Background
Bruno Barreto was born on 16 March 1955 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was the son of two movie producers.
Bruno Barreto was born on 16 March 1955 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was the son of two movie producers.
His parents produced his breakthrough picture, Dona Flor - a clever, sexy fantasy about a woman torn between her dead husband (a rogue but a great lover) and the dull new guy. In truth, the film was pretty awkward, but it was helped to international success by Sonia Braga’s central performance.
After that, Barreto struggled, though he did work on the screenplay for American remake of Dona Flor Kiss Me Goodbye (82, Robert Mulligan). Then, at the end of the eighties, as he became romantically involved with Amy Irving, Barreto moved to America. Two of his pictures there have been stories about South American political intrigue— Alan Arldn is good as the kidnapped American ambassador in Brazil in Four Days in September. But nothing prepared one for Carried Away, a rural stoiy, based on a novel by Jim Harrison, about a teacher who has been engaged too long and who is then seduced by a teenager. Dennis Hopper was the teacher, Amy Irving the fiancée, and Amy Loeane the kid.
The result was sexy, anguished, and remarkable—one of the best American films of the nineties, and easily Barreto’s finest work. After that, One Tough Cop seemed all the more sadly routine.