The Red Light Bandit

{{Infobox film | name = The Red Light Bandit | image = OBandidoDaLuzVermelha.jpg | alt = O Bandido da Luz Vermelha | caption = Original Brazilian release poster | director = Rogério Sganzerla | writer = Rogério Sganzerla | producer = José da Costa Cordeiro<br>José Alberto Reis<br>Rogério Sganzerla | starring = Paulo Villaça<br>Helena Ignez<br>Luiz Linhares | narrator = Hélio Aguiar | cinematography = Peter Overbeck | editing = Silvio Renoldi | music = Rogério Sganzerla | studio = Urano Filmes | distributor = Sagres Filmes (VHS release) | released = {{Film date|df=y|1968|12|02|São Paulo}} | runtime = 92 minutes | country = Brazil | language = Portuguese | budget = | gross = }}

'''''The Red Light Bandit''''' ({{langx|pt|O Bandido da Luz Vermelha}}) is a 1968 Brazilian crime film directed by Rogério Sganzerla,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CAopGCBopQsC&q=the+red+light+bandit+brazil&pg=PA95|title=Allegories of Underdevelopment: Aesthetics and Politics in Modern Brazilian Cinema|last=Xavier|first=Ismail|date=1997|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=9780816626779|language=en}}</ref> inspired by the crimes of the famous real-life robber João Acácio Pereira da Costa, nicknamed the "Red Light Bandit" (''Bandido da Luz Vermelha'').<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001103/110379Eo.pdf|title = Memory of the World National Cinematic Heritage|date = 1995|access-date = 17 February 2016|website = |publisher = Unesco|last = |first = }}</ref> The film is regarded as a classic work of ''Cinema Marginal'', the Brazilian underground filmmaking movement of the 1960s. Sganzerla was about 22 years old when he directed it.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Rep Diary: Tropicália - Film Comment|url = http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/rep-diary-tropicalia/|website = Film Comment| date=17 November 2014 |access-date = 2016-02-17|language = en-US}}</ref>

Sganzerla called the film ''a Third World western''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sganzerla|first=Rogério|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kozqL4iqr8EC&q=o+bandido.da+luz+vermelha+an%C3%A1lise|title=O bandido da luz vermelha: argumento e roteiro|date=2008|publisher=Imprensa Oficial Do Estado|isbn=978-85-7060-669-3|language=pt}}</ref>

==Plot== {{more plot|date=December 2018}} Born and raised in the Brazilian slums, Jorge is a burglar of luxury houses in São Paulo. He baffles the police with his unusual ''modus operandi'', and is nicknamed is "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. Wearing a red flashlight he breaks into houses at night, rapes his female victims and has long irreverent conversations with them, makes daring escapes, and then spends the profits of his crimes extravagantly in the decadent Boca do Lixo district. His criminal exploits are shown in a fragmented manner, voiced over by two narrators in the style of a sensationalistic radio program.

He has an affair with Janete Jane, he meets with other burglars and a corrupt politician, and gets betrayed. Pursued and cornered, he has only one way out of his career of crime: suicide.

== Cast ==  * Paulo Villaça as Jorge, the Red Light Bandit * Helena Ignez as Janete Jane * Luiz Linhares as police officer Cabeção * Pagano Sobrinho as J.B. da Silva * Roberto Luna as Lucho Gatica * José Marinho as Tarzan * Ezequiel Neves as Reporter * Sérgio Mamberti as Homosexual * Renato Consorte as TV host * Sérgio Hingst as Millionaire * Lola Brah as Rich Woman * Antonio Lima as Gangster * Ozualdo Candeias as Criminal * Maurice Capovilla as Gangster * Carlos Reichenbach as Gangster * Sônia Braga as Victim

==Reception== Film critic Ismail Xavier stated that the film treats the criminal's social milieu with irony, making use of collage, intertextuality and pastiche, in contrast with ''Cinema Novo'''s naturalistic filmmaking.<ref name=":0" />

In 2015, ''The Red Light Bandit'' was chosen by Abraccine, the Brazilian Association of Film Critics, as the sixth best Brazilian film of all time.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sem Legenda: 'Limite' lidera os cem melhores filmes brasileiros; veja lista feita pela crítica - 27/11/2015 - Ilustrada|url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/2015/11/1711930-sem-legenda-limite-lidera-os-cem-melhores-filmes-brasileiros-veja-lista-feita-pela-critica.shtml|access-date=2020-07-20|website=Folha de S.Paulo}}</ref> It was listed by Jeanne O Santos, from ''Cinema em Cena'' (Cinema Scene), as a "national classic".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://cinemaemcena.cartacapital.com.br/lista/ver/classicos-nacionais |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190629224540/http://cinemaemcena.cartacapital.com.br/lista/ver/classicos-nacionais |url-status= dead |archive-date= June 29, 2019 |title=Clássicos nacionais |access-date= 29 June 2019 |author= Jeanne O Santos |website= Cinema em Cena |publisher= CartaCapital}} </ref>

===Awards and nominations=== '''1968 Festival de Brasília''' (Brazil)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kozqL4iqr8EC&q=o+bandido+da+luz+vermelha+filme+festival+de+bras%C3%ADlia&pg=PT151|title=O bandido da luz vermelha: argumento e roteiro|last=Sganzerla|first=Rogério|date=2008|publisher=Imprensa Oficial Do Estado|isbn=9788570606693|language=pt}}</ref> * Best Costume * Best Director * Best Editing * Best Film

==Sequel== A sequel directed by Ícaro Martins and Helena Ignez, widow of Sganzerla, was released in 2010: ''Luz nas Trevas - A Volta do Bandido da Luz Vermelha''.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Continuação de 'O bandido da luz vermelha' estreia em festival na Suíça|url = http://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/noticia/2010/07/continuacao-de-o-bandido-da-luz-vermelha-estreia-em-festival-na-suica.html|website = Pop & Arte| date=14 July 2010 |access-date = 2016-02-17|language = pt-BR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://variety.com/2010/film/reviews/light-in-darkness-the-return-of-the-red-light-bandit-1117943365/|title=Review: 'Light in Darkness: The Return of the Red Light Bandit'|last=Felperin|first=Leslie|date=2010-08-19|work=Variety|access-date=2017-07-13|language=en-US}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/obra67285/o-bandido-da-luz-vermelha ''The Red Light Bandit'' on Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural] (in Portuguese) * {{IMDb title|0144782}} * {{Rotten tomatoes|o_bandido_da_luz_vermelha_1968}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Light Bandit}} Category:Crime films based on actual events Category:1960s Portuguese-language films Category:Brazilian crime films Category:1968 films Category:1968 black-and-white films Category:Films set in São Paulo Category:1968 crime films Category:Brazilian black-and-white films Category:1960s Brazilian films