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'Exodus' tried to tell a story of a Semite people, played by actors with Germanic features like Eva Marie Saint, Jill Haworth and Paul Newman.
4 March 1962 - Otto Preminger's 'Exodus', shot in 1960, opened in New York on 15 December 1960, in order to be elegible for Academy Award nominations. It ended up getting an Oscar for best music score of a dramatic or comedy picture for Ernest Gold, whose opening theme became a major hit. It took 'Exodus' 16 months or one and half years to be released at Cine Normandie, on Saturday, 10 March 1962.
10 March 1962 - I remember the Saturday I went to see Otto Preminger's 'Exodus', which opened exclusively at Cine Normandie, on a Saturday, instead of the usual Monday. I had made a habit of seeing Hollywood's super-productions on the 1st week of their opening in São Paulo downtown. I kept tabs on movies openings reading Sunday paper 'O Estado de S.Paulo'. Since my Uncle Claudio took me to see 'The 10 Commandments' at Cine Boulevard, in early 1961, I made a point of not missing any Hollywood biblical super-productions and when I heard about 'Exodus', I knew I had to see it.
As I didn't work on Saturdays, I planned to go and see the very first session which started at 12:50, ten to 1:00 pm. I remember it was a sunny day, so I left Rua Simpatia, Vila Madalena around 11:00 o'clock and took the tram to Rua da Consolação, where I alighted and went over to Avenida Angélica to see my Father at his shoe workshop on the back lot of Clínica de Fraturas Angélica. My Father had made a shoe workshop at the back of the 2-story house and had been working there for some months now.
I used to hang around his workshop for half-an-hour, talk to him and whoever was there at the moment. He had an old acquaintence from Marilia called Luiz, who helped him in making and repairing shoes. Doctors and male-nurses, especially Manoel, spent their spare time there talking about life. Sometimes they played guitar and sang boleros and sambas. I remember one of the doctors was surprise to see that I, who was a 12 year-old boy was interested in a flick like 'Exodus'. He asked me questions about the movie, but to tell you the truth I didn't know much about it. I only knew it was a Hollywood super-production and had something to do with a biblical story, which was not exactly right.
I knew the music theme which played on the radio often and I liked it very much. I had never seen Paul Newman on the wide-screen but I knew his face well for I was an avid reader of 'Cinelândia', a fortnight publication dedicated to everything related to Hollywood.
I left my Father's workshop with enough time to get myself a tram-car to Praça Ramos de Azevedo and then walk all the way to Avenida Rio Branco. 'Exodus' was not exactly the kind of movie I liked. I didn't know it was set in the late 1940s, which was not that long ago. To tell you the truth I didn't like the movie... it was colourless... actually khaki was the main colour, for it was the hue of Israeli soldiers' uniforms. The flick was a big let down to me, though I liked Eva Marie Saint performance but I did not understand the plot. I didn't know much about Zionism and Israel. It was a great non-event... but I remember that day too well.
I also remember Sal Mineo's role. He had a teen-age love affair with Jill Haworth. I think they were both soldiers in the Israeli army.
10 March 1962 - A brand new cinema house - Cine Barão - opens at Galeria California on trendy Rua Barão de Itapetininga, in São Paulo on Friday, 10 March 1962.
I must have been a very impressionable young man when I was 13 years old. I never forget the day I watched 'Fanny' with Leslie Caron & Horst Buchholz. I felt deep in my heart Fanny's tragedy of losing Marius to stay with the old man. I watched 'Fanny' with my younger brother at a tiny Cine Juventude Catolica in Marilia-SP. It was my first visit to my Marilia since we had left it in December 1960.
Horst Buchholz & Leslie Caron.
26 March 1963 - 'Fanny' premiered at Cine Astor & Ipiranga. I must have seen it in July 1962, during the winter school recess when I traveled to Marilia-SP.
Horst Werner Buchholz, born on 4 December 1933, in Berlin, Germany; Leslie Clare Margaret Caron, born on 1st July 1931, in Boulogne-sur-Seine, Paris.
Miss Caron, director Joshua Lockwood Logan III, born on 5 October 1908, in Texarkana, Texas & Horst Buchholz in Marseille, France in 1961.
4 March 1962 - Comic Zé Trindade was still really popular among Brazilians even though his days were numbered due to the constant expansion of TV sets in Brazilian homes. 'Bom mesmo é carnaval' (Carnaval is what it counts) dealt with the Brazilian notion that everything is allowed (especially sexual freedom) during the 3 or 4 days of Carnaval. Anilza Leoni embodied the proverbial voluptuous woman while Nelly Martins played the irreproachable young lady perfect for marriage. Jayme Costa is the ever friendly older uncle and Renato Restier who usually plays a mobster or racketeer this time is a bar owner. Musical numbers were an important part of a typical Brazilian musical comedy: Virginia Lane, a 1950s show-girl, Francisco Carlos whose popularity was on the wane, Joel de Almeida, a 1930s act who re-invented himself and was a Carnaval MC-cum-singer, Jackson do Pandeiro, who'd been around for at least a decade but was still going strong and José Messias, a Brazilian Dick Clark counterpart who was a DJ, songwriter and sometimes a singer to boot.
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