and finally see "400 Blows?"


The Poor Farang





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