A FALECIDA

Zulmira is obsessed with the idea of death. She is convinced that she has tubercolosis, and so, goes to a doctor who assures her that she is in perfect health. This is not enough for her. She takes the smallest beginning of a cough as a sign of imminent death. She wants to make up for her miserable life at the side of hier husband, Toninho, by having a luxurious funeral. For this reason, she orders a deluxe coffin from a funeral parlor. Before she dies, she asks Toninho to ask Guinarães, the richest man of the neighborhood, for the money for the funeral. Guinarães refuses and reveals to Toninho that he was his wife's lover. Toninho blackmails him and in this way gets the money out of him. However, to avenge himself because of this insult, he orders the least expensive funeral and spends the rest of the money watching a soccer game at the stadium.

"Leon took the center of the comedy, stripped it bare, and filmed it in the streets and alleys of Rio. Fernanda Montenegro is the leading lady. She fills the role of the morbid womati from the outskirts of a city who seeks refuge from her miserable existence by projecting her sense of life into the day of her death and living in order to prepare herself for this death. In A falecida, Nélson Rodrigues has a film that is at the level of his best theater and Leon has opened a new road for urban carioca cinema." (Antônio Carlos Fontoura)

Director: Leon Hirszman.
Screenplay: Leon Hirszman, Eduardo Coutinho.
Plot: dal romanzo di Nelson Rodrigues.
Director of photography: José Medeiros, Dib Lufti (operatore).
Art director: Régis Monteiro.
Editor: Nello Melli.
Music: Radamés Gnatalli.
Songs: "Luz Negra" di Nelson Cavaquinho e Amâncio Cardozo.
Cast and characters: Fernanda Montenegro (Zulmira), Ivan Candido (Toninho), Vanda Lacerda, Nelson Xavier (agente funerario), Paulo Gracindo (Guinarães), Joel Barcellos, Dinorah Brillante, Hugo Carvana, Glória Ladany, Zé Kéti, Virgínia Vale, Wilmar Menezes, Oswaldo Ferreira.
Production company: Jofre Rodriguez, Aloisio Leite Garcia, Produções Cinematográficas Meta.