O Xangô de Baker Street (film)

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Movie
Original title O Xangô de Baker Street
Country of production Brazil , Portugal
original language Portuguese , French English
Publishing year 2001
length 124 (Bras.) / 120 (Port.) Minutes
Rod
Director Miguel Faria Jr.
script Jô Soares
Patríca Mello
Miguel Faria Jr.
production Tino Navarro
music Edu Lobo
camera Lauro Escorel
cut Diana Vasconcellos
occupation

O Xangô de Baker Street is a Brazilian-Portuguese Sherlock Holmes crime comedy from 2001. It is the film adaptation of the novel of the same name (English: Sherlock Holmes in Rio ) by Jô Soares , who also wrote the screenplay.

action

Rio de Janeiro at the time of Brazil's second emperor, Dom Pedro II , in 1886. The theft of a valuable Stradivarius violin becomes a delicate matter for the emperor, and a serial killer begins his mischief at the same time. On the advice of the guest French actress Sarah Bernhardt , the imperial police invited the London detective Sherlock Holmes to the city, who was accompanied by his assistant Dr. Watson arrives. More murders by the serial killer follow, while the detective searches for both the murderer and the violin thief. He made various cultural, amorous, gastronomic and criminological experiences in tropical Rio until he embarked back to London with Watson after an unusual end to the case for Holmes.

Production and locations

The film is an international production that is equally unusual for Brazil and Portugal. With Portuguese , English and French , three languages change over the entire movie, actor from Portugal, Brazil and England play the main roles, and it was filmed in Rio de Janeiro, Porto and London. Due to the structural changes and the central location with many daily passers-by, a large part of the exterior shots were not taken at the original locations in Rio, but in alleys in downtown Porto, Portugal , where closed house fronts with facades from the 19th century can be found. The film was also shot in the local Café Majestic and the bookstore Livraria Lello e Irmão . In Rio itself there were u. a. Rio's Botanical Garden , the historic old town (including Rua 10 de Março , the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura and the Praça da República ) filming locations, plus the Museu Imperial and the Palácio de Cristal in the outlying Petrópolis , as well as the Teatro Municipal de Niterói , in Niterói opposite the Rio .

With the US citizen Joaquim de Almeida and Maria de Medeiros , who lives in France , two of Portugal's most internationally famous actors were cast, plus the renowned British theater actor Anthony O'Donnell , and telenovela and theater actors known in Brazil such as Cláudia Abreu , Marco Nanini or Caco Ciocler . The author of the novel, Jô Soares , who is particularly popular as a television presenter in Brazil , plays a supporting role himself.

The film was lavishly and true to detail, for example 10 pictures from the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes were loaned for the palace shots . The camera is based on painting from the 19th century until the advent of sober photography, and atmospheric photography is correspondingly colorful and rich in shadows.

reception

The title translates as “The Shango from Baker Street”, and alludes to the soberly combining Sherlock Holmes, who meets Afro-Brazilian cults here. In contrast to the novel of the same name, the film adaptation earned international praise in 2001. Particularly the effective photography of the film, the acting performances and the successful mixture of humorous Sherlock parody and excitingly told story were emphasized. The carefree staged, lavishly equipped and fluently narrated film also touches on topics such as slavery, eroticism and the contrast between the decadent wealth of the upper class and the poverty of the broader population. The joie de vivre and the humor of the Brazilians are shown as well as the importance of European culture and the ambivalent relationship of the Brazilians to it, for example when both high European culture and Afro-Brazilian cults appear here. Sherlock Holmes, who usually combines flawlessly, is shown here as a comical figure with blatant fallacies, as an inexperienced lover, and with digestive problems. In addition to black humor, the film also takes on self-deprecating tones, both in relation to Sherlock Holmes and in relation to Brazilian clichés. With imaginative scenes such as the violin duel between Sherlock Holmes and the Marquis de Sales as an allusion to well-known scenes from film history, but also the erotic moments, the tension of which is resolved by humor, the film appears light-hearted and cheerful, despite some bloody scenes and his actual crime story, which takes a backseat in view of the tropical impressions falling over Holmes and Watson.

The author of the novel, who plays a supporting role himself, says he is completely satisfied with the result of the film adaptation.

The film won the Globo de Ouro in Portugal in 2002 and has received several awards in Brazil. The film sold over 350,000 cinema tickets in Brazil alone and was released on DVD in 2004.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/o-xango-de-baker-street/
  2. ↑ Statements of those involved in interviews, in the bonus material of the DVD edition, Lusomundo 2004
  3. ↑ http://www.bakerstreetdozen.com/xango.html
  4. ↑ in the bonus material of the DVD edition, Lusomundo 2004
  5. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171928/awards
  6. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171928/business