If you think Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from Outer Space" can't be beaten, think again. I dare say this in the only movie in movie history that gets close to Wood's achievement. It's so bad it's unique. Being a movie-addicted Brazilian, I have to say that this is by far the worst Brazilian movie ever made! The story, about a big-butted Brazilian dancer who becomes a celebrity, is probably the worst screenplay ever written too. The acting is hilarious: Carla Parez, the previously mentioned big-butted dancer has got to be the worst actress in my country's history. Technically speaking, this movie gets really close to Wood's achievement too. I know it's almost impossible to find it now, but I really think you should try. If you like "so-bad-they're-good" movies, try this one. I think you won't find anything better at it than this one!
4 Reviews
Social Critic
francisco-zotto12 June 2021
A masterpiece of badness
quim-lucasaug6 February 2016
Warning: Spoilers
O, my dear foreign friends, if you could only behold this magnificent piece of horrible filmmaking. Unfortunately, having been censored and renegaded by the main """actress""", it's quite difficult to find a hard copy, let alone one dubbed or subtitled in English.
Having built its reputation among the Brazilian cinephiles that appreciate a good terrible movie, this one became very popular in the last years. From the first scene alone, you can expect what's to come: everyone dances in what looks like a Carnaval party, while the title appears... "Cinderela Bahiana", a movie so bad that misspells its goddamn title (it's supposed to be baiana, someone from the state of Bahia, and not bahiana).
Among the breath-taking scenes that make this an absolute dogsh*t is a fight featuring a countrywide-known singer (Alexandre Pires) and introducing one of the most famous actors from Brazil (the excellent Lázaro Ramos, that used his salary in this to pay for acting classes - at least one good thing this film brought to the world): ears are pulled, punches are thrown in the air and all of that is accompanied by a thrilling soundtrack of random animal (???) noises. My personal favorite scene.
Probably one third of the movie is made of random people dancing at dance classrooms; Cinderela's mother fights with little kids on a highway for 5-cent coins thrown by truck drivers and then dies from a snake bite; the Pierre character is played by the amazingly bad Perry Salles in such an atrocious and over-the-top way that is almost unbelievable; and (please, pay attention at the absurdity of this) the movie ends with Cinderela dancing around nuns (yes, NUNS) and dozens of children while a dubious choice of song plays, with lyrics that could be closely-translated as "Everything that's perfect we pick up by the arm / take her in the middle, stick it up and stick it down / after nine months you can see the outcome". So appropriate.
To sum it up, not Ed Wood, not Bob Clark, not Adam Sandler and not even Tommy Wiseau were able to make something as awful as this piece of garbage. The definition of "so bad it's good", Cinderela Baiana is definitely worth checking out.
Having built its reputation among the Brazilian cinephiles that appreciate a good terrible movie, this one became very popular in the last years. From the first scene alone, you can expect what's to come: everyone dances in what looks like a Carnaval party, while the title appears... "Cinderela Bahiana", a movie so bad that misspells its goddamn title (it's supposed to be baiana, someone from the state of Bahia, and not bahiana).
Among the breath-taking scenes that make this an absolute dogsh*t is a fight featuring a countrywide-known singer (Alexandre Pires) and introducing one of the most famous actors from Brazil (the excellent Lázaro Ramos, that used his salary in this to pay for acting classes - at least one good thing this film brought to the world): ears are pulled, punches are thrown in the air and all of that is accompanied by a thrilling soundtrack of random animal (???) noises. My personal favorite scene.
Probably one third of the movie is made of random people dancing at dance classrooms; Cinderela's mother fights with little kids on a highway for 5-cent coins thrown by truck drivers and then dies from a snake bite; the Pierre character is played by the amazingly bad Perry Salles in such an atrocious and over-the-top way that is almost unbelievable; and (please, pay attention at the absurdity of this) the movie ends with Cinderela dancing around nuns (yes, NUNS) and dozens of children while a dubious choice of song plays, with lyrics that could be closely-translated as "Everything that's perfect we pick up by the arm / take her in the middle, stick it up and stick it down / after nine months you can see the outcome". So appropriate.
To sum it up, not Ed Wood, not Bob Clark, not Adam Sandler and not even Tommy Wiseau were able to make something as awful as this piece of garbage. The definition of "so bad it's good", Cinderela Baiana is definitely worth checking out.
"To don't melt, to don't melt"
diewgong11 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Magnificent natural performances mark the aesthetics of Carla Perez debut in movie theaters, a popular Brazilian dancer who built her career by fighting demagogic campaigns and releasing wild animals. Carla Perez (Carla Perez) is a girl that was born in a rural inland desert area, and grew up so obsessed with dancing she keeps jumping to no music while her mom works when she's a kid, she saw her mom die after a mean kid break her hoe on the ground (the movie never explains but probably those two things aren't related)
While she's ingenious enough to don't know what is a "protagonist", she's a gifted talented performer, although it's a little bit hard to know the difference between her and the other dancers, she's able to buy an acarajé and dance at the same time, making a lot of people go to the food stand and buy an acarajé too, saving a woman's business (she questions: "maybe she's the angel that came up to change my life??")
This draw the attention of the megalomaniac manager Pierre (Perry Salles) that want to turn her into the "biggest dancer in the world" and was played by Perry Salles with such intensity that he throw a melon upwards and yells "we found her! we found her!" after search Carla in Salvador streets with binoculars.
But Carla starts to discover Perry is a terrible man and not only avoid to be managed by him, but also end up the movie dressed as Jeanie from "I dreamed a Jeannie", intervents a lot of kids working with hoes in a pavemented road (probably they was smoothing the cement or searching wire earthworms), makes a beautiful speech about how all the kids deserves protection, food, love and peace, and closes the movie with a beautiful and fun musical number
While she's ingenious enough to don't know what is a "protagonist", she's a gifted talented performer, although it's a little bit hard to know the difference between her and the other dancers, she's able to buy an acarajé and dance at the same time, making a lot of people go to the food stand and buy an acarajé too, saving a woman's business (she questions: "maybe she's the angel that came up to change my life??")
This draw the attention of the megalomaniac manager Pierre (Perry Salles) that want to turn her into the "biggest dancer in the world" and was played by Perry Salles with such intensity that he throw a melon upwards and yells "we found her! we found her!" after search Carla in Salvador streets with binoculars.
But Carla starts to discover Perry is a terrible man and not only avoid to be managed by him, but also end up the movie dressed as Jeanie from "I dreamed a Jeannie", intervents a lot of kids working with hoes in a pavemented road (probably they was smoothing the cement or searching wire earthworms), makes a beautiful speech about how all the kids deserves protection, food, love and peace, and closes the movie with a beautiful and fun musical number
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
