SelectionWhile waiting for better days, it is possible to discover the world without leaving your room. Even from afar, the Brazilian metropolis retains “tropical glamor”.
Fall into the arms of “The Man from Rio”
This jewel of the screwball comedy à la française (1964), co-written by Philippe de Broca and Jean-Paul Rappeneau, could have been called “Tintin in Rio” so many references to the hero of Hergé are numerous (the Maltec statuette recalls that of The Broken Ear). The hectic adventure is coupled with a discovery of the city of Rio in the footsteps of Françoise Dorléac and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Several scenes are shot there in a natural setting: the Ipanema book market, the tram chase (the leaped) in the Santa Teresa neighborhood, Copacabana Bay (where Belmondo climbs the hotel facade), the final cave scene in the Tijuca Forest. Funnier and more glamorous than a travel guide.
Immerse yourself in Blaise Cendrars
Frenzied traveler, madly in love with Rio and Brazil in general, Blaise Cendrars has no equal when it comes to distilling in this long prose poem the languid rhythm of “Tropical glamor”. The texts of Brazil. Men have come, a little book that was not found for a long time, are illustrated with forty photos of Jean Manzon (dear friend of Cendrars) from the original edition. Among the most beautiful pages, the luminous description of Copacabana beach (the most remarkable according to the writer) where women, for whom “The simple fact of existing is a real happiness”, soak their children in the wave as if they were performing a religious ritual.
Get into Copacabana’s scent
We first hear his voice long before seeing him: “Olha o Mate! “ In his orange uniform, the beach vendor walks the kilometers of sand nonchalantly, carrying a can on each shoulder: on one side the mate, on the other lemonade. For 2 reais, he offers a mate com limão tailor-made (a little more mate, a little less lemon according to taste). Reinvented Cologne, Olha o Mate !, a fragrance from the Brazilian house Phebo, is a tribute to this figure of the Carioca beach (the pretty boy with the advantageous build was even classified as a Cultural Heritage of the city of Rio in 2012) and to this divine brew.
Parade at the pace of the carnival samba
Who has seen images of the Rio carnival knows La samba no pe (“Foot samba”). More confidential is the couple version, sensual and very codified ballroom dance, cousin of tango (we find the movements of entwined legs). The Gafieira samba (named after the ballrooms in the popular neighborhoods of Rio where she was born in the early 1920s) is danced to pieces of samba, bossa-nova and R’n’B music. Living in Paris for twenty-three years, Alex Lima is a great specialist in this variant of samba, which he teaches in particular at the Center de danse du Marais.
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