neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Madame Satã
	Karim Aïnouz Lázaro Ramos, Marcelia Cartaxo, Flavio Bauraqui, Felipe Marques, Emiliano Queiroz, Renata Sorrah 2002		A surreal film biography of a notorious Brazilian character, writer/director Karim Aïnouz's "Madame Satã" suffers from an episodic, slightly disjointed approach to its subject. That would be João Francisco dos Santos, the self-proclaimed Madame Satã or Madame Satan — thief, street fighter, male hooker, pimp and, most significantly, a drag-queen performer who sashayed through the slums of Rio de Janeiro during the '30s and '40s whenever he wasn't locked up in the pokey. Although it pokes along at times, Madame Satã's story is freaky and funky enough to "drag" its audience along. It's colorful, well performed, and hallucinogenic in look and feel. João (Lázaro Ramos) works a menial job at a nightclub and fusses over the lounge's star, a tempestuous chanteuse. Aping her behind her back, João dreams of being a performer. He also lusts after a hunky boy-toy and fleeces moneyed gentlemen looking for gay sex, even as he maintains his role as the unlikely patriarch of an unorthodox family: sweet prostitute Laurita, her baby daughter, and wildly effeminate hustler Taboo. By the time João convinces a local club owner to let Madame Satã strut the stage, it all becomes a little fatiguing.