Aniki Bobo

This is about as simple as a movie can be. Yet its simplicity is one of its strengths. This is a Portuguese film, spoken in Portuguese language. It's 100% made in Portugal. It was directed by Manoel de Oliveira, the world's oldest film director in activity and still doing films, even though he is now more than 100 years old. But, for someone in such an advanced age, he is in very good shape. That and the fact that he still has plans for the future is respectable, to say the least.

'Aniki-Bobó' is one of his earliest films. It wasn't well received when it came out, but time has been kinder to it. Truly a shame that, after all these years, this wonderful movie is still not available on DVD. The way I see it, they're waiting for the director to die to finally do it as a homage in his memory.

Our movie takes place in Porto city, the director's hometown. Porto has its own symbols, such as the Francesinhas, the Maria Pia bridge, the Port wine and the ex-libris Torre dos Clérigos. The movie is masterfully filmed, with great sceneries and almost entirely filmed in natural settings.

This classic film in black & white is about poor children in the streets of Porto and near the Douro River, where they live adventures, play games, socialize, use their imagination and sometimes have conflicts. It's a take on a childhood that has disappeared today, being pure, poetic, human, nostalgic, charming, funny and dramatic.

The movie's title comes from a rhyme of a children's game, which was already mentioned by one the reviewers here, so I won't say it all over again. As for the shop, (Loja das Tentações), it means "Shop of Temptations" in Portuguese.

Each cast member does a fine portrayal. In fact, this movie is almost entirely acted by kids. The kids have different personalities (for example: Carlitos is shy and reserved, Eduardo is naughty and the ruffian one, the little kid who is constantly stumbling is confident), but they get along well. It's not that they don't have some rivalries at times, but there is no swear, no major violence and no bad stuff.

This film anticipates the Italian neorealism in several ways. It's a small Portuguese masterpiece that should get more credit than it does. Almost everything in this movie works out in perfect harmony, despite its simplicity. And I like very much the typical accent from Porto city by the actors and the music in the film. It's difficult to understand at times, but with more viewings and if you put the sound louder, it's pretty easy to understand.

This should definitely be on Top 250.

A movie about children and their simple expectations. A pure, ingenious film, that should be viewed by everyone who wishes to go back to those wonderful early years. In the beginning of his career, Oliveira shows an intelligent, sensitive, real world history in a true cinema pearl.

This film has something magical. I saw it a long time ago at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro and it remained stuck in my memory. I remember the scenes of poor children playing in the streets of Porto (Portugal), there are little games and love and sometimes a song underlines some scenes (if I remember it right). It's about innocence (not innocence the way Hollywood sees it) and life melding harmoniously together. I could see "Aniki Bobó" only once and I would really like to see it again. There are no VHS or DVD copies released and that's a shame.

It's Portuguese neorealism with subtle surreal and fantasy bits. A real masterpiece. Please, someone release this film on DVD.

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.

Fernando Pessoa, one of the greatest world poets, which happened to be portuguese, as the director of Aniki Bobó once said something like "No children's book should be written for children". I apply this to cinema. There's no sense in making children's movies completely empty of any idea, as hollywood loves to do them (maybe because noone there can make them another way). For those who never saw Aniki Bobó I will say this movie is the cinematic equivalent of Éxupery's "The Prince". A poetic tale for children, absolutely breathtaking in terms of the dramatic intensity created around such a simple story; but, at the same time, a deep reflexion on the theme of human behaviours and conscience. Its characters portrait innocence, vain, envy, generosity and the consequences of all that. (This movie also reminds a soviet old short movie, which tells Romeo and Juliet incarnated into two school children, but I'm afraid I forgot the name of the director and of the movie; if you have any idea of what film that might be, it would be nice to tell me, please). But apart from the second senses of all the movie, it should also be apreciated for it portraits Porto's society and way of living of that time as well as the city's physical appearance, which makes this movie, along with "Porto, faina fluvial", from the same director, and a few others from other people, a vital document for the city's history. An all time classic which should be better known, for the sake of the cinema.