RIP Hector Babenco, my favourite South American film director (Pixote, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Carandiru). I was lucky enough to hear him talk in the London Film Festival when he presented Carandiru in 2003. Most people – including myself – first came across Brazilian cinema with the 1981 film Pixote, a Cannes Festival stunner. […]
Chapada Diamantina: Brazil’s adventure playground
Chapada Diamantina (Diamond Highlands), six hours out of Salvador, is one of Brazil’s most easily accessible National Parks and is quickly becoming a place not just to visit but to invest. There are three different biomes that meet here: Atlantic Rainforest, cerrado and caatinga. From the small village of Lençóis at the entrance to the […]
The Opera House in Manaus
I love opera. You have voices singing in unnatural cadences, laterally challenged men and women earnestly pretending to be dashing gay blades and gazelle-like femmes fatales, plus scenery from ancient China, Egypt or Valhalla. It is the campest of musical forms, and, like drag, it involves suspension of disbelief and immersion in a pre-arranged fantasy. […]