Product Details

• Actors: Carla Ribas, Vinicius Zinn, Ricardo Vilaca, Felipe Massuia, Berta Zemel
• Directors: Chico Teixeira
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: Portuguese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: IndiePix
• DVD Release Date: June 23, 2009
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B0024LQRAK
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #63,880 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #50 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > Latin American Cinema > Brazil
  #67 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > By Original Language > Portuguese

Editorial Reviews

Review

One of the year's 10 best! ---indieWIRE

Product Description

When Alice, a Sao Paulo manicurist, wife and mother has a chance meeting with an old flame, she is forced to re-examine her life and address her romantic dreams. Feeling her youth and sexuality slipping away, Alice flirts with a rapturous affair to escape her repressive family life and avoid the fate of her aging mother, who drags out her remaining years as the housemaid. Award-winning documentarian Carlos Teixeira silently immerses his camera in Alices household, recording day-to-day minutia and scorching passion with equal weight and no judgement. The result is a world all too real, overflowing the boundaries of its Brazilian setting and revealing the dreams and flaws which define our shared humanity.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty Look at Poverty & Aspiration, July 23, 2009

By	The Movie Man "tenebre89" (Maywood, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

"Alice's House" is a crowded high-rise apartment building in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Alice (Carla Ribas) is a middle-aged manicurist who shares an apartment with her cabdriver husband, three grown sons, and elderly mother. The husband is having an affair with a teenage neighbor, one son is a gay hustler and another is a petty thief. Both Alice and husband appear to be in denial as they lie about their home life and finances to other people. Only grandma (Berta Zemel) sees everything as it actually is and, ironically, she is going blind. Alice sees new possibilities for herself when a one-time lover comes into the beauty parlor for a manicure. Like Alice, he is married -- to Alice's best customer -- but he's sexy, wealthy, and far more attentive to her than her husband.
Director Chico Teixeira has crafted a drama of family, friendship, betrayal, and frustration. Ms. Ribas is particularly effective, and we feel both the physical and emotional claustrophobia of her situation. The film in Portuguese with English subtitles. Special features include a behind-the-scenes featurette and interviews with Chico Teixeira and Carla Ribas.