How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman

1971 "The beginning of the exploitation of Brazil"
6.7| 1h24m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 01 June 1971 Released
Producted By: LC Barreto
Country: Brazil
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Brazil, 1594. The Tupinambás natives are friends of the French and their enemies are the Tupiniquins, friends of the Portuguese. A Frenchman is captured by the Tupinambás, and in spite of his trial to convince them that he is French, they believe he is Portuguese. The Frenchman becomes their slave, and maritally lives with Seboipepe.

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Director

Nelson Pereira dos Santos

Production Companies

LC Barreto

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How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman Audience Reviews

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
federovsky This gets plaudits for its naturalism, though it all looks pretty bogus to me and not in any way transporting. In fact it was fairly dull, the story of a westerner held captive by cannibals is almost a cliché since Melville's Typee. The twist is that the man is French but the Amazonian natives think he's Portuguese and therefore fit for the pot. They keep him for a long while as an honoured captive, native wife thrown in, pending sacrifice.Production quality is amateurish and the director would better have employed a more existential approach - someone is about to get eaten, after all. The Frenchman's attitude to his situation is comical. There's nothing stopping him escaping, but he lives there quite happily up until and including the day of the banquet in which he is plat du jour.What's really missing is atmosphere. It's all shot under bright sunlight. And given the decision to sensationalise cannibalism in the title it's easy to suppose that all the nudity is done disingenuously for lurid effect - in any case, reviewers can't help going on about it. While apt for the time and place, it is a distraction to the modern viewer and the filmmakers might somehow have cut down on the number of flapping willies (the women have tiny g-strings). Well, that's a moot point, but the overall feel is hippy-ish rather than realistic.It's a bit different but nothing special.
paop This history plot of this movie was inspired from real facts depicted in Jean de Lery's book "Voyage en terre de Brésil" (portuguese: Viagem à terra do Brasil), which was written after what Lery himself witnessed before he left for Europe. The text which is read in the overture (in Portuguese) is a letter from Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon, the founder and leader of what should have been the "France Antarctique", a French colony in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This enterprise was made in the context of French religion wars, and there was a latent antagonism between protestant and Catholics which was brought to Rio, ending with the expulsion of several French, which left for the continent (the colony was located in an island about 1 km from land – today is the Naval College). These were the historical facts from which Nelson Pereira dos Santos started his movie, as nobody ever knows the destiny of some Frenchmen who were forced to left the island, so he made a history from this. The year of these events was 1557, as in Villegagnon's letter in the overture, and it is in Lery's book. By 1594 there was practically no more Tupinambá indians, killed many years before by smallpox and other diseases and Portuguese weapons (don't believe everything you read in Wikipedia). I've seen this movie in the big screen back in 1971, and I can tell it left a strong impression because of the nudity but most of people came to accept it first because everybody perceived a great sense of authenticity, even without any historical knowledge and that the Tupinambá's life really should have been the way it was portrayed by the director. The location of the movie was in Paraty, 1970, in a landscape very close to that of 400 years before, magnificent beaches, mountains and exuberant nature. However if you were Portuguese and felled in the hands of the Tupinambá that will not help much. A great movie, well ahead of its time and a precious and historically accurate tale about the European colonization of the then strange world of South America.
marcio9145 I grew up in Brazil and I used to visit and marvel at the beautiful coast where the movie was filmed. The area is called "Parati" and is part of the "Green Coast" of the Rio de Janeiro state. It is some 150 miles from the Rio de Janeiro city.This movie brings back to life the world of 16th century Brazil, where Europeans were barely starting to explore the coastline, which was still in pristine state and sparsely populated by various native tribes. French and Portuguese fought each other for territory and for the upper hand on the Brazil wood trade, all the while negotiating with the natives, who also fought each other for whatever reasons.One French misfit ("a mercenary") is left to die by his own compatriots but manages to escape and is kept prisoner by an all-naked native tribe. While he is a "slave" of the chief, according to the customs of the tribe, he is allowed to live in relative comfort for months until the time is right for him to be killed and eaten in a ritual of revenge.What I love about this film is that it recreates in loving detail the natives' villages and their way-of-life (they walked naked and were cannibals) and asks us to recognize and accept the life in those times as it was: in a gorgeous garden-of-eden, life was messy, violent, full of pathetic superstition and bizarre customs. The Europeans arrive and bring their own problems, including more violence with better weapons and greed. There is no romanticized "noble savages" or "heroic explorers" here, it is just people trying to survive in a tough world.The movie is neither unduly sympathetic nor dismissive of the natives. From what I know of the subject, the depiction is fairly accurate which adds an air of uniqueness to the project: how many movies have you seen regarding the lives of Brazilian natives and their early affairs with Europeans?
Claudio Carvalho In 1594 in Brazil, the Tupinambas Indians are friends of the Frenches and their enemies are the Tupiniquins, friends of the Portugueses. A Frenchman (Arduíno Colassanti) is captured by the Tupinambás, and in spite of his trial to convince them that he is French, they believe he is Portuguese. The Frenchman becomes their slave, and maritally lives with Seboipepe (Ana Maria Magalhães). Later, he uses powder in the cannons that the Portuguese left behind to defeat the Tupiniquins in a battle. In order to celebrate the victory, the Indians decide to eat him. "Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês" is another great low budget movie of the great Brazilian director Nélson Pereira dos Santos. The screenplay is very original and the story is spoken in Tupi. The film is shot using natural light most of the time and is very realistic. The actors and actresses perform naked and Ana Maria Magalhães is magnificent, showing a wonderful body and giving a stunning performance. The sound is produced by the Brazilian musician Zé Rodrix. This movie shows the beginning of the exploitation of my country by Europeans, focusing in the Portuguese and French at that time, trading with the Indians and exchanging combs and mirrors by our natural resources. This movie was awarded in the national festivals, such as the 1971 Brazilian Cinema Festival of Brasília (Festival de Brazília do Cinema Brasileiro) with Best Screenplay (Nelson Pereira dos Santos), Best Dialog (Nelson Pereira dos Santos and Humberto Mauro) and Best Cenograph (Régis Monteiro); Art Critics Association of São Paulo (Associação Paulista dos Críticos de Arte), with best Revelation of the Year (Ana Maria Magalhães) and some other prizes. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês" ("How Tasty Was My Frenchman")