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Pixote

Play trailer Poster for Pixote Released May 5, 1981 2h 7m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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94% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 93% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Homeless adolescent Pixote (Fernando Ramos Da Silva) finds himself thrown into a juvenile prison in a roundup of São Paulo's street children. The prison is a nightmarish world where sadistic guards torture and murder the young inmates. Fleeing with a transgendered fellow inmate named Lilica (Jorge Juliao) and her boyfriend, Dito (Gilberto Moura), Pixote journeys to the streets of Rio de Janeiro and becomes enmeshed in an underworld of drugs and violence.

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Pixote

Critics Reviews

View All (18) Critics Reviews
Pauline Kael New Yorker Pixote is good enough to touch greatness; it restores your excitement about the confusing pleasures that movies can give. Sep 18, 2023 Full Review Joe Pollack St. Louis Post-Dispatch It's a fictional tale, obviously based on truth i and it's one of the strongest, but most depressing films of recent years. Nov 11, 2021 Full Review David Mermelstein Wall Street Journal A tour-de-force from Brazil that brought its director and co-writer, Héctor Babenco, international celebrity. Forty years on, the film packs no less a gut punch than on its initial release. Oct 1, 2020 Full Review Eleanor Ringel Cater Saporta Report (Atlanta) An unsparing, unsentimental look... Oct 9, 2023 Full Review Brian Susbielles InSession Film It is arguably the rawest film of the neorealism genre because it does not bother to hide the harsh realities... Mar 6, 2023 Full Review Michael Bronski Gay Community News (Boston) The strength of Pixote is that it allows children a freedom of will and autonomy they are rarely granted — they are not “kids” but people who happen to be younger and smaller. Aug 19, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (132) audience reviews
Carlos H Sem a menor dúvida, Pixote é um dos filmes mais impactantes que já assisti. Como brasileiro, gostaria de destacar que são obras como este filme que nos fazem ter orgulho do nosso cinema. Uma obra-prima, Pixote consegue impactar desde a sua cena inicial, na qual o narrador expõe a realidade nua e crua da periferia de São Paulo; realidade esta que é a de muitos dos personagens do filme: de pobreza e desigualdade, na qual a única saída que parece possível é a do crime. São várias as cenas que me deixaram impactado; eu poderia citar: a apresentação dos personagens; o levante que um dos personagens faz no refeitório da penitenciária, após descobrir que os chefes do presídio o escolheram como culpado de uma morte provocada por eles; e muitas outras. A cena em que os menores apreendidos brincam de assaltar um banco é incrível, impactante, chocante e cheia de camadas, pois, em vez de brincarem de bola ou outra brincadeira comum à infância, estes personagens se COLOCAM nos papéis de criminosos, seja por ser a única realidade que lhes é conhecida, seja por não terem perspectiva alguma para o futuro. Para ressaltar este ponto, podemos citar a cena em que o avô de Pixote, ao visitá-lo na prisão, pergunta o que ele fará quando sair da penitenciária: o menino fica em silêncio, pois, para ele, não há perspectiva de futuro. A fotografia do filme é incrível, tal como a montagem, todo o elenco (com destaque para o ator que interpreta o personagem título; Marília Pera e Elke Maravilha estão divinas, também), direção e texto. Pixote é uma experiência que precisa ser assistida. Para finalizar, gostaria de comentar sobre a cena final do filme, na qual Pixote anda sobre os trilhos de uma linha férrea, no Rio de Janeiro, completamente sozinho: para mim, foi a cena mais triste do filme, pois, embora, aparentemente, nela, vejamos a silhueta de uma criança (Pixote) se divertindo ao andar sobre os trilhos, sabemos, pelos acontecimentos do filme, que aquele garoto teve a sua infância perdida, e que seu futuro não será diferente do seu passado ou presente. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/31/24 Full Review Audience Member The most crude film that I ever seen. I couldn't end it. 2/10 Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member The amount of sorrowful and devastating circumstances that plight these characters may be enough to make some heads turn. Those who look away will miss out on a strong piece of powerful filmmaking that criticizes the wrongdoings of some penitentiary operations, the negligence of basic teamwork, and why an innocent childhood is ever so needed for all who come to this earth. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member The São Paulo of Pixote is a kind of always-night cesspool of survival-moded dregs of society. Sex workers, drug pushers, runaways, deviants, rapists- outcasts of all shapes, hues, and sizes, though nearly all of them underage. The eye that the film turns to all of them is anything but blind, though never sentimental, either. You win nothing but a most resonant gut-punch for making it though the whole of Pixote- a cold-bodied reminder that corners of our world are anything but kid-friendly... even when it traps and snares said kids. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review michael d Fascinating as a film and as the history associated with it. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Influenced by Italian neo-realism by casting authentic street urchins from the São Paulo housing project for the poor, Héctor Babenco's blisteringly gut-wrenching social verisimilitude baring unrelentingly atrocities of child maltreatment with depictions of child rape, police brutality, substance abuse, teenage homosexual promiscuity and juvenile delinquency is art imitating life when its star Fernando Ramos da Silva led a thug life that ended in a police shootout in 1987. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Pixote

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Homeless adolescent Pixote (Fernando Ramos Da Silva) finds himself thrown into a juvenile prison in a roundup of São Paulo's street children. The prison is a nightmarish world where sadistic guards torture and murder the young inmates. Fleeing with a transgendered fellow inmate named Lilica (Jorge Juliao) and her boyfriend, Dito (Gilberto Moura), Pixote journeys to the streets of Rio de Janeiro and becomes enmeshed in an underworld of drugs and violence.
Director
Hector Babenco
Producer
Paulo Francini, Jose Pinto
Screenwriter
Hector Babenco, Jorge Durán, Jose Louzeiro
Distributor
Unifilms, Facets
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Brazilian Portuguese
Release Date (Theaters)
May 5, 1981, Original
Runtime
2h 7m
Sound Mix
Mono
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