User Reviews

I've had a passing fascination for Elis Regina for many years and was very surprised to see this film advertised on Amazon Prime Video as I had not heard anything about it. I immediately assumed it was a documentary because of its lack of promotion in Europe, so you could imagine my surprise when I started playing it and saw a list of actors in the opening credits.

I think the reason why this movie did not resonate too well outside of Brazil is because it was not written for a global audience. The film made too many assumptions: firstly, that you are familiar with Elis' recordings and secondly you were bought up knowing a lot about the Brazilian music industry. Perhaps even more vitally, it made the assumption that everybody is aware of the brutality that occurred during the dictatorship. This, I believe, made the film inaccessible to the world.

Andréia Horta, in my humble opinion, gave an absolutely stunning performance capturing a lot of the essence of Elis Regina that I had seen in her performances and her interviews but, something was badly paced in the actual storytelling. The film either needed to be (at least) another 30 minutes longer or it needed to spread the story more evenly over the course of her years under the spotlight. Up until her television performances, I feel the director got the story right. After that, it was like a needle skating across a record. First a child and then three as if by magic.

This wasn't the main problem for me, though. Again, the movie made the assumption that the audience would immediately know in which year the events were occurring. I found it difficult to know whether the story was still in the mid seventies or the early 80s.

I also have a feeling that the story of her involvement with drugs wasn't properly told. One minute she was trying peyote and the next, we are to suspect that she died of some sort of drug overdose despite saying that music and her children were the most important things in her life.

I could watch this movie again just to enjoy Adréia Horta's performance once more (the support cast were also wonderfully portrayed), but I will end up with the same sense of unfulfillment.

I don't think you needed to be a Ray Charles fan to have enjoyed his biopic and to have felt that you got to know him not only as a singer but as a person as well, but this movie left me with more questions than answers.

Loved elis want to know more - but the film really is just jumping from one highlight of her life to another stuffing in any number of beautiful songs

When Elis passed away in 1982, people and talked about an involuntary, casual overdose: she was kinda "first-time sailor," the media never spoke of suicide. The writers of this film, however, reveal that she had been using drugs since long before (the mid sixties to be precise) and did commit suicide, driven by a chronic, deep depression. The movie was based rather on the musical show "Elis, a musical" by his fan, producer, friend and lover Nelson Motta than on Julio Maria's biography entitled "Nothing will be as before." The complexity of Elis's life was directly proportional to her unpredictable, impetuous, and ambitious personality. Only five feet tall, Elis was blessed with a high-pitched, sincere voice, good technique, and a great rhythmic and harmonic sense, somewhat jazzing everything up. The film omits her first two records produced under the tutelage of the father, with a repertoire chosen by the recording label and a standard background playback sound. It also omits her first source of income when she arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1964, namely the jingles she recorded for advertising agencies under the tutelage of her first boyfriend in Rio, Henrique Meyer, also a gaucho. The film exaggerates, on the other hand, the supposed political side of the singer - who was never a communist. It highlights characters absolutely unimportant for this kind of biopic, such as one grotesque colonel interrogator of the Brazilian army, one French reporter too preoccupied with the evils of third-world dictatorships, and one particular cartoonist, Henfil from O Pasquim, who slashed her by drawing her singing in the presence of Adolf Hitler. The film, which can be seen as a pleasant musical, involuntarily confirms Heitor de Paola's thesis of drugs acting as a means - whether or not unconscious - of a collective suicidal drive.

This biographical film explores the professional and personal life of the singer Elis Regina. It offers a trip into the atmosphere of the Bresil of the sixties and the seventies. A real effort of reconstitution of the choreography, cloth, furniture, etc. has been made. The actress performs very well in different areas. Time passes quickly as it has several rebounds.

A touching portrait of one of Brazil's most iconic performers, beautifully photographed by Adrian Teijido and very well directed by Hugo Prata, who not only dominates the technical aspects of filmmaking, but also knows how to play with the language of music throughout his film. Andreia Horta shines as the troubled but yet brilliant singer. Julio Andrade surprises as a particularly spirited Lennie Dale. Besides great performances, the film leads you through the beginnings of MPB (Popular Brazilian Music) and what it meant to Brazil as a nation facing military dictatorship.

I definitely recommend Elis to anyone who appreciates good music, fascinating characters and great entertainment.

What a beautiful and touching movie! The sensitiveness of the director amazed me as he was able to show this great singer as an idol and a human being at the same time. It must have been tough to choose what events of her life to tell in only two hours as she's gone through so many things during her short lived life, but he was able to stay true to who she was and to show how she evolved from a talented young singer, to major success, and her early death fighting her own demons. No words to describe Andrea Horta!!! What an amazing and powerful acting!! Elis lived again through her. Beautiful photography, arts and costume designs!! A must see!!

A great assortment of badly told facts, actors who dub the studio song and a sad vision about Elis Regina. In all, a story badly told. Unless you already know the characters, mostly famous Brazilian musicians, I believe it is really hard to understand what is happening and their motivations. For instance, Elis Regina seems to be a happy young singer who suddenly turns into a spoiled unhappy house-wife. She then starting drinking, taking stuff (unclear what she takes, such a superficial approach…) and then she dies.

The main actress tried hard, but could only imitate the laughter of Elis, which she did all the time, even when it did not make sense.

Whoever made this film clearly was based on the same research of the musical (that's a good one) and does not like Elis Regina.

Among all the qualities that I can mention, two I think are the most important: 1)Rhythm: Since the cinema is all this, the films contains it owns characteristics. Each film have your climax, plot and so on. I'm very impressive with Elis's rhythm. This because, no matter how good the film is, in such a moment, the narrative always goes down. This is normal, and happens even in classic movies. But not in Elis. The feature film, directed by Hugo Prata, have a impressive rhythm. It's 110 minutes of hole attention. What we can say it's a daring feat. Even more if we considerate the film gender. It's not a suspense, neither adventure. It's entertainment with quality. I can say it's like Usain Bolt running a marathon. The rhythm is impressive for a feature film .

2)Courage: Show the life of Elis Regina is not for beginners. The responsibility of taking to the screens the history of the biggest Brazilian singer, would make a lot of producers shake. But the final result, don't show this fear. On the contrary, it inspires courage. It reminds me a criticism I read a few years ago, saying that John Ford "didn't film like a director, he used to film like a man". I believe it sounds the same for "Elis"

Elis was a strong woman, a woman of attitude, with a lot of opinions who lived a short and intense life. Among all this, she was one of the best singers of Brazil. All this is very well pictured in the film. Her short life, her loves, her fierce, and of course her premature death. I think this film have the power of delight from the young to older ones. The art direction and costume design are perfects! They are really true and convincing. The photography is so well resolved that makes you feel inside the scenes. Of course the sound track is one of the best parts of the film! Very powerful hear the songs with her own voice... About the cast, Andrea Horta is so brilliant as Elis Regina that you really thinks she is real. Her acting is so natural, true and full of energy. Just a particular show! I can say that this movie is a beautiful way to eternalize, once again, this incredible woman! I feel very happy to say this is 100% made in Brazil. Congrats to everyone involved and for the director my gratitude.

Andréia Horta is riviting. Top 10 best film performances by an actress, ever. I'm not Brazilian, I don't know the history of Elis but this is one hell of a good movie and you should go see it.

What a beautiful and sad portrait, the certainty that she was a phenomenal singer, and definitely Ronaldo Bôscoli was a terrible husband and a despicable father, he wanted a film about the dramatic lives of children after their mother's death, especially of the first-born, poor boy... The track sound of the film, perfect and impeccable, it couldn't be different, Andréia Horta is wonderful, dictatorship and repression, sad, beautiful biography, deserved...

I was blessed to have seen Elis Regina upon the stage. This movie tells you a lot of what you need to know about our star's career from the start. Elis's pains and steadfast desire to be free at a sad time when freedom was half enjoyed by a few, and not at all by real Brazilians find a way to lend a voice to those muffled by a cynical and ruthless regime that should stay buried forever, and never be allowed to see the light again. But none of that matters more than the soundtrack. Oh, those songs! It's Elis. Queen Elis. Elis Regina!

It's hard to imagine a better performance in the role of Elis Regina than the one turned in here by Andreia Horta. She even looks like Elis and captures her radiant smile perfectly. The lip-syncing to Elis' great songs is very well done; the physical movements, too. If the movie seems to be a bit short in showing Elis' turbulent life, well, remember that her life was tragically short.