Paulista - A film review

I had the unique opportunity last evening to screen the film 'Paulista' a Brazilian film done in 2009. The purpose of the screening was for acceptance into the St Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) this coming Novernber 11-21, 2010. I invited SLIFF's Artistic Director over for dinner and with some decadent cupcakes from Jilly's here in St Louis (exported to my home in O'Fallon, Mo) and cups of my infamous Cafe La Brea, we watched the film.

Paulista is a nice, fun and sexy film, yet not (of course) without drama, that being the main course of a three course plot that is this film. The film embodies three separate relationships, one of a writer of poetry that has found love for a feisty prostitute, a lesbian impassioned with a bisexual woman married to a man, and the young attorney Suzana, who is in love with yet another young attorney, to whom she has yet to reveal that she is transsexual.

In each of the relationships, the three separate protagonists, living in Sao Paulo, Brazil, have all found their perfect lovers, yet circumstance and the separate backgrounds of their lovers collide, which create confusion, distrust and indifference. Each of the situations are unique each a blend of drama and heartfelt love and of course a bit of steamy passion.

The film contains no violence nor exploits the transsexual aspect of Suzana, played by Maria Clara Spinelli. Her character is that of a young attorney, no suggestion at all of transgender sex workers, transgender revenge and my (oh My!) not a peep of the word 'tranny.' Imagine that! As a matter of fact, the only reason there is the reference to one who is transsexual, is that it is part of the storyline, where the character knows she is reluctantly needing to reveal that to her lover.

The film is a well played out drama and has direct connections to the LGBTIQA Community. But not not with the stereotypical marginalization that one finds so often in films regarding our Community or individual that is in our Community. The beauty of it, is we have an awesome film regarding a transsexual's problem in a relationship, done by an actor that is truly a transsexual and not a gay male drag queen. The film had no rating on the box supplied by FigaFilms, but is indeed an adult only film, with nudity and sexual situations. The language is not out of line, in fact a feeling of vulgarity did not come across to me.

Revlon Robyn (...uh...sometimes known as Robyn Carolyn Montague ;)