{"id":1622,"date":"2006-10-20T17:00:44","date_gmt":"2006-10-21T00:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2020-12-28T00:28:25","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T07:28:25","slug":"xica-xica-da-silva-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1622","title":{"rendered":"Xica \/ Xica da Silva (1976)"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Poster-221x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"221\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Poster-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Poster-94x128.jpg 94w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Poster-756x1024.jpg 756w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Poster.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nXica (Zeze Motta), a black female slave in 18th century Brazil, gains freedom, wealth, and power by seducing the town&#8217;s new Royal Diamond Contractor (Walmor Chages).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Political Corruption<\/li>\n<li>Race Relations<\/li>\n<li>Social Climbers<\/li>\n<li>South and Central America<\/li>\n<li>Strong Females<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary&#8217;s review of this &#8220;popular [Brazilian] film by Carlos Diegues&#8221; is rather half-hearted. He finds it &#8220;not particularly interesting,&#8221; and largely &#8220;unsatisfying&#8221; in terms of its political exposition. Other reviewers have expressed similar opinions, lamenting the film&#8217;s bombastic sexual humor and labeling it thematically &#8220;messy&#8221;. It&#8217;s true that <em>Xica<\/em> doesn&#8217;t fall into one or two neatly defined cinematic slots. In addition to the above-listed genres, for instance, <em>Xica<\/em> could be seen as a <em>femme fatale<\/em> film, given that the lead character selfishly causes the downfall of the men she seduces (though her joyous demeanor and intermittent goodwill towards others don&#8217;t allow Xica to fall into the classic <em>noir <\/em>categorization of such women). Also, while the story undeniably involves slavery, it doesn&#8217;t dwell on this as any kind of a serious thematic subject &#8212; Xica could just as easily have been a lower-class maid rather than a slave, without changing the overall thrust of the story. And though <em>Xica<\/em> has much of the feeling of a classic &#8220;Bedroom Farce&#8221; &#8212; with Xica bedding several cuckolded men at once &#8212; it&#8217;s more about sex as a source of power than sex as a harmless flirtation. <\/p>\n<p>Finally, while Xica experiences a drastic downfall at the end of the film (thus hinting at a &#8220;Rise and Fall&#8221; theme), she picks herself right back up and, oddly, seems undefeated &#8212; thus belying the traditional heavy-handed morality of most such movies. Ultimately, then, <em>Xica<\/em> is more of a character-driven comedy than any kind of a serious statement about political, historical, racial, or gender-based issues. If you don&#8217;t expect such an agenda, chances are you&#8217;ll have a good time enjoying this film&#8217;s broad humor, colorful costumes, and unusual historical setting. It&#8217;s truly a unique movie-watching experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Zeze Motta&#8217;s dynamic, sexually charged performance as Xica<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Motta.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Motta.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Motta.jpg 400w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Motta-128x85.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Xica-Motta-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Unexpectedly ribald humor <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as one of the most popular Brazilian films of the 1970s. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0078512\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1982\/09\/10\/movies\/xica-brazilian-comedy.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: Xica (Zeze Motta), a black female slave in 18th century Brazil, gains freedom, wealth, and power by seducing the town&#8217;s new Royal Diamond Contractor (Walmor Chages). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Comedy Historical Drama Political Corruption Race Relations Social Climbers South and Central America Strong Females Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary&#8217;s review of this &#8220;popular [Brazilian] film by Carlos Diegues&#8221; is rather half-hearted. He finds it &#8220;not particularly interesting,&#8221; and largely &#8220;unsatisfying&#8221; in terms of its political exposition. Other&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1622\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1622"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60162,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions\/60162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}