Best movies like The Palace of Angels

Many exotic characters meet in São Paulo night, looking for love and adventure: Malu, a model; Mauro, the drag queen; Teddy, the hustler; Guto, the gay reporter; and Marta, an actress.

In São Paulo, Vanessa who is normally spoiled rotten, is neglected and rejected by her mother, practically raised alone by her butler and driver Pedro and the maid, Dalva. Vanessa has disturbing daydreams and sexual fantasies, but doesn't let Arlindo, a teenager that flirts with her get close to her. Her best friend is Denise, a promiscuous girl that has intercourse with different men. When Vanessa discloses to Denise her problem, Denise gives the address of her psychotherapist Dr. Artur, to her friend. The unethical shrink pushes Vanessa to the edge, bringing memories of a severe trauma of her childhood. Then the disturbed Dr. Artur induces the girls to commit suicide.

Lena owns a forgotten bar next to a highway where the trucks zip by but rarely stop. She is eight months pregnant and has been abandoned by her former lover, Colonel Mattos, of the São Paulo police. One day, she meets Vilela, a former policeman wanted for a crime he committed in São Paulo. Colonel Mattos was Vilela's superior, and his presence is continually felt by the pair. Two further elements add texture to the plot - the inhospitable landscape and the new baby's crying, which slowly makes life unbearable for the couple. Based on an original stage play by Fernando Bonassi, the film delves into the souls of two Brazilians isolated in one of the country's nameless reaches. A love story and a metaphor taken to extremes: a glimpse at an unequal society which excludes many of its citizens, pushing them into violent adventures of love and death.

Afonso is a university professor and a single father to his son Benedict. One day, they decide to take a trip together, but face problems when their car breaks down. They are helped by four very beautiful telemarketing operators who take them back to São Paulo.

In the bohemian 1960s Rio de Janeiro, the 16 year-old rebel and reckless teenager Marcelo, a terrible student that plays hooky from school, dreams on leaving his home and move to São Paulo to work hard, make money and travel abroad to visit the world.

Former athlete enters an old cinema in São Paulo's decadent city centre and meets an intriguing and mysterious woman, very much like the leading lady on the film. He gets involved with her and her problems and in no time is being accused of a crime.

Dede (Guilherne Fontes) is a Brazilian teen who lives with his middle-class grandparents who are members of the local communist party. When his grandmother dies, his grandfather's health soon fades to the point where he can't speak or walk. The local party officials ask Dede to continue to family tradition and take over his grandfather's position of social authority, but when Dede is introduced to cocaine by his best friend Alpino (Marcos Palmeira), the attraction to drugs is more appealing to him than political activism.

During four years a film crew followed the classified investigations and actions of the São Paulo Anti-Kidnapp Police Force. During this time 386 people were kidnapped in the state of São Paulo and over 1.500 in Brazil.

In the periphery of São Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dênis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier.

The lives of three teachers in the outskirts of São Paulo, their love lives, their interaction with the poor surroundings, their family problems.

Virgínia is an orphan teenager who lives with her rich uncle Marcos, whom she drugs with barbiturates to promote parties in the apartment for her friends. At these parties, which are attended by minors and are fueled by drugs and alcohol, she gets involved with the scammer and ruffian Paulo, a teenager who lives in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. She and Paulo end up in the police after sexually abusing other minors, but her uncle's lawyer, Henrique, manages to save them from being prosecuted. Pretending gratitude, Virginia approaches Henrique and, when her uncle takes her out of town, to get away from "bad company", she tells Henrique her plan: murder her uncle to keep his fortune. Henrique gets involved by the girl, not knowing that she, in fact, intends to blackmail him.

It's just another luxury car being stolen on a street in São Paulo... or not. A thief easily gets into the SUV parked on a quiet street, but when he tries to get out, he discovers he is trapped, without water or food.

Writer Sílvio Proença needs to travel to São Paulo in order to promote his new book. At the airport, he meets a group of old mates. With the boarding canceled due to a strong storm, the group goes to the apartment of Marialva, daughter of one of Proença's friends. Seduced by Marialva's music and charms, Proença spends the night there, where he wakes up the next day, completely naked. Still groggy from his hangover, he goes to pick up the bread left outside the apartment; that's when the wind closes the door and leaves him naked outside.

Born and raised in the misery of Brazilian slums, Jorge becomes a luxury house burglar in São Paulo and gets nicknamed "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. In addition to wearing a red flashlight, he talks to his hostages in an irreverent tone and makes bold breakthroughs to later spend the money extravagantly. His world is the decadent neighbourhood of Boca do Lixo.

Born a fully grown black man in a village in the Brazilian jungle, Macunaíma later magically transforms into a white man before making an adventure-filled trip to the city of São Paulo. Once there, he becomes something of a dandy, falling in love with Ci, a revolutionary who dies in an accidental bombing. After robbing a ruthless industrialist, Macunaima returns to his village where he finds his newly acquired knowledge and possessions of little use.

In this Brazilian mockumentary, Paulo, Manuel, Eric and Alex all have a shared dream: to make a blockbuster action movie. The challenge is immense, as it requires bringing their grandiose ideas down to Earth. Each is equally passionate and narrow-minded about what they do, and in spite of a predilection for getting into trouble, nothing will stop them from pursuing fame, success, and the money they lack for the project in one hilarious misadventure after another.

This is the first 3D animated Brazilian film. It tells the story of Stress & Relax: a businessman who thinks only of money and a film director who lives for insisting that this invest in their projects. This time, the "project" is to look for the oldest tree in Brazil. Stress is excited about the possibility of making money with this rarity. The problem is that they do not know exactly where it is. Stress and Relax out in search of the "Big Jequitibá Rose" with no map, no compass and clueless.

Stephen Smith explores the extraordinary life and work of the virtuoso jeweller Carl Faberge. He talks to HRH Prince Michael of Kent about Faberge items in the Royal Collection and to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who spent $100 million acquiring nine exquisite Faberge eggs. The bejewelled trinkets Faberge made for the last tsars of Russia in the twilight of their rule have become some of the most sought-after treasures in the world, sometimes worth millions. Smith follows in Faberge's footsteps, from the legendary Green Vaults in Dresden to the palaces of the tsars and the corridors of the Kremlin museum, as he discovers how this fin de siecle genius transformed his father's modest business into the world's most famous supplier of luxury items.

Three stories. 'Rainha do Fliper' (Pinball's Queen) Reginéia is the pinball's queen, exploited by her pimp Giba. Out of the blue, her former boyfriend Tenório comes to the arcade place seeking out Reginéia. 'Uma Aula de Sanfona' (One Class of Accordion) Bank clerk Nanci and her friend Cristina have come from Ribeirão Preto and share an apartment in São Paulo. Nanci has an argument with her lover Valdemar, and goes to her room blaming her upset on the accordian lessons that her neighbor, Durval Pereira, is giving on the floor above, but what is his secret? 'Belinha, a Virgem' (Belinha, the Virgin) The wedding day of the virgin, Belinha is rapidly approaching,. But the wedding is against the will of her fiancé's mother. When her future mother-in-law asks the parochial priest to check whether Belinha is virgin or not, the girl uses her sculptural body to resolve the situation.

Check out the hilarious story of luck and misadventures of Tino, a family man whose life is transformed after he wins the lottery. Dazzled by wealth, this boaster spends all his money on a life of luxury and ostentation. But after finding out that he is bankrupt, he faces comical situations: besides not telling his wife he is broke because she is pregnant and cannot get upset, Tino must accept help from his neighbor who is an extremely thrifty financial adviser and the only one capable of getting him out of the rut.

After all the trouble in the first film, Tino and Jane have more fun adventures. Still tasting bitter failure, they see a light at the end of the tunnel with uncle Olavinho’s unexpected inheritance. However, the will carries an unusual request: the rich uncle wants his ashes to be scattered throughout the Grand Canyon. The couple takes the opportunity of the trip to fulfill this wish and decides to go to Las Vegas and end up getting into comical situations. Big time spender Tino will fall into the greatest temptations and indulge in the casinos of the gambling city.

Movie director in his forties and in existential crisis falls in love with an unknown teen girl he sees walking down the streets, without knowing she's the daughter of the woman he's having a relationship with.

Durval and his mother Carmita live at the back of "Durval Discos", a record store they own in São Paulo, specializing in vinyl records. They lead a boring and unattractive life, until the day Durval hires a maid, Celia, to help his mother with the housekeeping. However, on her second day, Celia goes away leaving a 5-year-old child behind, Kiki, and a note promising to be back in a couple of days. Durval and Celia are charmed by the child at first, but soon they see some sad news about Celia and Kiki on TV that will change the whole situation.

Ten years after their disastrous walking holiday in Corsica, four friends – Cora, Nadine, Mathieu and Louis – decide to spend the summer together on the Côte d’Azur. To their surprise, who should they meet in St-Tropez but Eric, the guide-from-Hell who transformed their last holiday into a nightmare and whom they swore never to see again...

A story about the lies, treachery and vengeance of a middle-class family living on the outskirts of São Paulo. Four characters try desperately to change their lives, but are unable to escape their destiny.

Year 2006. There are riots in São Paulo. In the middle of the violent situation, widow Lucia is trying to get her young son Rafael from prison.

The film tells the story of how Pan American World Airways kickstarted the Jet Age and shrank the globe. Real-life 'Pan Am girls' recall a high-life of luxury and glamour; rubbing shoulders with celebrity passengers, international romances and having to wear the now infamous girdle. Stars of the Jet Age such as Robert Vaughn and Mary Quant remember the food, fashion and girls that made them regular Pan Am passengers. Pan Am's success was largely due to its visionary founder Juan Trippe, who transformed a small mail carrier into a global airline, pioneered flights for the masses and helped create the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Honor Blackman narrates the story of how Pan Am conquered the skies and left a legacy of affordable travel and a much smaller world.

In 1932, more than two hundred thousand men armed with machine guns, grenades and canons took part in on of the most violent wars in America in the 20th century. Brazilian against Brazilian, in a conflict that involved air raid of big cities – such as Campinas, Santos and São Paulo - and resulted in more than two thousand deaths. Why did this war happen? Who took part in it? What were the details of the conflict? How did the war end? The documentary tells this episode of the country's history, not only grand but also unknown, with an accessible language and an involving rhythm.

It is 1889, New Mexico. The gold rush is over and most of the prospectors have moved on. In the middle of nowhere stands a crumbling Antebellum mansion - a bordello that has seen better days. Enoch, the inept pimp, owes a considerable amount of money to the town's psychopathic Sheriff. Money is tight: business is down and the five-woman in the house are tearing each other apart. The only thing they can agree on is their love for Angel, a seven-year-old child whose mother died in childbirth.

Carlos is a young man from the São Paulo middle class who works for a big company during a time when foreign automobile industries were settling in Brazil. Shortly after, he accepts a job at a factory that makes automobile parts, where he becomes manager. To a certain extent, he is a family man who works hard, earns well and lives unsatisfied. Without any prospects in his life to change the condition he rejects, his last resort is escaping.

In São Paulo, Brazil, the lonely 40-something guitar teacher Baby lives a tedious life in a low middle-class apartment. She is addicted to her only companions: cigarettes. Baby has a constant conflict with her two sisters, over a couch she inherited from their deceased aunt. When Max, a restaurant musician, moves to the next door apartment, Baby has a crush on him and sees a chance to have a life again. Soon they start having a love affair, and Baby decides to quit smoking. However, her abstinence will be tough to deal with, when she notices Max still misses his ex-wife.

"Acabaram-se os Otários" is a Brazilian comedy, directed by Luiz de Barros in 1929. It is considered the first sound film in Brazil. Luiz de Barros's own script is based on a novel by the writer Menotti del Picchia. It tells the story of two hillbillies and an Italian settler who arrive in São Paulo. Naively, the three are tricked by a con man into believing they bought a tram. They end up without money, having to return to the countryside. It's considered a lost film, but a reconstituted version was made by researchers at the Universidade Federal Fluminense.

Thiago and Guilherme, two teenage cousins from São Paulo, Brazil, are disturbed by their grandfather's funeral. To avoid the unpleasantness surrounding the event, they run away to the families cabin, taking their friend Priscila with them.

Chico and Ana move to an apartment in São Paulo. As they unpack Ana found a cassette tape. It's a mix-tape that Clarisse made 20 years earlier to her husband Daniel. Albeit separated by time, both stories will cross paths in a unique way.

Three metropolitan stories entwine in São Paulo. Would-be actress Marina arrives in the city looking for independence, falls madly in love with Justine, a bisexual rock singer, and is swept up into her wild, edgy lifestyle. Marina shares a flat on Avenida Paulista with Suzana, a mysterious transsexual lawyer who begins a relationship with a male colleague who is unaware of her condition. Jay lives a few floors above them. He is a frustrated writer trying to give a meaning to his life by idealizing a stunningly beautiful prostitute, whom he transforms into a sort of muse. Following the frenetic pace of the city, the three "Paulista" characters will experience the euphoria of passion and its downside.