A Disappointing Continuation

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Andréia Horta is riviting. Top 10 best film performances by an actress, ever. I'm not Brazilian, I don't know the history of Elis but this is one hell of a good movie and you should go see it.

Among all the qualities that I can mention, two I think are the most important: 1)Rhythm: Since the cinema is all this, the films contains it owns characteristics. Each film have your climax, plot and so on. I'm very impressive with Elis's rhythm. This because, no matter how good the film is, in such a moment, the narrative always goes down. This is normal, and happens even in classic movies. But not in Elis. The feature film, directed by Hugo Prata, have a impressive rhythm. It's 110 minutes of hole attention. What we can say it's a daring feat. Even more if we considerate the film gender. It's not a suspense, neither adventure. It's entertainment with quality. I can say it's like Usain Bolt running a marathon. The rhythm is impressive for a feature film .2)Courage: Show the life of Elis Regina is not for beginners. The responsibility of taking to the screens the history of the biggest Brazilian singer, would make a lot of producers shake. But the final result, don't show this fear. On the contrary, it inspires courage. It reminds me a criticism I read a few years ago, saying that John Ford "didn't film like a director, he used to film like a man". I believe it sounds the same for "Elis"

When Elis passed away in 1982, people and talked about an involuntary, casual overdose: she was kinda "first-time sailor," the media never spoke of suicide. The writers of this film, however, reveal that she had been using drugs since long before (the mid sixties to be precise) and did commit suicide, driven by a chronic, deep depression. The movie was based rather on the musical show "Elis, a musical" by his fan, producer, friend and lover Nelson Motta than on Julio Maria's biography entitled "Nothing will be as before." The complexity of Elis's life was directly proportional to her unpredictable, impetuous, and ambitious personality. Only five feet tall, Elis was blessed with a high-pitched, sincere voice, good technique, and a great rhythmic and harmonic sense, somewhat jazzing everything up. The film omits her first two records produced under the tutelage of the father, with a repertoire chosen by the recording label and a standard background playback sound. It also omits her first source of income when she arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1964, namely the jingles she recorded for advertising agencies under the tutelage of her first boyfriend in Rio, Henrique Meyer, also a gaucho. The film exaggerates, on the other hand, the supposed political side of the singer - who was never a communist. It highlights characters absolutely unimportant for this kind of biopic, such as one grotesque colonel interrogator of the Brazilian army, one French reporter too preoccupied with the evils of third-world dictatorships, and one particular cartoonist, Henfil from O Pasquim, who slashed her by drawing her singing in the presence of Adolf Hitler. The film, which can be seen as a pleasant musical, involuntarily confirms Heitor de Paola's thesis of drugs acting as a means - whether or not unconscious - of a collective suicidal drive.

A great assortment of badly told facts, actors who dub the studio song and a sad vision about Elis Regina. In all, a story badly told. Unless you already know the characters, mostly famous Brazilian musicians, I believe it is really hard to understand what is happening and their motivations. For instance, Elis Regina seems to be a happy young singer who suddenly turns into a spoiled unhappy house-wife. She then starting drinking, taking stuff (unclear what she takes, such a superficial approach…) and then she dies.The main actress tried hard, but could only imitate the laughter of Elis, which she did all the time, even when it did not make sense.Whoever made this film clearly was based on the same research of the musical (that's a good one) and does not like Elis Regina.