Carmen Miranda - Bananas Is My Business dvd movie.|
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List Price: $14.98 Features • Black & White • Color • DVD-Video • NTSC In Theaters : 1995 DVD Release : 12 August, 1998 |
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Carmen Miranda - Bananas Is My Business description Few people know that movie star and gay icon Carmen Miranda was actually born in Portugal but moved to Rio de Janeiro as a girl in 1909. She was a determined, self-perpetuated creation--a master at promoting her public self, which "she wore like a mask that could not be penetrated." That she ultimately became the richest woman in America at one point in her career was a testament to her sheer will to succeed in show business. Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business is a hit-and-miss, sometimes shabbily done "proto-documentary" about her childhood and stardom, enacted with the sort of faux seriousness that is at times embarrassingly inane. The real people in the film, including her cousin, actors Cesar Romero, Rita Moreno, and Alice Faye (who says simply, "She had magic"), and boyfriends from her youth ("She had eyes like the headlights on a car," rues one) paint a portrait of a woman who, though effervescent on the surface, was haunted by criticism from home after she became "Americanized" and who endured a cold, loveless, physically abusive marriage. Miranda emerges as a Hollywood victim, for although she had everything she wanted, she was never given the studio's blessing to escape from her image to pursue her true musical talent. Sleeping pills, depression, and electroshock therapy followed, further indicating an underlying misery despite Miranda's gleeful public expression that "bananas is my business." Yet she never despised her famous alter ego--a Latin spitfire bombshell who wore a fruit basket on her head. Her death by a heart attack, which followed a collapse while dancing with Jimmy Durante, is unfortunately mismanaged in the film by director Helena Solberg. Miranda, who is still remembered by millions, hardly merits a bad reenactment of her lonely demise. It's a shame this intriguing documentary (that is, when it sticks to the film clips and archival footage) feels compelled to inject such speculative contrivances, because Miranda's life was fascinating of its own accord. --Paula Nechak |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | haunting docu-fantasy--masterfully done! |
| I first saw this film when it was broadcast on the independent film show, P.O.V. (Point of View), on PBS back in 1995. I knew about as much about Carmen Miranda as the average Yanqui. (Even though I like to think I transcend this national limitation with my inherited sense of Latina soul by way of my Venezuelan father's DNA.) I wanted to know more about "The Lady with the Tutti Frutti Hat," this icon who represented so many things to so many people. To her people of Brazil, she was their Carmen, that young, vivacious and drop-dead gorgeous singer of sambas, forros and Brazilian popular music (Musica Popular do Brasil) in the 1940s. To the North American public, she was the Latin bombshell with a flare for flashy, bold and colorful "traditional" costumes, who emerged as part of "tropical" dance numbers in several popular, Hollywood musicals. It didn't matter to many what language she was singing in, nor the content of her songs. It was pure, exotic fluff to entertain and distract us from our troubles. That was what we were lead to believe, anyway.
The story behind Carmen Miranda, the young Brazilian woman, born in Portugal to Portuguese parents, is finally revealed in Helena Solberg's compelling, cautionary film, that is disclosed to us through an innovative and engaging series of archived films, fantasy re-enactments and personal accounts of people who knew the woman behind the bananas. Let me tell you, here and now, bananas weren't the ONLY thing that were her business. Don't let the song fool you! ("Bananas Is My Business") Carmen Miranda was actually born Maria de Carmen, to Portuguese parents who immigrated with their young, two-year old daughter to Brazil. Maria was a gorgeous, outgoing, green-eyed ("like the headlights of a car," according to a Brazilian journalist) hatmaker at a men's boutique, when her enchanted voice was first heard. Maria used to sing to herself, to while away the hours. The numbers of customers surged when Maria was around. They were immediately enchanted and attracted to the beautiful young woman. A few years later, her first test record for the RCA studio, became a hit record in Rio de Janeiro. Once she had built a name for herself, she was performing at a nightclub one night and an American producer from Hollywood happened to see her sing. The rest is history..... The film unapologetically presents the duality of Carmen's experiences in Hollywood and showbusiness in the United States. Though, she had given herself the name Carmen Miranda, when she began her journey of self discovery before she even became a popular singer, her overall makeover and appearance in the public eye was severely altered by Hollywood's hand. She was presented as a goodwill ambassador, representing the cultures of South America to the United States, not only as a means of social outreach, but as a tool of political and economic advancement. This beautiful woman gradually began to resemble the clownish, over-the-top persona carved out for her. She was never given successful, "serious" roles as a Latina in U.S. showbusiness. Instead, she was presented as the exotic icing, while other Non-Latin actors took the cake. When she finally succumbed to a heart attack at the young age of fourty-six, the numerous sleeping and caffeine pills she had taken to become addicted to, along with an abusive and disrespectful marriage to American David Sebastian, finally took their toll. Nonetheless, her legacy lives on as a beautiful, talented and vivacious film legend who can never be replaced in our hearts. It is my hope that people see this film to get a glimpse at the woman behind the fruit basket. |
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