Details
Movie Description
Hector Babenco's scathing and heartbreaking story of Pixote (Fernando Ramos Da Silva), a sweet-looking streetwise 10-year-old boy who is one of the three million homeless children living on the streets of São Paolo, Brazil, is based on the novel INFANCIA DOS MORTOS by José Louzeiro. Forced to endure brutal conditions at a prisonlike reform school, Pixote befriends Lilica (Jorge Juliano), an older transvestite; her boyfriend, Dito (Gilberto Moura); and young charmer Chico (Edilson Lino). Together the four escape the reform school and struggle to survive in a desolate world of poverty and violence. Traveling in the underworlds of São Paolo and Rio, the makeshift family of boys turn to a lives of petty crime to support themselves. Homeless, the boys are forced to endure hunger and extreme danger as they begin dealing drugs and eventually end up working with Sueli, a burnt-out prostitute (Marília Pêra in a devastatingly powerful performance) who seduces her johns while the boys rob them at gunpoint.
This gritty and painful examination of Brazil's forgotten children is reminiscent of Luis Buñuel's film about urban poverty and juvenile delinquency, LOS OLVIDADOS, while the character of Pixote, played by real-life homeless boy Da Silva, is a direct descendant of François Truffaut's unforgettable protagonist Antoine Doinel from THE 400 BLOWS. Babenco's use of a largely nonprofessional cast and a powerful story combines to make one of the most haunting portrayals of childhood ever filmed.
Furthering the film's relevance is the sad note that Da Silva died only a few years after starring in the film--shot by police who mistook him for a criminal. In 1996, WHO KILLED PIXOTE?, a documentary about the life and death of Fernando Ramos Da Silva, was released.
Synopsis
PIXOTE is director Hector Babenco's award-winning Brazilian film about one boy's struggle to survive the terrors of street life in São Paolo.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Single Side - Single Layer
Full Frame - 1.33:1
Additional Release Material:
Bonus Trailers - 1. NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
2. LOULOU
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Features
Text/ Photo Galleries:
Profile and Filmography - Hector Babenco - Director
Production Notes
New Yorker Films Profile
Industry Reviews
"...PIXOTE informs in stark, honest ways..."
Los Angeles Times - Mark Chalon Smith (09/23/1992)
"...The movie is invigorating as art, with an unforgettable Fernando Ramas da Silva as Pixote..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (06/22/2001)
"[A] rough, unblinking look at lives no human being should be required to lead..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (09/12/2004)
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