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Norma Bengell, a sort of Brazilian Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot, and rolled into one, died of lung cancer in her hometown of Rio de Janeiro on Oct. 9. She was 78. Best known internationally for her leading-lady roles in several Italian-made cult classics of the mid-1960s, Norma Bengell was known in Brazil as a controversial show business veteran and for being the first “name” actress (purportedly anywhere in the world) to be seen fully naked – full frontal – in a mainstream film.
Three years later, Norma Bengell turned into a national sensation after being featured fully naked in Ruy Guerra’s crime drama Os Cafajestes (literally, “The Jerks,” or possibly “The Crooks” or “The Thugs”). A classic of the Brazilian New Wave, or Cinema Novo, Os Cafajestes follows two small-time Copacabana crooks out to get some easy money by way of blackmail. Things, however, don’t go quite as planned.
According to Bengell, her full frontal nude scene was filmed in one take. Not long before her death, she would also recall being told that because of her role in Os Cafajestes “I’d be lynched and thrown out” in the state of Minas Gerais.
Also in 1962, Norma Bengell proved she was a capable dramatic actress, playing a world-weary prostitute in Anselmo Duarte’s classic Keeper of Promises / The Given Word / O Pagador de Promessas, a merciless critique of both the Catholic Church and religious obsession. In the film, Leonardo Villar stars as a peasant from Brazil’s Northeastern hinterlands who is prevented from carrying a gigantic cross into the St. Barbara cathedral in Salvador, Bahia – his vow to the saint in question for having saved the life of his donkey. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Keeper of Promises became the first Brazilian movie to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.
