Rio for Beginners - DVD

Film: Welcome to Rio! It's a city of extremes, where sunny, seemingly carefree lives of the rich and beautiful pulsate right alongside the poor conditions of crime-ridden favelas. Together with her cameraman Robert (Jérome Kircher), filmmaker and anthropologist Irène (Irène Jacob) wants to capture how different the lives of the people in the favelas are from the image of the beautiful beaches that tourists are most familiar with. The two quickly succumb to the special charm of the city, which Irène's husband Antoine (Jean-Marc Roulot) doesn't like at all. The new US ambassador William (Bill Pullman) also has a very special experience in the favelas when he escapes from his safe limousine and hides from his staff with the help of the tourist guide Fish (Fisher Stevens). But Fish has other things to worry about as well, having brought the attractive Iracema (Daniela Dams) and her tribe to Rio to win the beautiful woman's heart. But she's only out to get plastic surgery to become an actress so she can earn enough money to save her tribe. British surgeon Charlotte (Charlotte Rampling) is actually in charge of such plastic surgeries. But she doesn't really seem eager to have as many people go under her knife as possible. All these different people meet in Rio - and somehow they all seem to realize only gradually that their stay in this very special city has a very different purpose than they had first thought...

It is not often that a German film title captures the content of a film better than the original title. In the case of Rio für Anfänger, however, that is the case. Because the original title Rio Sex Comedy is more than misleading. While there is some comedy and also plenty of sex and eroticism, neither of these elements is so prominent in the film as to warrant that title. What the film does offer, however, is a look at a city of millions that could well be described as Rio for beginners. It's an American's view of the different sides of the city that strives for authenticity, yet is somehow naive, spiced with a bit of self-irony and a dash of satire to offer something like entertainment value. Because the long scenes in which they talk about Rio, about life in the favelas or the beauty craze among the richer population, sometimes have almost documentary features and offer only to a limited extent what one can generally call entertaining entertainment. But it has to be said that this view on life in Rio is not really uninteresting and especially the shots from the favelas are really fascinating in a way.

What doesn't want to work at all, especially at the beginning, is the interplay between these sequences and the actual storylines, where not only their final connection seems very forced. Thus, the film needs almost the entire first half to find its pace and build up the basic framework for its somewhat convoluted story. Once this is in place and the viewer knows roughly where the journey is headed, the entertainment value also increases significantly.

Although the ending comes across as arguably abrupt and Jonathan Nossiter doesn't exactly convey his message subtly, especially in the final third, his film still leaves a certain impression. Despite a rather prominent cast, the production always stays far away from the mainstream and goes its own way. Thus, his comedy laced with social criticism and eroticism does not correspond to the common mass taste, but who opens the film, which will certainly be able to enjoy the images of Rio, the beautiful bodies and the good actors.

Picture + Sound: The picture is clean and pleases with its rich colors. The image sharpness has small weaknesses here and there, but overall is still on a good level. The German sound (which actually has to be called multilingual, as many scenes are presented in Brazilian with German subtitles) is primarily dominated by the dialogues, but smaller ambient noises here and there also provide some movement in the surround.

Extras: Aside from the trailer for the film and other programming tips from the provider, there is no bonus material on the DVD.

Conclusion:Rio for Beginners is a truly strange treat. So some parts of the film seem almost like a documentary look at life in the favelas, sometimes there are somewhat satirically tinged tendencies, which are then diluted with very simply kept comedy or quite frank sex scenes. A coherent overall picture is hard to come by, especially in the first half. However, the beautiful pictures and the good actors help to get through the bulky parts of the production. And if you can get involved with the pace and the action, you still get a pretty entertaining second half. The DVD is technically well done, but in terms of extras it looks rather lukewarm. Who can get involved in a mixture of Klamotte and Arthaus comedy, which can book quite the course Rio for beginners

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp