Macunaima (1969) - Joaquim Pedro de Andrade 

Continuing my trek through Brazil is this unique and positively absurd comedy from Andrade. The print of the film was incredibly clear and far better than nearly every Brazilian film I've seen. This fits right into the over the top style of films like Xica and How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman. You know from the start when a man in drag playing a woman with his white face painted brown starts grunting and out drops a fully grown black man as a newborn infant that this film is not going to be too conventional. Our hero as he's constantly called by the narrator mysteriously winds up turning white in a magic fountain and suddenly is god's gift to women. Along the way he has a son who looks exactly like he did as a newborn baby, gets a family of giants to attempt to eat him, is invited to the strangest wedding party I've ever seen and eventually returns to his roots. The whole time he remains lazy and horny which sometimes cancels the other out. Certainly worth hunting out and it is available as an all region DVD.