
Acting
Sérgio Ricardo
Born 1932-06-18 · Marília, São Paulo, Brazil
João Lutfi (18 June 1932 – 23 July 2020), known professionally as Sérgio Ricardo, was a Brazilian actor, musician, playwright and filmmaker, better known for being responsible for the soundtrack of Glauber Rocha's "Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol" ("Black God, White Devil"). Born in a Lebanese-Brazilian family in Marília, São Paulo, and brother to famed director of photography Dib Lutfi, João got his stage name from TV businessmen who wanted to rebrand him as a leading man with an iconic name during his early gigs as an actor. He's maily associated with the Cinema Novo (Brazilian New Wave) movement, but stayed active until 2018. During the Cinema Novo days, Ricardo directed short film "Menino da Calça Branca" (1961) and "Esse Mundo É Meu" (1963), his feature-length debut. Among other notorious works in his career as a filmmaker is "A Noite do Espantalho", which shows Ricardo's talent as a polymath by mixing filmmaking with folk music and other elements of Brazilian popular culture, such as "cordel" literature. Ricardo moved to the Vidigal slum, in Rio de Janeiro, by choice in the 1970s, where he lived until his death in 2020. "Bandeira de Retalhos" (2018), his last film, was adapted by a theatre play also written by him and chronicles the life in 1970s Vidigal.
Acting credits
5.0Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro. A woman is left desperate and hopeless after she is evicted from her house with her disabled son.
Pé Sem Chão
2014
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Calabouço 1968 - Um tiro no coração do Brasil
2014
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Enquanto a Tristeza não Vem
2003
10.0No synopsis available yet.
Descobrindo Waltel
2005
NRSérgio Ricardo's only animation film, a short made as a companion piece to his song "Zelão".
Zelão
1999
6.9Edgar is a young upper-middle class man, close to completing 30 years old, he lives a full life crisis and is in a position common to the vast majority of Brazilians. On the one hand the power, represented by a corrupt state, abusive and absent in their taxes before their obligations. On the other, crime increasingly organized violence became a constant in the lives of citizens in large cities. Edgar responds to all this as a modern vigilante. With the help of ingredients such as technology, counter-information and manipulation, Edgar concocts a brilliant plan, using the greed of their opponents as the reason for its destruction. As the plot unfolds, we know more about the dark past of each character as Edgar fit the pieces together in an intriguing puzzle that makes up the film's plot.
Two Rabbits
2012
2.0The documentary "Depois do Transe" covers the entire process of creating the masterpiece "Entranced Earth", which was released and awarded at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967. "Entranced Earth" charmed the world and won great admirers such as filmmaker Martin Scorsese and the writer Marguerite Duras, who at the time considered a "fabulous filmic opera."
Depois do Transe
2006
NRVidigal Hill, 1977. A runaway group of bandits engage in a complex love triangle in the brink of the news that the corrupt Rio de Janeiro mayor decided to make everyone move out of Vidigal, aided by police forces.
Bandeira de Retalhos
2018
7.3Documentary about the birth of bossa-nova, in Brazil, and the major stars of this musical style.
Coisa Mais Linda - Histórias e Casos da Bossa Nova
2005
NRIt is a realistic musical documentary, mixing the old and the new, exchanging chronological positions, creating a suggestive carousel for the audience. A tribute to Sérgio Ricardo's cinematographic work narrated through the assembly of scenes and tracks taken from the 7 films he directed. In this anthology, the most recurrent theme in the author's work is portrayed: the struggle of the oppressed worker who finds love, music and the community his escape valve.
Na Rota do Vento
2019
5.6This documentary investigates the aesthetic, political and existential trajectory of emblematic Black Brazilian actor Antônio Pitanga. His career spans over five decades, and he has worked with iconic Brazilian filmmakers Glauber Rocha, Cacá Diegues and Walter Lima Jr. He was a prominent figurehead and outspoken activist during the Brazilian dictatorship, a period of unrest in Brazilian cinema. "Pitanga" deep dives into the world of Antônio and the history of Brazil. The documentary was directed by his daughter Camila Pitanga, one of widely recognised faces in Brazilian television and cinema right now. The film is also a poem, and a tender ode to fatherhood.
Pitanga
2016
NRDocumentary on "Antonio das Mortes", Glauber Rocha's 1969 film.
Milagrez
2008
8.0It tells the story of a girl being abducted by the evil pirate with a wooden leg.
Pluft, o Fantasminha
1962
6.2Poor people who live in the slums in Rio de Janeiro decide to occupy an empty apartment building in the rich part of the city. Meanwhile, a rich girl falls in love with a poor composer. Based on the musical play "Pobre Menina Rica", by Vinícius de Moraes and Carlos Lyra.
Para Viver Um Grande Amor
1984
6.5A wealthy French promoter living in Rio tries to seduce Alexandra, a young woman of high society, but a prisoner of her strict education. He then shared his project with a journalist friend, who decided to make it the theme of a novel he imagined in 18th century Brazil...
Un animal doué de déraison
1976
6.8In the 1970s, "festivals" were incredibly popular in Brazil, as they were recorded before a live studio audience, and usually featured a number of elimination rounds. They also formed the springboard for the career of many a big-name stars, such as Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Roberto Carlos and Gilberto Gil. Appearing on such a program was no cakewalk, however: audiences could be as wild in their condemnation as in their appreciation of an artist. Extensive archive footage (including performances and behind-the-scenes interviews) from the turbulent final evening of the Festival of Brazilian Popular Music 1967 paints a fascinating picture, not only of the transformation of Brazilian music into real "festival" music, but also of a society starting to buck against the yoke of military rule.
A Night in 67
2010
8.0Documentary that addresses, through the testimony of directors and actors, the work of Dib Lutfi, considered one of the greatest photographers of Brazilian cinema.
Dib
1997
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Sérgio Ricardo: Uma Outra História do Cinema Novo
2024
6.3Documentary about Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha, one of the most important names in the Cinema Novo, with interviews with some of his friends and colleagues.
Glauber Rocha - The Movie, Brazil's Labyrinth
2003
7.6The film follows two men living in a Rio de Janeiro slum: a black shoe-shiner and a white mill worker.
Esse Mundo é Meu
1964
10.0No synopsis available yet.
O Tempo e o Som
1970
NRThe composer, singer, musician, painter and filmmaker João Lutfi, known as Sérgio Ricardo, narrates his journey from the beginning as a pianist for TV Tupi, through his experience as an actor on TV, as a bossa nova artist until he found his very own and characteristic style as a filmmaker and composer.
Sérgio Ricardo AKA João Lutfi
2020
NRThe film shows the resistance movement of the residents of Favela do Vidigal against the removal order, an important chapter in the history of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s.
Favela do Papa
2023
When a young boy from a shanty town near Rio de Janeiro gets a coveted pair of white trousers for Christmas his joy knows no bounds. Not getting them dirty, however, presents certain difficulties for a lively slum kid.
Menino da Calça Branca
1962
Behind the camera
5.0Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro. A woman is left desperate and hopeless after she is evicted from her house with her disabled son.
Pé Sem Chão
2014
5.0Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro. A woman is left desperate and hopeless after she is evicted from her house with her disabled son.
Pé Sem Chão
2014
NRSérgio Ricardo's only animation film, a short made as a companion piece to his song "Zelão".
Zelão
1999
NRSérgio Ricardo's only animation film, a short made as a companion piece to his song "Zelão".
Zelão
1999
7.0A beautiful young woman living in an isolated fishing community on an island falls in love with an outsider, a train machinist. But her father, a violent religious fanatic interferes.
Lost Love Juliana
1970
7.0A beautiful young woman living in an isolated fishing community on an island falls in love with an outsider, a train machinist. But her father, a violent religious fanatic interferes.
Lost Love Juliana
1970
6.5In the miserable Northeastern Brazil, a ruthless land Baron wants to throw a poor farming community out of their land.
The Night of the Scarecrow
1974
6.5In the miserable Northeastern Brazil, a ruthless land Baron wants to throw a poor farming community out of their land.
The Night of the Scarecrow
1974
NRVidigal Hill, 1977. A runaway group of bandits engage in a complex love triangle in the brink of the news that the corrupt Rio de Janeiro mayor decided to make everyone move out of Vidigal, aided by police forces.
Bandeira de Retalhos
2018
NRVidigal Hill, 1977. A runaway group of bandits engage in a complex love triangle in the brink of the news that the corrupt Rio de Janeiro mayor decided to make everyone move out of Vidigal, aided by police forces.
Bandeira de Retalhos
2018
7.6The film follows two men living in a Rio de Janeiro slum: a black shoe-shiner and a white mill worker.
Esse Mundo é Meu
1964
7.6The film follows two men living in a Rio de Janeiro slum: a black shoe-shiner and a white mill worker.
Esse Mundo é Meu
1964
7.6The film follows two men living in a Rio de Janeiro slum: a black shoe-shiner and a white mill worker.
Esse Mundo é Meu
1964
When a young boy from a shanty town near Rio de Janeiro gets a coveted pair of white trousers for Christmas his joy knows no bounds. Not getting them dirty, however, presents certain difficulties for a lively slum kid.
Menino da Calça Branca
1962
When a young boy from a shanty town near Rio de Janeiro gets a coveted pair of white trousers for Christmas his joy knows no bounds. Not getting them dirty, however, presents certain difficulties for a lively slum kid.
Menino da Calça Branca
1962