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=Carmen Miranda:Bananas is my Business=

Bananas Is My Business is a 1995 documentary filmed and directed by Dr. Helena Solberg. This documentary chronicles the life and career of Carmen Miranda, Hollywoods symbol of Latin American spirit in the 1940s. The documentary tells her life story in a series of stages, beginning with her roots and rise to stardom in her home country of Brazil, her transition and development as a performer in the United States, first on Broadway in New York City, then in the film industry after she signed with Fox 20th Century in Los Angeles, and her later years in life, before her tragic death and her return to Brazil. Helena Solberg uses two different film styles, biography and directorial reverie, in which which Solberg uses actor Erick Barretos to “resurrect [Carmen Miranda] in several fantasy sequences. . Helena Solbergs attitudes shift throughout the documentary from awe-struck child to empathetic and forgiving Brazilian woman, which she uses to represent the contradictory subplots of Carmen Mirandas life. Alongside the fantasy like resurrection of Miranda, Solberg accompanies her documentary with multiple interviews with Carmen Mirandas friends and family, like her sister, her first boyfriend, the guitarist Laurindo Almeida, samba composer Synval Silva, Cesar Romero, and Alice Faye.

Synopsis
Carmen Miranda, an almost ghostly character in the imaginary of Portuguese, Brazilian, and American audiences, comes back to life in the first scene of the documentary as a dream narrated by Helena Solberg. Images from her memorial service in Rio de Janeiro follow, showing the grief of her Brazilian fans as she says goodbye to what she considered her homeland. Born in the small Portuguese village of Varzea da Ovelha e Aliviada on February 9, 1909, Carmen was appropriated by the people of her village as a symbol of success. Making use of interviews with her younger sister Aurora Miranda, the documentary tales the migration story of Carmen, from Portugal to Brazil, were they arrived in November of 1909. Carmen Miranda, daughter of a modest barber, Jose Maria Pinto da Cunha, lived in Rio de Janeiro. There, while working at a hat store, she was first discovered as a singing talent. Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, as a working class adolescent, she noticed the strong influence of Samba music as a powerful cultural aspect of life in Rio’s slums. Embracing that current as a way of expressing herself as an artist, Carmen rose through the radio ranks, while “In those days, a girl that sang on the radio was frowned upon… In a world dominated by man, she was able to navigate through those struggles.”As a local artist, she kept a close relationship with composer Synval Silva and Laurindo Almeida until she left for the United States. This opportunity came in 1939, when she performed along her band of Brazilian musicians. Carmen Miranda embarked on The Normandy for New York after being signed by Lee Schupert, who included her in the cast for Broadway play 'The Streets of Paris'. This was the episode that transformed the life of who was later to be known as 'The Brazilian Bombshell'. Once in New York, Carmen Miranda showed how her extravagant looks, and beautiful voice spoke for her, despite of the fact that her American audience could not understand a word she was speaking.

Career in the United States and the Fight for her Identity
As she became more popular, and stories about her success were heard in Brazil through the redid,Brazilians were skeptical of Carmen Miranda's success in New York. Carmen Miranda found herself fighting tirelessly to prove her identity as a Brazilian, but also to keep the attention from her American audience. Her appropriation of the style would win her many enemies within Brazil, as she represented a sector of Brazilian culture, the Afro-Brazilian, who represented not only the racialized other according to Brazil’s white elite, but where also a threat to national identity. The press and the elite constantly attacked her image, many who “looked at her as an embarrassment and an affront to their cultural heritage”. Helena Solberg also suggests that Miranda’s image was exploited and used by the United States Government during World War II as part of its Good Neighbor Policy, towards Latin America, whose natural resources were vital and needed to fight the war. . Even though this would bring credibility to her image, Carmen, in on of her many identities, would eventually lead her to even larger criticism. When Carmen became a blond for her movies in Hollywood, when the World War II was over, the audience back in Brazil bashed her with critics once again, this time saying that she was too ‘Americanized’ However, her American audience seemed to be captivated by the exotic and colorful style of the singer/actress. She was sensuously silly, a comical icon of fertility, and friendliness that threatened no one [Citation]. Time after time, Carmen Miranda was consumed by sadness, since she knew that her beloved  exemplifies Carmen Miranda as a commodity to be consumed by U.S. audiences, while her value to her people in Brazil declined as she was considered “Americanized.” Solberg includes interviews with Rita Moreno, who offers her critique of Hollwywood’s stereotyping of Latin American women as loud, sassy, and over-sexualized.

Death and the aftermath
The final stage of the movie chronicles the events leading up to Carmen Miranda’s death. In the documentary, Helena Solberg uses interviews with Carmen Mirandas closest friends and workers, such as her housekeeper, to show that Carmen Miranda troubled marriage to filmmaker David Sebastian, and her exhausting work schedule led to Carmen Mirandas depression. With doctors orders, Carmen Miranda took a leave from work and traveled back to Brazil to rest for several weeks. Upon her return to Los Angeles, Carmen Miranda appeared on NBC television series The Jimmy Durante Show where on August 4, 1955, Carmen Miranda suffered a mild heart attack after completing a dance number with Jimmy Durante. Carmen Miranda fell to her knees, upon when Jimmy Durante told the band to “stop the music” as he helped Carmen Miranda up to her feet as she laughed, “Im all out of breath!” Carmen Miranda would finish off the show only to later suffer a second heart attack in her Beverly Hills home that led to her tragic death. The documentary shows the service that was held in Los Angeles and also shows the return of her body to Rio De Janeiro in accordance with Carmen Mirandas last wishes. Upon her arrival, the Brazilian government declared a period of national mourning, as more than 60,000 people attended her ceremony at the Rio town hall and where more than half a million Brazilians escorted her body to her final resting place.

Reference
1 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FILM REVIEW Tragic Figure Beneath A Crown Of Fruit, June 5, 2012

2 The Seattle Times, Entertaining 'Gallowglass' As Good As T.V. Gets, June 5, 2012

3 SFGate, "Carmen pays respect, June 5, 2012