EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

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Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

lazarillo This is the story of a young, spoiled rich girl (Vanessa Alves) who is neglected by her mother has been raised by her darker-skinned maid and her maid's Afro-Caribbean chauffeur husband. She clearly has issues with the latter and has lots of vivid sex fantasies where she is accosted by many dark-skinned and/or surly looking men, often two at a time. In real life though she is a repressed prude who treats her chauffeur in the most haughty way possible. Her promiscuous friend sets her up with a nice boy her age, but she resists getting involved with him too. She also meets her friend's weird shrink who tries to draw out memories of past sexual abuse (perhaps involving the chauffeur?), but he seems to have a sinister agenda and a penchant for taking advantage of his young female clients. The Portugese title of the movie translates to "The Girl and the Rapist". Alves' character is obviously "the girl", but it takes the whole movie to figure out exactly who "the rapist" is.Obviously, this movie owes a whole lot of its appeal to the incredible nude body of Vanessa Alves, also prominently on display in other Brazilian movies of this era like "Amazon Jail" and "Love, Strange, Love". She is also not ENTIRELY unconvincing as the teenage character she plays here. But the movie has a couple other points of interest besides the ones on the tips of Alves' nubile breasts. Not being much of an authority on the subject I believe this would be considered a "pornchachada" film, an 80's Brazilian genre that was not quite XXX (although this and some of the other films do at times briefly cross into it), but had a lot more of a plot than the much more explicit stuff the country is known for today. This film and others in this genre kind of resemble the Japanese "pink" films or the 60's sexploitation "roughies" that preceded XXX films in America. It is an interesting combination of soft porn and soapy melodrama that really doesn't exist much ANYWHERE today. But I wish it did.It's also interesting that at this time in America, psychiatrists had begun to develop techniques to get at "repressed memories" of child abuse, many of which turned out to be false memories that the shrinks themselves inadvertently planted. This led to a lot of innocent people going to jail or being sued, and was one of the things that contributed to the infamous "satanic panic" of the 80's. At the time though everybody believed this kind of stuff was totally legitimate. It's interesting that a goofball Brazilian sex film like this seems to have more of grasp of the potential perils of activist psychiatry than practically anybody else did at the time.Finally, mention also must be made of the music, which was all liberally borrowed from other sources (including a muzak version of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall", international copyrights be damned I guess). This strange mixture music really has to be heard to be believed and really contributes to the surreal experience of this whole film.

Claudio Carvalho In São Paulo, the spoiled Vanessa (Vanessa Alves) is neglected and rejected by her mother and is practically raised alone by her butler and driver Pedro (Zózimo Bulbul) and the maiden Dalva. Vanessa has daydreams and fantasies of being raped by black men, but is frigid with Arlindo, a teenager that flirts with her. Her best friend is the promiscuous Denise, an easy girl that has intercourse with different men. When Vanessa discloses to Denise her problem, Denise gives the address of her psychotherapist Dr. Artur, to her friend. The unethical shrink pushes Vanessa to the edge, bringing memories of a severe trauma of her childhood. Then the disturbed Dr. Artur induces the girls to commit suicide. But Pedro protects Vanessa and saves her from death."A Menina e o Estuprador" is a production from Boca do Lixo with a messy and silly argument with the only intention of exposing the awesome body of Vanessa Alves in erotic situations. The psychological drama of the lead character is stupid, but the treatment of the psychotherapist is ridiculous and unbelievable. Vanessa Alves is one of the sexiest "actresses" from Boca do Lixo and the main reason to watch this film. My vote is two.Title (Brazil): "A Menina e o Estuprador" ("The Girl and the Rapist")