Director: Paulo Morelli
Writer: Marcio Alemão
Actor(s): Vivianne Pastmanter, Betty Gofman, Dan Stulbach, Graziella Moretto
Production Co.: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Country: Brazil
Year: 2003
Language and subtitle information: In Portuguese; optional English and Portuguese subtitles
Format: DVD
[ratings]
Summary: “During a quarrel, Karina accidentally presses the redial key on her lover Duda’s cell phone. Mari, Duda’s wife, answers the phone and she and her friend Déia start listening to Duda’s hidden life, which includes a mistress, infidelity, stealing, fishy money transactions, kidnapping and even a murder attempt”–IMDb plot summary.
Supplemental Materials:
Viva Voz is a film about Duda, a man who is involved in illegal money transfers after his brother dies in a car accident. When his mistress accidentally pocket- dials his wife during a love affair, she listens to the all of the events which unfold. This film is an attempt at a crime comedy, featuring the dramatic irony of his wife unknowingly listening to him struggle with his partners about the transaction at hand. With some twists to the plot, this film was entertaining, but the plot’s lack of depth made the characters flat and the dialogue disinteresting.
Viva Voz, a film about crimes and their comical consequences, presents an important question of Brazilian morality: is it acceptable to break the rules (especially when the Brazilian media celebrates this very action)? In the film, the main characters lie and steal. Their dishonesty is satirized and they remain completely unpunished. The film doesn’t present “trambiques” or “jeitinhos”–ways around the rules, as they are called in portuguese–in an acceptable way, and, instead, seems to ignore them or even defend them. In my opinion, representations like these are very dangerous: “that which seems only to be an unoffensive ‘playing around’ with the rules”…”if left uncriticized or more-so unpunished, can turn into a model for a society” (Email from Rodolfo Franconi 9/21/13). The lack of repercussions and the use of comic relief to diminish the gravity of the main characters’ actions say to the audience that breaking the rules is ok. The film, while it is funny, does not present funny crimes, but rather crimes that are very relevant to current political and social issues in Brazil. It’s necessary to watch the film through the eyes of a Brazilian and realize that in a country with so much corruption and inequality, where the general population is under-represented and taken advantage of by the greed of the rich minority, it is important not to positively represent such transgressions.
Viva voz depicts a common thread amongst many Brazilian films and popular culture: the presence of extravagant trickery. As in most cases in Brazilian cinema, the protagonist attempts to use trickery and fraudulent mechanisms to advance his position on the socioeconomic spectrum, reflecting the helplessness felt by the general public concerning viable opportunities to reach economic well-being.
“Viva Voz” is a very comical film. Although the conflicts between the protagonists are serious, their gravity is undercut by an atmosphere of joviality. Throughout the film there is a glorification of criminal behavior that nearly every character in the film contributes to. Serious criminal behavior is juxtaposed with comedic situations, which no one owns up to. If you are looking for a film that tactfully interweaves serious problems that are central to Brazil with authentic “Carioca” humor, this is your film!
This film combines comedy and suspenseful action to reveal the pervasive betrayal, corruption, and infidelity found in Brazil. As a business man illegally wires money to himself, he fails to find himself accidentally dialing his wife as he is in the midst of a secret relationship with another woman. As the wife hears their conversation, other business men attempt to wire that same money to them instead. The film is centered in middle class Brazil, and does a realistic job at depicting the issues that face middle class citizens. It is an entertaining and unique film, as it all centers and unfolds through an accidental live phone call.