Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business is a 1995 documentary filmed and directed by Helena Solberg.LANÇAMENTO DE BANANAS IS MY BUSINESS DE HELENA SOLBERG" This documentary chronicles the life and career of Carmen Miranda, Hollywood's symbol of Latin American spirit in the 1940s. The documentary tells her life story in a series of stages, beginning with her roots and rise to stardom in her home country of Brazil, her transition and development as a performer in the United States, first on Broadway in New York City, then in the film industry after she signed with 20th Century Fox in Los Angeles, and her later years in life, before her death and her return to Brazil. Helena Solberg uses two different film styles, biography and directorial reverie, in which Solberg uses actor Erick Barretos to “resurrect Carmen Miranda in several fantasy sequences. Helena Solberg's attitudes shift throughout the documentary from awe-struck child to empathetic and forgiving Brazilian woman, which she uses to represent the contradictory subplots of Carmen Miranda's life. Alongside the fantasy like resurrection of Miranda, Solberg accompanies her documentary with multiple interviews with Carmen Miranda's friends and family, like her sister, her first boyfriend, the guitarist Laurindo Almeida, samba song-writer Synval Silva, Cesar Romero, and Alice Faye.
Brief synopsis Born in 1909, Carmen Miranda was already famous in Brazil during the 1930s; her discovery by Broadway impresario Lee Shubert in 1939 made her an international star. The film tracks Miranda's ascent in popularity, from singer and dancer in Rio de Janeiro to Broadway and Hollywood (where she became, in 1945, the highest paid female entertainer in the U.S.). Her success came with a price tag: she was caught between being a "real" Latin American or being Hollywood's version of one—with all the notoriety and fortune it would bring. Today Miranda is a cult figure, known mainly for her exuberant renditions of such songs as "South American Way" and "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat," performed in garish costumes topped with fruit-filled turbans.
The career start Carmen Miranda, an almost ghostly character in the imagination of Portuguese, Brazilian, and American audiences, comes back to life in the first scene of the documentary as a dream narrated by Helena Solberg. Images from her memorial service in Rio de Janeiro follow, showing the grief of her Brazilian fans as she says goodbye to what she considered her homeland. Born in the small Portuguese village of Varzea da Ovelha e Aliviada on February 9, 1909, Carmen was appropriated by the people of her village as a symbol of success. Making use of interviews with her younger sister Aurora Miranda, the documentary tales the migration story of Carmen, from Portugal to Brazil, where they arrived in November 1909. Carmen Miranda, daughter of a modest barber, Jose Maria Pinto da Cunha, lived in Rio de Janeiro. There, while working at a hat store, she was first discovered as a singing talent, growing up in Rio de Janeiro, as a working class adolescent, she noticed the strong influence of Samba music as a powerful cultural aspect of life in Rio's slums.
Embracing that current as a way of expressing herself as an artist, Carmen rose through the radio ranks, while “In those days, a girl that sang on the radio was frowned upon… In a world dominated by man, she was able to navigate through those struggles.”As a local artist, she kept a close relationship with composer Synval Silva and Laurindo Almeida until she left for the United States. This opportunity came in 1939, when she performed along her band of Brazilian musicians. Carmen Miranda embarked on The Normandy for New York after being signed by Lee Shubert, who included her in the cast for Broadway play 'The Streets of Paris'. This was the episode that transformed the life of who was later to be known as 'The Brazilian Bombshell'. Once in New York, Carmen Miranda showed how her extravagant looks, and beautiful voice spoke for her, although her American audience could not understand a word she was speaking.
Career in the United States and the fight for her identity As she became more popular, and stories about her success were heard in Brazil through the media, Brazilians were skeptical of Carmen Miranda's success in New York. Carmen Miranda found herself fighting tirelessly to prove her identity as a Brazilian, but also to keep the attention from her American audience. Her appropriation of the style would win her many enemies within Brazil, as she represented a sector of Brazilian culture, the Afro-Brazilian, who represented not only the racialized other according to Brazil’s white elite, but were also a threat to national identity. The press and the elite constantly attacked her image, many who “looked at her as an embarrassment and an affront to their cultural heritage”.
Helena Solberg also suggests that Miranda's image was exploited and used by the United States Government during World War II as part of its Good Neighbor Policy, towards Latin America, whose natural resources were vital and needed to fight the war. Even though this would bring credibility to her image, Carmen, in one of her many identities, would eventually lead her to even larger criticism. When Carmen became a blond for her movies in Hollywood, when the World War II was over, the audience back in Brazil bashed her with critics once again, this time saying that she was too ‘Americanized’ However, her American audience seemed to be captivated by the exotic and colorful style of the singer/actress.
She was sensually silly, a comical icon of fertility, and friendliness that threatened no one. Time after time, Carmen Miranda was consumed by sadness, since she knew that her beloved public image as Carmen Miranda was a commodity to be consumed by U.S. audiences, while her value to her people in Brazil declined as she was considered “Americanized.” Solberg includes interviews with Rita Moreno, who offers her critique of Hollywood's stereotyping of Latin American women as "always left by the guy, you had to be vivacious, fiery! an exaggeration."
Opinions differ about Carmen's image, Cesar Romero says she was out of step with the times, a novelty that wore off. But Alice Faye and others deny that she could have changed her image and still been employed: “You could argue [with the studio],” she says, “but then you were suspended.”
Death and the aftermath The final stage of the movie chronicles the events leading up to Carmen Miranda's death. In the documentary, Helena Solberg used interviews with Carmen Miranda's closest friends and workers, such as her housekeeper, to show that her troubled marriage to filmmaker David Sebastian and exhausting work schedule led to a deep depression. With doctors' orders, Carmen Miranda took a leave from work and traveled back to Brazil to rest for several weeks. Upon her return to Los Angeles, Carmen Miranda appeared on the NBC television series The Jimmy Durante Show where on August 4, 1955, Carmen Miranda suffered a mild heart attack after completing a dance number with Jimmy Durante. Carmen Miranda fell to her knees, upon which Jimmy Durante told the band to “stop the music” as he helped her to her feet as she laughed, “I'm all out of breath!” Carmen Miranda would finish the show only to later suffer a second, fatal heart attack in her Beverly Hills home.
The documentary showed the service that was held in Los Angeles as well as the return of her body to Rio de Janeiro in accordance with her last wishes. Upon her arrival, the Brazilian government declared a period of national mourning as more than 60,000 people attended a ceremony at the Rio town hall and more than half a million escorted her casket to her final resting place.
Cast
Background Production
The film was produced by David Mayer and Helena Solberg, with cinematography by Pole Tomasz Magierski; the rest of the team changed depending on the country where the documentary was being filmed. The film was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting Service, Channel 4 (UK), Radio and Television of Portugal and RioFilme.
The film had a high cost for a documentary, around US$550,000, due to the image rights paid to major studios for the use of Carmen Miranda movies. Through searching, the producers found new images until then unreleased, including home movies of the singer herself, which added a new cost to the use rights.
Release The documentary had its world premiere at the 27th Brasilia Film Festival in December 1994, where it won the Audience Award for Best Film, the Special Jury Prize, and the Film Critics' Award. In the U.S., it premiered in New York at the Film Forum and has been televised nationally by the PBS in the POV series.
The docudrama received several awards and was well received by critics at festivals in Chicago, Locarno, Toronto, Melbourne, Yamagata, and London, and closed the year in Havana.
Soundtrack SongPerformanceNote(s)"Adeus Batucada" Synval Silva(during the closing credits) "Aquarela do Brasil" Carmen MirandaPerformance of the film The Gang's All Here (1943)."Ao Voltar da Batucada" Synval Silva"A Week-End in Havana" Carmen MirandaPerformance of the film Week-End in Havana (1941)."Boneca de Pixe" Carmen Miranda "Cai, Cai" Carmen Miranda Performance of the film That Night in Rio (1941)."Chica Chica Boom Chic" Carmen MirandaPerformance of the film That Night in Rio (1941)."Camisa Listada" Carmen Miranda"Cantores de Rádio" Aurora MirandaCarmen MirandaPerformance of the film Hello, Hello, Carnival! (1936)."Coração" Synval Silva"Disseram que Voltei Americanizada" Erick Barreto (as Carmen Miranda)"Diz que tem" Carmen Miranda"I Like You Very Much" Carmen MirandaErick Barreto Performance of the short film Sing With The Stars (as Carmen Miranda)"I Make My Money With Bananas" Erick Barreto(as Carmen Miranda)"K-K-K-Katy" Carmen MirandaPerformance of the short film Sing With The Stars"O que é que a baiana tem?" Carmen MirandaPerformance of the film Banana da Terra (1939)."O Samba e o Tango" Carmen Miranda"P'rá Você Gostar de Mim" (Taí) Carmen Miranda"Primavera no Rio" Carmen Miranda"South American Way" Carmen MirandaPerformance of the film Down Argentine Way (1940)."Street of Dreams" The Ink Spots"Tico-Tico no Fubá" Carmen MirandaPerformance of the short film Sing With The Stars"The Lady In The Tutti Frutti Hat" Carmen MirandaPerformance of the film The Gang's All Here (1943)."The Soul Of Carmen Miranda" John Cale(during the beginning of the credits)Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business Trilha sonora (1995)
Festivals Festival Country YearMelbourne International Film Festival Australia 1995Locarno International Film Festival Switzerland 1995Toronto International Film Festival Canada 1995Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Japan 1995BFI London Film Festival England 1995International Film Festival Rotterdam Netherlands 1996Göteborg International Film Festival Sweden 1996Santa Barbara International Film Festival United States 1996Rencontres de Cinema d'amérique Latine France 1996Festival international de films de femmes de Créteil France 1996Hong Kong International Film Festival Hong Kong 1996Mostra Internacional de Films de Dones de Barcelona Spain 1996Jerusalem Film Festival Israel 1996Galway Film Fleadh Ireland 1996Wellington Film Festival New Zealand 1996The London Latin American Film Festival England 1996Helsinki Film Festival Switzerland 1996Films from the South Norway 1996Festival de Cine Realizado por Mujeres Spain 1996International Women's Film Festival Dortmund France 1999Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival Turkey 2000 It's All True – International Documentary Film Festival Brazil 2014
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