Nelson Rodrigues

Nelson Rodrigues

Birth : 1912-08-23, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Death : 1980-12-21

History

Nelson Falcão Rodrigues was a Brazilian playwright, journalist and novelist. In 1943, he helped usher in a new era in Brazilian theater with his play Vestido de Noiva (The Wedding Dress), considered revolutionary for the complex exploration of its characters' psychology and its use of colloquial dialog. He went on to write many other seminal plays and today is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest playwright. His plays usually dealt with topics considered taboo by Brazilian society, such as sexuality, virginity and incest, denouncing the hypocrisy of family life in the middle and upper classes.

Profile

Nelson Rodrigues

Movies

Golden Mouth
Story
After his death, infamous Rio de Janeiro mob boss Golden Mouth (named after his all-golden teeth) gets multiple accounts of his life told to the press by his former lover.
Neville D'Almeida: Chronicler of Beauty and Chaos
Self (archive footage)
This film seeks to rescue the role of filmmaker Neville D'Almeida by using many rare images, numerous interviews, vast archival and audiovisual material.
The Asphalt Kiss
Novel
When witnessing a hit, Arandir, a newly married banker, tries to succor the victim, but the man, almost dead, has only time to make one last request: a kiss. Arandir kisses the man, but his act is spotted by his father-in-law Aprígio and photographed by Amado Ribeiro, a tabloid reporter.
The Serpent
Story
Two sisters live in the same house with their husbands in bedrooms separated by a single wall. One of the sisters, Lígia, is still a virgin. Dissatisfied, she wants to dissolve the marriage and thinks about suicide. To prevent her sister’s suicide, Guida offers her own husband, Paulo, for one night.
Ninguém Ama Ninguém por Mais de Dois Anos
Original Story
"No one loves anyone for more than two years" is an adaptation of Nelson Rodrigues' work about five couples that live in Brazil in the early 60's, who are seen by the society as conventional people, but whose intimate lives turn out to be morally questionable.
Cute, But Ordinary
Theatre Play
Edgard works as a subordinate in the company of millionaire Werneck and is in love with Ritinha, a simple woman who works as a teacher to support her mother and her three sisters. One day, Peixoto, Werneck's son-in-law, makes him a proposal to marry Maria, the boss's daughter. The reason is that Maria was abused and now is being forced to marry by her family. Edgard hesitates first but accepts the offer. From then on he enters into a great doubt: should he deposit the check and marry Maria or stay with Ritinha, his great love?
Vestido de Noiva
Original Story
While in the hospital, after being run over, Alaíde thinks about her life, specially after the moment she'd found the diary of Madame Clessy, in the house where her family had moved in, which was a former bordello.
Os Filhos de Nelson
Original Story
Boca de Ouro
Screenplay
Twins
Story
Identical twins Iara and Marilena like to play games and deceive men by pretending to be each other. But when they fall in love with the same man, a rivalry with devastating and horrifying consequences begins.
Betrayal
Story
This film shows three episodes: "The First Sin" portrays the relationship of a man and married woman; in "Devilish", the desire between a young woman and her brother-in-law is shown; and in the episode "Cachorro!", a man sees his wife with her lover.
A Serpente
Original Story
A Serpente
Theatre Play
Boca de Ouro
Original Story
Boca de Ouro
Theatre Play
Perdoa-Me Por Me Traíres
Original Story
Glorinha, a middle-class 15 year old girl, always thought her mother Judite had killed herself, and that her father Gilberto has gone crazy as result. Her friend Nair takes her to a high-class bordello, where she wants to work. When uncle Raul, who raised her, discovers her prostitution, he decides to finally tell her all the truth about her parents' story.
The Kiss
Writer
When a pedestrian is hit by a bus, the simple clerk Arandir runs and kisses the moribund in a gesture of sympathy and unconditional pure love. Opportunist photographer Amado Pinheiro witnesses the scene and sees the opportunity to sell newspaper and, together with the despicable and abusive chief of police Cunha, accuses Arandir of homosexuality.
Cute, But Ordinary
Story
The youngest daughter of a rich man has been raped by five black men in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and her father arranges her marriage to one of his employees in order to save the family’s honor.
‎Family Album‎
Story
Follows the decadence of an incestuous oligarch family in a rural Brazilian household through the years during the early 20th century.
Engraçadinha
Novel
After the funeral of her father Arnaldo, who committed suicide, Engraçadinha confesses to the priest the motives. On the engagement party of her cousin Sílvio with Letícia, Engraçadinha seduces him in the library, and later she ends her engagement with Zózimo and lies to Letícia, telling that she is pregnant. Letícia decides to tell Arnaldo what happened, and he says that the child can not be born. He exposes dirty secrets to Engraçadinha, and a tragedy is announced.
The Seven Kittens
Dialogue
Noronha is a low middle-class civil servant who lives with his frustrated wife Gorda and their three elder daughters. The youngest one, virginal Silene, is unexpectedly sent back home. Noronha discovers she has been expelled from boarding school for having killed a female cat and her seven newborns in a hysterical fit. Many dark family secrets will emerge from that episode leading to tragic events.
The Seven Kittens
Original Story
Noronha is a low middle-class civil servant who lives with his frustrated wife Gorda and their three elder daughters. The youngest one, virginal Silene, is unexpectedly sent back home. Noronha discovers she has been expelled from boarding school for having killed a female cat and her seven newborns in a hysterical fit. Many dark family secrets will emerge from that episode leading to tragic events.
The Seven Kittens
Associate Producer
Noronha is a low middle-class civil servant who lives with his frustrated wife Gorda and their three elder daughters. The youngest one, virginal Silene, is unexpectedly sent back home. Noronha discovers she has been expelled from boarding school for having killed a female cat and her seven newborns in a hysterical fit. Many dark family secrets will emerge from that episode leading to tragic events.
Lady on the Bus
Associate Producer
Solange is a recently married young woman whose wedding night did not end well. After constant fights with her husband, she decides to live through her sexual frustration by sleeping with strangers she picks up on crowded buses in Rio de Janeiro.
Lady on the Bus
Dialogue
Solange is a recently married young woman whose wedding night did not end well. After constant fights with her husband, she decides to live through her sexual frustration by sleeping with strangers she picks up on crowded buses in Rio de Janeiro.
Lady on the Bus
Screenstory
Solange is a recently married young woman whose wedding night did not end well. After constant fights with her husband, she decides to live through her sexual frustration by sleeping with strangers she picks up on crowded buses in Rio de Janeiro.
Lady on the Bus
Original Story
Solange is a recently married young woman whose wedding night did not end well. After constant fights with her husband, she decides to live through her sexual frustration by sleeping with strangers she picks up on crowded buses in Rio de Janeiro.
The Wedding
Writer
18-year-old Glorinha finds herself on the eve of her wedding when a series of revelations plague her and her circle of family and friends. Dr. Camarinha, friend of Sabino, his father, who is a a wealthy construction entrepreneur, says Glorinha's fiancé is homosexual. Glorinha, for his part, reveals to him that she had been a lover of his dead son, Antônioa year ago. Sabino reveals to Noemia, his secretary with whom he ends up having a sexual relationship, who had experienced a homosexual practice as a child and calls her by the name of his daughter. Noemia, in turn, Xavier's mistress, who lives with a leprous woman who has long since cared for, reveals to him that she no longer intends to be his mistress. Glorinha goes with her father to a deserted beach, where she makes insinuations that she loves him and, when kissed by her father, runs desperately and tells her mother that her father had tried to rape her. Xavier, in turn, assassinates Noemia in the office.
All Nudity Shall Be Punished
Writer
A rich, spoiled young man encounters a prostitute and gets confused about the nature of his feelings for her. He can't decide between attraction and repulsion.
Como Ganhar na Loteria Sem Perder a Esportiva
Writer
A comedy about the happiness of several people who won the number 12 of Sports Lottery, thinking they are the only winner. Among them, one priest seduced by the devil disguised as a sacristan, one taxi driver who is planning to buy an entire fleet of cars, and prostitutes who leave their brothel, only to return again later.
24 Horas no Rio
Máscara da Traição
Couple of lovers want to steal the income of a popular soccer game, at Maracanã Stadium, in Rio de Janeiro.
Fragmentos de Dois Escritores
Himself
Engraçadinha Depois dos Trinta
Original Story
After marrying everyday man Zózimo, Engraçadinha, who had been through intense sexual experiences as a teenager, settles to live a quiet and normal life. As the years go by, her teenage daughter's behaviour seems to call back Engraçadinha's own teenage days.
The Deceased
Original Story
After visiting a fortune teller, Zulmira is informed that a blonde woman will threaten her peace. After talking to her husband Toninho, she suspects that her cousin Glorinha may be that blonde. In poor health, Zulmira makes all the preparations for the day of her death and asks her unemployed husband to deal with the costs of the coffin and funeral with a man named João Guimarães Pimentel. What Tom doesn't know is that Zulmira and this man hide some secrets that he could never imagine.
The Kiss
Original Story
When a dying man receives a kiss from a bereaved man who tries to save him, the man is jailed as a homosexual. He is released from jail, but his life has been ruined by the incident -- and the man eventually is killed by his own father-in-law. The kiss that resulted in the eventual persecution and death of the man is never shown in this plodding, downbeat drama.
Lollipop
Original Story
While still a child, Lollipop falls in love with her orphaned cousin Silvio, who has been raised as a member of the family by her father, Dr. Arnaldo, a highly respected government official. Years pass, and to Lollipop's dismay, Silvio becomes engaged to her cousin Leticia. During the engagement party, the enraged Lollipop seduces Silvio, and sometime later, she reveals to Leticia that she is pregnant as a result of the encounter.
Golden Mouth
Original Story
For his first in a long series of wildly imaginative literary adaptations, dos Santos reinvented Nelson Rodrigues' novel about a pathological gangster with solid gold teeth and a voracious appetite for women and power. Embracing radically modernist narrative techniques, Golden Mouth offers a splintered, refractive portrait of brutal masculinity that returns repeatedly to the same moment from different vantages, each time revealing unexpected perspectives on the brutal yet strangely charming criminal. Lurid and disturbing, Golden Mouth delivers a savage satire of marriage and class pretensions, revealing a similar venality at the corroded heart of the sanctimonious bourgeoisie, the moneyed elite and the working class as they all mercilessly claw their way up and down the rickety and ruthlessly hierarchical Brazilian social ladder. -Harvard Film Archive
Pretty But Wicked
Original Story
A young man must choose between two women. The one brings him the money, but the other he loves. Directed by Billy Davis (as J. P. de Carvalho).
O Rei Pelé
Screenplay
The story of Pelé, from his birth to his rise as one of the most prominent players in both Brazilian and worldwide soccer.
O Rei Pelé
Himself
The story of Pelé, from his birth to his rise as one of the most prominent players in both Brazilian and worldwide soccer.
Mulheres & Milhões
Writer
Three men who never met each other are hired by a mysterious client to carry out a daring bank robbery.
Meu Destino é Pecar
Original Story
The story of Leninha, a young Brazilian woman whose life become a turbulent tragedy in the midst of trades involving lust and power.
Somos Dois
Dialogue