Aniki-Bóbó (1942) is a film from the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, who reached a hundred years this year. It's the oldest director in activity.
This film is based on the story «Millionaire Boys», from a Portuguese writer, Rodrigues de Freitas.
It's a story about children, as an embryo from adult, whose both qualities and defects are revealed for us but in a simple form that all of people easily understand.
The name of the film went from a children game, a pun which form a balderdash, and they play that in the movie, «Aniki-Bébé, Aniki-Bóbó, passarinho tótó, berimbau, cavaquinho, Salomão, sacristão, tu és polícia, tu és ladrão». In Portuguese it makes any sense too, but it is the sound from this play of words that counts. In English it would be «Aniki-Baby, Aniki-Bóbó, goofy birdie, berimbau (a musical instrument), Solomon, sacristan, you are police, you are thief».
It was a anticipation from the Italian Neo-Realism and it had influences from the German Expressionism that Oliveira had seen in a Murnau movie, «Sunrise, a song of two humans» (1927). Oliveira travelled a lot in this period because he was a pilot in car racers, he practised Athletics and he was a trapeze artist, and, for this motifs, he had contact with many countries and movie exhibitions.
This film is based on the story «Millionaire Boys», from a Portuguese writer, Rodrigues de Freitas.
It's a story about children, as an embryo from adult, whose both qualities and defects are revealed for us but in a simple form that all of people easily understand.
The name of the film went from a children game, a pun which form a balderdash, and they play that in the movie, «Aniki-Bébé, Aniki-Bóbó, passarinho tótó, berimbau, cavaquinho, Salomão, sacristão, tu és polícia, tu és ladrão». In Portuguese it makes any sense too, but it is the sound from this play of words that counts. In English it would be «Aniki-Baby, Aniki-Bóbó, goofy birdie, berimbau (a musical instrument), Solomon, sacristan, you are police, you are thief».
It was a anticipation from the Italian Neo-Realism and it had influences from the German Expressionism that Oliveira had seen in a Murnau movie, «Sunrise, a song of two humans» (1927). Oliveira travelled a lot in this period because he was a pilot in car racers, he practised Athletics and he was a trapeze artist, and, for this motifs, he had contact with many countries and movie exhibitions.