Rio, 40 Degrees / Rio, 40 graus

In his first feature film, "Rio, 40 Degrees" [40 degrees Centigrade is equivalent to 104 degrees Fahrenheit] Nelson Pereira dos Santos took the film-making methods pioneered by the Italian neo-realists in the 1940's and applied them to the life of the poor in Rio de Janeiro--revealing the stunning beauty of the city and the gritty realities of daily life for poor people in the heat of Rio's intense summer. The real star of the film is the city itself--which becomes clear from the very start of the film. The credit sequence is seen over a series of handsome aerial shots of the city with the first title reading:

"Nelson Pereira dos Santos
presents
the city of
São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro
in
Rio, 40 Degrees,"

using the original complete name of the city at the time of its founding in 1567. Only after the city's "credit," do we get a list of the largely non-professional actors who appear in the movie.

The film is structured around the lives of five young peanut-vendors on a typical Sunday--a device that allows us to see many people, several stories, and a number of locations throughout Rio. Through the film, Nelson Pereira dos Santos expresses his love, admiration, and sympathy for the people of Rio and also for the music, sounds, and locations in the extraordinary city itself: Copacabana, Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf), the Quinta da Boa Vista (the private park of the Brazilian emperor in the 19th century), and the Maracanã stadium are featured.

In setting this film and his 1960 sequel, "Rio, Zona Norte" ("Rio, Northside") among the city's poor, Nelson Pereira dos Santos showed the way to all the other filmmakers who have looked at life in the city's favelas--from the romanticism of "Black Orpheus," the film by French director Marcel Camus, to "City of God / Cidade de Deus," the recent film by Fernando Meirelles.