The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 144

THE HERALD WEDNESDAY MAY 28 1997 Those young and restless immigrants MOVIE REVIEW By FERNANDO GONZALEZ Herald Arts Writer Quatrilho follows two young couples Pierina and Massimo (Gloria Pires and Bruno Campos) and Teresa and Angelo (Patricia Pillar and Alexandre Patemost) who are members of the the Italian immigrant community that settled in the South of Brazil in the early 1900s It is a simple tale Angelo a laborer and Massimo a well-traveled craftsman both married and with infants combine their meager resources to buy a plot of land Out of necessity the two families share a house and slowdy but inevitably Massimo and Teresa fall in love The pair bolts and Pierina and Angelo are left behind to rebuild their lives fir 5 1 5S- 4 4 -i r' KrKiW4 yV 1 5 Ce i oJ A- 4 i' 4V Brazilian einema back from the dead ACTING TRIO: Leo Marks left Burt Young and Greg Zittel share the stage in When Cuba Opens Up playing at the Florida Shakespeare Theatre in Coral Gables When Cuba Opens Up dares to dream about the possible BRAZIL FROM ID decades Brazilian filmmaking has gone from chanchadas (broad sexual comedies) to the heights and promise in the 1950s and of Cinema Novo (a homegrown highly politicized New Wave that drew from the French Nouvelle Vague and Italian neorealism) to the mini-boom in the 1970s and (with films like Pixote Doha Flor and her Two Husbands Quilombo Gabriela Xica da Silva and Bye Bye Brazil) to nothing An industry that in the 1940s averaged 10 to 15 films a year and reached a high-water mark of nearly 80 films a year in the 1960s and completed only a handful of projects in the early The sharp drop is directly ascribed to the dismantling by President Fernando Collor de Mello of Embra-filme the state-owned film corporation that provided financing and distribution system was not working Barreto concedes complaint was not that Embra-filme was closed but how it was done It was too brusque and there was nothing in place to replace But in 1993 president Itamar Franco successor passed a law that offered economic incentives to invest in movies According to Dutra 45 to 50 films are now in different stages of production But numbers are only part of the story Diverse movement In contrast with Cinema By CHRISTINE DOLEN Herald Theater Critic The men are partners and pals who squabble like a long-married couple their insults bom more of affection than irritation Timmy and Wayne are smalltime thieves living on Miami motel row They are specialists in the quick in-and-out of residential breaking and entering partners Who seem to get as much pleasure from the early bird at the Rascal House as they do from a decent score They are also the heart and soul of Benjie When Cuba Opens Up a funny intriguing and maddening play now having its world premiere at the Florida Shakespeare Theatre in the Biltmore Hotel Aerenson a former South Floridian who has abandoned his New York legal career to concentrate full time on theater is perceived as a scorchingly hot playwright This season alone he has had a high-profile premiere at the prestigious Humana Festival and has won a major play-writing award He writes with style flair humor and in the case of Cuba vulgarity that goes several steps too far becoming grossly offensive instead of shockingly effective The big score The title comes from one of Timmy and pipe dreams They reason that when Fidel Castro falls race down the Overseas Highway to Key West hop a boat and be the first to reintroduce capitalism to the goods-starved country In the meantime Timmy (Burt QUATRILHO (U) confronting the disapproval of the parish priest and the prejudices of the town This is three-handkerchief melodrama material but director Fabio Barreto is after bigger game The love story is just a hook on which to hang his interest in immigrant life in Brazil from the politics of land ownership and the beginnings of capitalism to sexual mores the role of the church and version of the American dream The result is neither soap opera there is more excitement passion urgency in soap commer Novo's unifying thread of political concerns is interesting about this new Brazilian film movement is that you find says director Carla Camurati whose historical Car-lota Joaquina Princess of Brazil will be part of the festival have historical films love stories comedies films about urban violence political films That thematic plurality is what I find so hopeful And that also shows you that you have a rich Barreto concurs adding that contemporary Brazilian film is rich because we still have the great directors from the and and now we have a new generation which is very vigorous very Camurati for example is a former actress who started to direct eight years ago After directing two short films she raised $600000 and filmed Carlota Joaquina her first feature-length film It has played several film festivals including London Montreal and Venice and according to Camurati it has been a surprising box office hit in Brazil attracting more than 12 million viewers Brazil a monster she says Wait and see But while new young directors fresh varied themes and a growing local audience are all encouraging developments some in the industry are taking a sobering wait-and-see attitude upside of Brazilian cinema today is that there is support for movies once again and now everybody is jumping says enterprise which already includes a multimillion-dollar record company a state-of-the-art recording studio an upcoming clothing line and a film sector for which he eventually will direct full-length motion pictures The 14th Street headquarters houses its own charity division which helps hundreds of inner-city kids attend computer classes and summer camp each year This fall Combs plans to open recreational and educational centers in Harlem and Brooklyn using his own money and funds generated by an upcoming Bad Boy gospel album and the tribute single to Notorious BIG not much money in the hood but my people go out and buy my records and have supported my company from Day One If I earn my money from you I be blind to the problems you face every day: poverty lack of hope lack of leadership I believe important for me to reinvest in the future of my Combs discovered Notorious BIG in 1992 after already finding success in producing several hits As success in the industry grew so did his confidence and he began to direct and appear more frequently in his music videos and dance and sing with them on stage He also increased his presence on their recordings by interjecting rhythmic grunts and rapping an occasional line or two always been like a walking billboard for my Combs says from the beginning The way I dress The cials nor probing socio-political commentary Deadly slow and woodenly acted Quatrilho (the title alludes to a card game that requires that partners betray each other in order to win) plods along from situation to situation offering barely sketched characters and superficial observations Then it ends Watching immigrants the big question is how Brazil lull itself to sleep Cast Gloria Pires Patricia Pillar Alexandre Paternost and Bruno Cam- pos Director: Fabio Barreto Producers: Lucy and Luiz Carlos Barreto Screenwriter: Antonio Calmon Inspired by the novel of the same name by Jose Clemente Pozenato Running time: 120 minutes Vulgar language sexual situations In Portuguese with English subtitles Nat Chediak director of the Miami International Film Festival not what it used to be Cinema Novo people like Glauber Rocha Nelson Pereira dos Santos Carlos Diegues were at the vanguard of Latin American cinema Today there are still a couple of guys who can make a good film but the problem is that even good directors have worked so infrequently and with such financial constraints that they have not been able to practice their craft as steadily as any fine filmmaker should always keep an eye on Brazil But I seen in the past five years a new Brazilian filmmaker whose work would warrant his inclusion in the Miami International says Chediak who closed this festival with Tieta do Agreste movies of the new people coming up do not have a resonance yet outside festivals They made it in the international scene and are not getting distributed internationally yet Quatrilho was nominated for an Oscar but was not picked up for Dutra the festival director says that greater exposure with an eye on securing international distribution is one of the goals of the event is a very cosmopolitan city everybody seems to come says Dutra who has been living in Miami the past 3 Vi years we felt this was a good place to show our cinema and see what are the possibilities of finding distribution in this very competitive American way I move The way I dance I loved being in their videos It all became a part of the Bad Boy lifestyle Looking back on it now I guess it was also the start of me building my own stature as a solo artist: Puff No 1 hit Still Combs says he was stunned when his first Puff Daddy release debuted at No 1 on the single chart in February creative and entrepreneurial vision draws praise from a long list of executives working in the pop rock and rap fields lot of people in "this business talk all day about what they are going to do but it takes a real strong individual to actually get things says acclaimed rapper and record producer Dr Dre owner of Aftermath Entertainment and co-founder of Death Row Records Puffy fits into that category strong-willed and extremely Combs counts among his heroes such impresarios as David Geffen Berry Gordy and the man he calls greatest of them Muhammad Ali a black man at the age of 26 is not looked upon as a positive thing in this society but I know when all said and done there will be no way for anyone to front on this right Combs says years from now Bad Boy is going to be a Fortune 500 company In 10 years going to be big like Coca-Cola giant everywhere all over the world Music films clothes politics Bad Boy is not just a company a tures the redesign refocusing its most popular sections and adopting a new look The redesign though apparently enough to placate Hearst which has been disappointed with sales and ad revenue For the second half of 1996 the circulation fell to 651451 from 694921 in the same period a year earlier according to Audit Bureau of Circulations figures Kosner joined Esquire in October 1993 after more than 13 years as editor of New York In the aftermath of murder rap CEO Puff Daddy changes his tune Audience finds Money over them by metaphorically defecating on them which he does by having a bowel movement in full view of Timmy Wayne and the audience augmented by his play-by-play description of it Bathroom scenes can work the recent area production of The Root had one that did but the one in Cuba is so extreme and repulsive that it makes you recoil from the play itself Aerenson is beautifully served by the FST production from Bill inventive direction (he has a frustrated Johnny slam furniture whenever trying to get Wayne and Timmy to stop yapping and pay attention) to Paul colorfully authentic-looking motel set Mike evocation of Florida light and Pascal caper-movie sound design Young is brilliant: thoughtful understated yet with flashes of emotion that are more effective for their scarcity Zittel and Marks are quite good as older and younger versions of a similar pleasure-loving personality (though certain more than a few South Florida actors could have played the parts as well as these New Yorkers do) When Cuba Opens Up likely to be breakout hit But the work of a voice to which attention must be paid And maybe a learning experience as well When Cuba Opens Up is at the Florida Shakespeare Theatre in the Biltmore Hotel 1 200 Anastasia Ave Coral Gables through June 21 8 pm Wednesday-Saturday 2 and 7 pm Sunday (305) 445-1 1 19 funny Wayne LeGette is good as an annoyed Cockney cabbie Bob Rogerson and Terry Sneed solid as two very different coppers Christopher Studley properly deranged as the man for whom the briefcase was intended Plenty of people in the audience find Funny Money just that funny and worth the money They screech at the double-entendre conversation about a cat howl as different groupings of characters appear to be up to naughtiness under a blanket chortle at names like Not I Funny Money is at Playhouse in the Miracle Theatre 280 Miracle Mile Coral Gables through June 15 8 pm Wednesday-Saturday 2 pm Sunday $2650 and $2950 (305) 444-9293 or Ticketmaster at (305) 358-5885 in Dade County (954) 523-3309 in Broward study shows written form based (in English and French) on the principle that a word with more sounds generally has more letters In some cases words for large objects are shorter than words for small ones a fact that young children often find confusing In Chinese being able to correctly match the word with its character depends on recognizing a portion of the character that signifies a particular meaning In this test bilingual Chinesespeaking children performed better than any other group Researcher Ellen Bialystok a psychologist from York University in Toronto suggests that their experience with two different writing systems aided their overall understanding of how specific symbols in both languages are used to represent sounds THEATER REVIEW Young) and Wayne (Greg Zittel) are faced with a proposition from a jumpy young thief named Johnny (Leo Marks) who needs help on a big job Wayne wants to go for it Timmy is equally determined not to having decided that incarceration is a price no longer willing to pay territory encompasses age and youth loyalty and betrayal grandiose dreams and simple ones wonderful at imagery as when he has Wayne describe going into an old closet as being walking into New York 50 years with all the hats galoshes and overcoats saved because there still might be some wear in them Or when he raises the problem of a that respond to a commands in English Distractions Aerenson lards his script with South Florida references to the Fontainebleau the Eden Roc the Doral Collins and Washington avenues News Cafe Hja-leah Calder Gulfstream Micco-sukees Seminoles that will mean little to audiences elsewhere but become distracting to those who know the turf well More grievous than frequent graphic talk about female anatomy is introduction of a police detective (Steve Wise) whose function is to pull Timmy up short and to show both men got their number He his power THEATER REVIEW FUNNY MONEY expense of gays and this time Australians And why not? Cooney makes pound after pound with these things so why not m'ake slight plot adjustments think of new character names and differ a slight variation on a perennially successful theme? The ever-reliable John Felix does a dandy job as jittery accountant Henry Perkins a man who picks up the wrong briefcase on the London Underground and finds himself wildly wealthy Julia Flood plays his wife Jean as an annoying thickheaded twit Gordon McConnell and Judith Midyett are more fun as the pals Vic and Betty though accent scarcely makes an appearance A researcher suggests that experience with two different writing systems aided understanding of how symbols represent sounds was moved and placed under an unrelated picture Children scored higher if they understood that the word change when paired with a different picture Bilingual children even the 4-year-olds scored much better on this task than monolingual children In a second test the word-size problem children were asked to match a spoken word with its By CHRISTINE DOLEN Herald Theater Critic Now and then I get accused of being humor-deficient but never so much as when reviewing a Ray Cooney comedy Maybe if I tell you I think Cooney makes Neil Simon look like Shakespeare get the drift Cooney fans get your stationery stamps and envelopes ready Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre has just opened its production of latest London hit Funny Money Director David 50th production for the company chugs away like a sex-farce machine though with admirably less door-slamming and frenetic activity than he might have piled on All the standard Cooney elements are in place: a crisis for the hero assumed and mistaken identities the possibility of mate-swapping inconveniently intrusive policemen jokes at the COMBS FROM ID from record company CEO to best-selling artist His first solo release Nobody Hold Me Down hit No 1 on the pop singles chart and is still in the Top 20 after nearly four months Fll Be Missing You the duet with Evans has been in heavy rotation on BET VH1 and MTV Many recording artists have dreamed of becoming moguls but no one has reversed the process Imagine Motown founder Berry Gordy becoming as big a recording star as Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder Sound ridiculous? Not to Combs know a very weird career move but I take it very Combs says He predicts his company will become a global entertainment powerhouse expanding from music to food and fashion and film first I thought nobody would accept me as a rap artist After all not like I came from the hood But you know what? all in how you market Climbing into the back seat of a souped-up GMC Suburban Combs begins talking on a cellular phone as his driver inches through traffic with rap music blasting on the stereo driver drops him off about a block from a soul-food restaurant that Combs is hoping to open before Thanksgiving Bad Boy enterprise The restaurant named after his son is the latest addition to expanding Bad Boy Bilingual kids word-savvy Top editor relinquishes helm of Esquire magazine By SUSAN OKIE Washington Post Service Bilingual preschoolers gain an understanding of the relationship between writing and words earlier than children who know only one language according to a study that appears in the May issue of the journal Developmen- tal Psychology This difference may help bilingual children learn to read The study of 137 4- and 5-year-olds compared the performance of bilingual children (French-English or Chinese-Eng-lish) with that of monolingual children (English only) on tests that evaluated their grasp of the symbolic relationship between written letters or characters and the words they stand for In one test children were shown a card with a printed word and told what it said First the card was placed under a picture of the object it stood for later it Associated Press Esquire Editor in Chief Edward Kosner is leaving the troubled magazine after 3'2 years atop its masthead and just as a redesign he pushed forward hits newsstands Hearst Corp said May 20 that Kosner 59 had departed mutual agreement with Hearst The company apparently was unhappy with declines in advertising and newsstand sales at the magazine did everything I could to give Esquire the success it Kosner said A replacement immediately named though Randall Rothenberg 41 the recently named editorial director was named acting editor Hearst said Esquire President Cathleen Black expects to name a successor soon as Sources close to the magazine speaking on condition of anonymity said Rothenberg among others was being considered Messages left for Rothenberg and Kosner were not immediately returned The June issue of Esquire fea-.