The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
The Red Light Bandit
When
Wed 25 Oct 2023
Based on the real-life São Paulo criminal João Acácio Pereira da Costa, who was arrested only a year before the film’s release, this “western about the Third World” (trailer) channels true outlaw aesthetics. A scrappy, collage-like and heavily Godard-influenced feature debut from 21-year-old Sganzerla, it became a key work of Cinema Marginal, returning the wider Cinema Novo movement to its original social and political focus. In 2015, it was voted the 6th greatest Brazilian film of all time by Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Cinema. To be preceded by two shorts by the key woman filmmaker of the Cinema Novo movement: A Entrevista Helena Solberg (1966) 20 mins – Unclassified 15+; and Meio-dia Helena Solberg (1970) 10 mins – Unclassified 15+.
Also screening on Wed 25 October
Program
Now! Crime, politics and revolution in 1960s Brazilian cinema
Assault on the Pay Train (1962) – Wed 18 Oct, 7pm
Tocaia no Asfalto (1962) – Wed 18 Oct, 9pm
Antes, o Verão (1968) – Wed 25 Oct, 7pm
The Red Light Bandit (1968) – Wed 25 Oct, 8.35pm
A Rainha Diaba (1974) –Wed 1 Nov, 7pm
Macunaíma (1969) – 9.05pm
About the program
The 1960s was a time of great upheaval in Brazil, as it was the world over. During this rich cultural period cinema went through a moment of radical flux, as did music and the other visual arts. Shadowed by a decade of repressive dictatorship, censorship decrees, and an exodus of dissidents, many of the films produced experimented with narrative, design, collage and music..
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
