User Reviews

Too many things in this film are so weird, fake, invented and/or straight wrong it's hard to know where to begin. In the official description of the 'docu' we read i.e. 'João Gilberto, who has not been seen in public for decades.....'- lol. A quick search on Youtube gives us a full solo concert of his in Tokyo from 2006! And that was not his last one! The 'auteur' of this documentary tries mostly to make himself beings even as important and searching for the mysterious Joao Gilberto. It's true that Joao became reclusive in his final years (not decades), his health deteriorated massively. It is well known where he lived during that time (not in Ipanema) and that the book author nor the director producer of this weirdo doc were not able to find events place is a sad reminder of the level where this production stands. Forgettable and not worth the time watching.

I watched this documentary because I enjoy Joao Gilberto's music and found the synopsis intriguing. After viewing I did a little internet sleuthing and there's more known about Joao's last days than the film lets on. The filmmaker either somehow missed or chose to ignore the truth about Joao's declining health. He instead envisioned a bizarre game of recluse hide and seek, and walked around talking to people who said they routinely had phone conversations with the man while implying he was impossible to find. This was my biggest gripe with the film, not just the fantasy of it, but the implication that it's somehow okay to hunt down a reclusive person.

He also managed to meet some spectacular Brazilian musicians and only talk to them about their relationships with Joao. He could have made a really good documentary about the hay day of Bossa Nova with some of the people he spoke to.