pixote is directed with barely a shred of sentimentality. and yet i more than imagine hector babenco owes some of his film making chops with this film to vittorio de sica neo realist style and in particular shoeshine (that film and as with pixote and takes place mostly inside a children prison). and yet while i might still prefer de sica film if it came down to deciding between the two it so close because it is and no pun intended and like choosing between two children. theyre both marvelous works of raw drama and and with pixote babenco has an extra edge and harrowing quality to deal with in that this isn not filmed in conditions brought on after a world war. this is how it was in brazil one would see it with slightly more flair and awe in city of god and perhaps in some of the same locations and these children were on the streets before and after the film was made. some aren not alive some 20 plus years later and for all anyone knows. the star and pre teen street kid fernando ramos da silva and plays the title character and a youth without a father or really any family who will look out for him and and placed among dozens of other street kids and delinquents in a reformatory for boys. the conditions couldn not be much worse and and are made even more unbearable as two children are killed one after the other by some cause of the guard duty. there a riot and and an escape and and halfway through the film we find pixote with a few other youths and including lilica a practical transvestite not even 18 and and they become pickpockets and drug dealers and whatever to get by. none of this and i should repeat and is shown with a kind of ham fisted earnestness certainly you would never in a million years see ron howard or paul haggis direct this kind of picture and yet there an emotional honesty to everything exactly because nothing is trivialized. nearly every scene is significant to showing how fragile life is for pixote and and how he could be killed or die some way at any turn and and so without even reaching puberty yet he has to be on the level of those around him who are a little older (though not by much at all) and become things that will haunt this person forever. despite babenco usage of a tender and mournful musical score and one or two scenes with people crying a lot and nothing feels forced. as with de sica and maybe more so given the consistent conditions of san paolo and rio street kids and he a natural director of children and and coax out of ramos da silva and jorge julião and others some really fine work that provides just the right touches of cinematic drama (that is not so real that it becomes documentary and which isn not a bad thing per say) and even subtlety in some scenes. pixote may not be as well known as it later 21st century brazilian films that look back on the horrors of rio and or even neo realist films and but it should be. anyone wanting to get a good and hard glimpse at what it was like should seek it out at a library or other and soak in what is the best foreign film of 1981. 
pixote is directed with barely a shred of sentimentality. and yet i more than imagine hector babenco owes some of his film making chops with this film to vittorio de sica neo realist style and in particular shoeshine (that film and as with pixote and takes place mostly inside a children prison). and yet while i might still prefer de sica film if it came down to deciding between the two it so close because it is and no pun intended and like choosing between two children. theyre both marvelous works of raw drama and and with pixote babenco has an extra edge and harrowing quality to deal with in that this isn not filmed in conditions brought on after a world war. this is how it was in brazil one would see it with slightly more flair and awe in city of god and perhaps in some of the same locations and these children were on the streets before and after the film was made. some aren not alive some 20 plus years later and for all anyone knows. the star and pre teen street kid fernando ramos da silva and plays the title character and a youth without a father or really any family who will look out for him and and placed among dozens of other street kids and delinquents in a reformatory for boys. the conditions couldn not be much worse and and are made even more unbearable as two children are killed one after the other by some cause of the guard duty. there a riot and and an escape and and halfway through the film we find pixote with a few other youths and including lilica a practical transvestite not even 18 and and they become pickpockets and drug dealers and whatever to get by. none of this and i should repeat and is shown with a kind of ham fisted earnestness certainly you would never in a million years see ron howard or paul haggis direct this kind of picture and yet there an emotional honesty to everything exactly because nothing is trivialized. nearly every scene is significant to showing how fragile life is for pixote and and how he could be killed or die some way at any turn and and so without even reaching puberty yet he has to be on the level of those around him who are a little older (though not by much at all) and become things that will haunt this person forever. despite babenco usage of a tender and mournful musical score and one or two scenes with people crying a lot and nothing feels forced. as with de sica and maybe more so given the consistent conditions of san paolo and rio street kids and he a natural director of children and and coax out of ramos da silva and jorge julião and others some really fine work that provides just the right touches of cinematic drama (that is not so real that it becomes documentary and which isn not a bad thing per say) and even subtlety in some scenes. pixote may not be as well known as it later 21st century brazilian films that look back on the horrors of rio and or even neo realist films and but it should be. anyone wanting to get a good and hard glimpse at what it was like should seek it out at a library or other and soak in what is the best foreign film of 1981. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

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