Summary
Overview
The How Did This Get Made podcast team dives into the 1990 film 'The Forbidden Dance,' a rushed exploitation film about a Brazilian princess who comes to LA to save the rainforest through the power of the lambada dance. The hosts explore the bizarre production history, including how this film raced against a competing lambada movie (both produced by feuding cousins), the terrible dancing, problematic racial politics, and how this environmental message movie somehow thought a dance contest on a Kid Creole show could save the Amazon.
The Two Lambada Movies Explained
The hosts begin by untangling the confusing history of two competing lambada movies released the same weekend in 1990. Paul reveals the shocking production timeline: conceived in December 1989, script written in 10 days, filmed in January, and released in March. The film was literally delivered to Columbia Pictures one day before release. This breakneck pace explains many of the film's problems, including missing connective tissue between scenes and an overall rushed quality.
- Two lambada movies were released the same weekend - 'The Forbidden Dance' and 'Lambada'
- The film was conceived in December 1989, scripted in 10 days, and released in March 1990 - the fastest film ever made
- Roger Ebert visited the set because the production timeline was so unprecedented
- The movie was delivered to Columbia Pictures just one day before its release date
" December of 89, the producers said, hey, we need to make a Lombada dance. I really want you to keep these numbers in your head. December of 89. I was just about to turn 10. Okay, I'm putting myself there. I wasn't born. And they go, we need a script. 10 days later, they get a script. "
The Lambada Dance and Its 'Forbidden' Nature
The hosts dissect what the lambada actually is and why it was supposedly 'forbidden.' They discuss how the dance involves crotch-to-crotch contact and was marketed as scandalously erotic, though the actual dancing in the film fails to live up to this billing. The conversation reveals how the film tries to position the dance as dangerously sexual, causing men to go 'feral,' but the execution falls flat with awkward, unsexy choreography.
- Lambada is described as 'a fast, erotic Brazilian dance that couples perform with their stomachs touching' - really crotch-to-crotch
- The film claims the dance was forbidden in Brazil 50 years ago for being too sexy, placing the ban in the 1940s
- Every time Nisa dances the lambada in the film, it causes men to become predatory and lose control
- The actual dancing in the film is portrayed as terrible and unsexy despite the film's attempts to make it erotic
" This was like a dance when I understood it, it was a dirty dance. It was like a fucking dance. Like, that's what I understood Lombardi to be. "
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