Ganga Bruta

I loved Ganga Bruta. It reminded me of Luis Buñuel's L' Age d'or, which came out a few years prior. I wonder if Buñuel's film made it down to Brazil, or if its just a coincidence of like-thinkers. Buñuel was also known for using a lot of Freudian symbolism in his work, though he denied putting it in there on purpose.

The use of Freudian metaphors in Ganga Bruta at first almost seemed too obvious at times until I put myself in the time and place of when this film was made. I doubt the comparison between industry and sexuality was something that happened in a lot in art or film in the 1930s, especially not in Brazil (we'll find out soon enough). The back and forth long shots of the men building the pipe. Those sorts of images connect with the macho fight scenes perfectly.

The men in this film are working, fighting, killing for sex. There are two women in this film, a beautiful blond and an old grandmother. The women are weak. Sonia is beautiful but clumsy and foolish, vulnerable. I don't know enough about Mauro or Mendes to guess if this portrayal is meant to be accurate or exagarrated. I don't really know what this film is saying about gender.

Humberto Mauro (1)

For decades, the French film historian Georges Sadoul was one of the few non-Brazilians to speak of the importance of Humberto Mauro. In his 1965 Dictionnaire des Cinéastes (translated, edited, and updated to English by Peter Morris and published by University of California Press in 1972), Sadoul writes:

"A pioneer of Brazilian cinema and an important film maker with a profoundly cinematic vision, ingenuous but not naive, whose work is unfortunately little known outside Brazil. As a self-taught former electrician, he was drawn to the cinema by his delight in westerns, serials, and the films of Stroheim and as an amateur made his first film, Valdiao o Cratera (25) in tribute to them. He was soon discovered and supported by the film society movement in Brazil and directed a series of unique features that are indebted to no one: Tesouro Perdido (28), Braza Dormida (28), and Sangue Mineiro (28). Though the plots of his society films are often clichéd, he had a remarkable feeling for images and backgrounds, a highly original conception of filmic space, and an impassioned feeling for people and the landscapes of his country. Ganga Bruta (33) is his best film and a landmark in the history of the Brazilian cinema. Mauro's use of erotic symbolism in the film earned him the name 'the suburban Freud.' Argila (40) was his last major work: the difficulties of the Brazilian film industry forced him after that to restrict his activities mainly to directing short documentaries. He is, nevertheless, a great film maker who will inevitably one day receive the international reputation he deserves."

Ganga Bruta (1933) by Humberto Mauro

Some notes on this coming Tuesday's feature:

"An upside down classic," Glauber Rocha wrote in his Critical Revision of Brazilian Cinema: "expressionist in its first five minutes (the wedding night and the assassination by the husband of his wife), realist documentary in the second sequence (the assassin's freedom and his trolley ride around the streets), it evolves into a western (the commotion in the bar, with the best physicality of a John Ford film) and grows with the same force of the classic Soviet cinema (the possession of the woman, the Freudian eroticism in the metaphoric building of the factory)… one of the twenty greatest films of all time."

- Was a commercial disaster for Cinédia (the studio that produced it) and was forgotten for two decades. Rediscovered in 1952; completely reconstructed from the original negatives. The film's soundtrack was lost, however, and only recovered in 1972. In 1987, archivists at the Cinemateca Brasileira finalized the original sound mix and added it to film.

- Caetano Veloso, who saw the film when he was 19 years-old, was asked to write an article about Humberto Mauro, but declined, adding: "The reaction that this film provokes in us cannot be transformed into an article: the perplexed reaction of a Brazilian with a cultural inferiority complex who sees in a Brazilian film Eisensteinian edits, metaphors (although sometimes horrible), elaborate framings, and 'audacious' themes prevents him from judging."

- Glauber Rocha invoked Eisenstein, Murnau, Griffith, Renoir, and John Ford when speaking about the film in an attempt to elevate Mauro to the pantheon of international directors.

- Carlos Roberto, Brazilian film scholar, writes: "The central question of the film is sexual energy. It can be analyzed dramatically, historically, or culturally; but one cannot lose sight that Ganga Bruta cinematographically consecrates sexuality in its various manifestations…. Ganga Bruta is a filmic example in which sex pulsates and propels, from frame by frame, sequence by sequence, a work that maintains its vigor and joviality through the decades."

More notes to follow.

The Filmmaker of the Amazon

Though I certainly feel O Cineasta da Selva was an important starting point for this class, I found it somewhat unpleasant. As Christian pointed out in our discussion, it was overly sentimental and came off sort of cheesy, specifically during the reenactments.

I did think the poor quality of the video tape was worth it to see Salvino Santos ' films, though.

I thought the film certainly reflected the financial difficulties of the Brazilian film industry, which I suspect will be a common thread through everything we read and discuss during this course.

What I found most interesting was the idea (pointed out during one of the interviews) that Santos has both the perspective of an outsider and someone who is not an outsider in his films about the Amazon. The Brazilian relationship to indigenous people, is something else I anticipate (and hope) we'll explore more in this class.

Cool stuff. I can't wait till next week.

The First Class

Hi everyone. I hate to make my first post on this blog asking for assistance in a class I missed, but I was sick and have no other choice. Could someone quickly go over what was discussed in class. I appreciate your time and look forward to meeting you guys. Take care.

An observation

In one of the opening shots of the movie, as the camera pans over in a theatre to the stage where the three gentlemen are discussing Santos' importance, they reveal a painting of Nosferatu. They did at one point mention Murnau in an anecdote later on in, but it did not seem to really have an importance to Santos, so I was wondering why they chose that image when it seems to have little or no relevance.

Minor corrections to syllabus

A PDF version of the class syllabus -- with minor corrections -- has been posted to our class Oasis site.

Thoughts on Filmmaker of the Amazon and Lower City.

Like we discussed in class, I hated the actor stand-in used for Silvino Santos. I didn't have a problem with the dramatization of some scenes but the actor sitting there reading the memoirs out loud was just too much fro me. Near the end of the film I remembered seeing a group of archived footage and was genuinely interested, then the scene was ruined by a cut to one of these journal sequences. I almost wish I could just see a small show of all the archived footage with maybe some description instead of the full movie.

A couple of instances I found very intriguing even though they were made only for this movie. Such as the opening shot of the boy in the hammock being woken up by I believe a jaguar sound. Also the showing of the actor portraying Silvino Santos just walking around with the camera. I wish they would've done more to re-enact the actual footage that we saw instead of the cheap set moments.

After I got back to my place I watched a movie called Cidade Baixa(Lower City). The movie was made in Brazil. The movie involves two friends who are torn apart by a prostitute that they both fall in love with. I forget how I found out about this film, probably by just grabbing one of the post cards at the Landmark Century Cinema. The movie wasn't very entertaining to me but did bring up a social question. In the film the prostitutes are visited by mainly rich, white, older males. There were only two instances of the younger generation using the services. It just struck my interest as to whether Brazil has as similar problem(relative to the U.S.'s moral codes) as say Thailand or if this was just show because of the story's content.

Seja bem-vindo!

The above, a typical interjection in Portuguese, means simply "Welcome"!

Anyway, a big thanks to Jon R. for setting this up.

As a way of encouraging participation, I thought I would offer a few guidelines for posting:

1. Try not to be self-conscious about language and grammar and post informally as you would on another web site, blog, or message board.

2. Treat this as a conversation rather than as a series of brief monologues. Pose questions to your class members, to your teacher, and to others who may be lurking on the internet (it might be fun to forward the blog link to your friends and family so that they may leave comments).

3. (Self-)Doubts and (self-)criticisms are always welcome here and may never be scorned or made fun of by other classmates. I can personally guarantee this.
As far as I can tell, you are all curious people, and curious people always have lots of healthy doubts and criticisms!

4. Suggest further thoughts, readings, and resources. Post links to relevant internet articles. Tell us about new and old Brazilian films you may have seen. Also, general musings on Brazilian culture -- music, dance, etc. -- are highly encouraged.

5. Take us into the journey of your thought process -- every idea has a story behind it. Tell us that story, it's the easiest way to start writing.

And lastly, just a few rules we should stick to:

6. No personal/school announcements unless what you're posting is related in some way to Brazil/Brazilian cinema.
Use swear words sparingly or not at all.
Make sure not to clog blog space with large chunks of pasted text (always link to an outside source if possible).
And post something new every week for the next fourteen weeks. This aspect of the class, which I will henceforth call your "progress log", will count for 20% of your overall grade. Fourteen posts -- with no length specification though they must be thoughtful and address some of the basic issues discussed in class -- are the requirement; however, you are by no means limited to only fourteen posts if you wish to write more. Just make sure to participate in some way every week. Each weekly post will count for roughly 1.43% of your total grade.

That's all I can think of for now.

The floor is open.

Brazilian Cinema Blog...Go!

Hey, now all you guys have to do is make a login and start posting. Email me if you need help getting set up. My email is jonrybicki@gmail.com