Vale Tudo (English: Anything Goes) is a Brazilian telenovela produced and broadcast by Rede Globo from May 16, 1988, to January 6, 1989.
In 2016 Vale Tudo and Avenida Brasil were elected by the magazine Veja as "the best Brazilian telenovelas of all time".
Contents
Plot
Young Maria de Fátima does not believe in honesty. Without hesitation, she sells the family home, leaving her mother destitute, and moves to Rio de Janeiro with the intention of earning a living as a model or with a wealthy marriage. She gets involved with the scoundrel César Ribeiro, a model at the end of his career, and, to achieve her goals, uses the most sordid means. She meets the millionaire Afonso Roitman and, after many schemes, separates him from his girlfriend, Solange, to marry him.
Raquel, Fátima's mother, is her opposite: the personification of honesty. For her, only work can give dignity to a man. When she was abandoned by her husband with a daughter to raise, she did not hesitate to face the day to day. After being deceived by her daughter, Raquel goes after her and settles in Rio. She meets Ivan, the man she falls in love with, and, after much struggle, from selling sandwiches on the beach, she becomes the owner of a restaurant chain, Paladar.
The story takes a turn when Raquel finds a suitcase with US$800,000, lost by the dishonest executive Marco Aurélio, and refuses to keep the money, as Ivan suggested. The suitcase disappears due to a plan by Fátima and Raquel believes that it was Ivan who took it. The two end up breaking up and Ivan marries Heleninha, a fragile and alcoholic artist, daughter of the all-powerful Odete Roitman, owner of the TCA airline company, who is most to blame for her daughter's psychological problems.
Odete is having an affair with César, Fátima's lover – who, at this point, has become her daughter-in-law when she marries her son Afonso. Odete is a rich and arrogant woman, capable of anything to defend her interests. She ends up being murdered while arguing with Marco Aurélio, an executive at her company, when she discovers that he was the owner of the suitcase with dollars and that he had embezzled a fortune from her assets. While Marco Aurélio flees with the money, the police are on the trail of Odete Roitman's killer. And Fátima and César plan a new scam, outside the country.
Legacy
The telenovela's themes reflected the changes and questions facing Brazilian society in the late 1980s, when the country faced several changes with the end of the military regime and the promulgation of a new constitution.
Filming for the series began on 16 November 1987, and ended on 6 January 1989, with a total of 204 episodes produced.
Odete Roitman and Marco Aurélio portrayed the typical corrupt people in the country, while Raquel and Ivan symbolized the lives of millions of Brazilians.
The title originally intended for the novela was "Motherland" which became unfeasible because it already existed as the name of a film by Tizuka Yamasaki.
Daniel Filho mentions in his book The Electronic Circus:
"In the first synopsis, the daughter sold the house around chapter 40 or 50. Of course, other parallel stories would be happening. But the central theme didn't take off. I argued: 'If the daughter doesn't sell the house in the first chapter and the mother is left destitute, the novel won't achieve its objective.' In other words, it wouldn't make its theme clear. Denis Carvalho - the director - agrees. Aguinaldo's presence and Leonor's conciliatory manner made the author extend that situation from chapter 40 to number 1."
In episode 193, which aired on 24 December 1988, the villain Odete Roitman was murdered with three shots fired at point-blank range. The mystery of the killer's identity lasted only 13 days, but dominated conversations across the country. Nestlé held a contest to win the prize for guessing the killer's name. The nation paused in front of its television on 6 January 1989, to find out who the killer was.
The mystery of the identity of Odete Roitman's killer became the target of bets, raffles, and drawings. The shooting scene was recorded minutes before the day the final episode was scheduled to air. Not even the cast knew, until Denis Carvalho dismissed the other actors, announcing it would be Leila. Beatriz Segall first reacted to the murder by congratulating her co-star. Reason for the murder: Leila entered the apartment, blinded by jealousy, looking for Maria de Fátima, but missed, firing her gun at the villain. She thought the person there, with her husband Marco Aurélio, was his lover, Maria de Fátima.
