Trying to Understand Cinema Novo

Recently, I have been reading a dissertation about Cinema Novo and Glauber Rocha. As all of you know, it's difficult finding anything written on Brazilian cinema in English or that we have access to. I'm using this is a way to understand the films that were made after the 1964 coup. It has been so difficult for me to understand why some of the films that rely so heavily on allegory became popular.

After watching Cool Ass Family, I began to feel that maybe I have been too close minded. I have always thought of myself as a person who doesn't fall for the typical Hollywood formula. In many ways, I do. I want to be entertained. At the same time, I really search for meaning, being a documentary student. Seeing these films, being denied entrainment, led me to question the roll of cinema. Like Gabe said, there is an intellectual side to filmmaking that is rewarding. Watching Cool Ass Family, I realized that although I really didn't enjoy anything about it, I understand that it is making fun of the whole concept of cinema. I read that Cinema Novo filmmakers believed that cinema is dead unless it changes the world. Reading, listening to Gabe talk about censorship, and participating in the whole group exercise made me realize that they essentially had to make films this way to both, denounce the films that glossed over social issues and also to take political jabs any way that they could. Nelson Pereira Dos Santos once said that he would plan on making a few more films as he addressed the issue of censorship. "If they don't let me make those films, I'll make whatever is possible." It seems almost like filmmakers like Rocha had to make these very abstract films. After all, it wasn't as if he was incapable or disinterested in making films in the neorealist style of Santos' Vidas Secas. Rocha's first film, Barravento, apparently was in that same vein.

In many ways, I'm just beginning to understand and appreciate these films. Unfortunately, it's the end of the semester and it's too late to play catch-up. Regardless, I am beginning to see the importance of these films. Everything that we watched in class dealt with some kind of social issue. What better use of cinema, than to expose injustices and cause change while entertaining us?

Poor turnouts, little blog activity, replacement films, and trivia questions

It is the end of the semester, and I suppose you're all busy finishing final papers and such-- but I was expecting and would have liked to see more blog activity this week.
Just as disappointingly, eighteen of you were no-shows at our Saturday screening. Props to Caitlin, the sole class member who ventured out.
What's the matter, folks? End of semester burnout? Spring weather malaise?
I don't have a remedy for you, alas. I will say, however, that you should try to eat some pineapple. The one Logan gave me to me last week was very ripe and delicious. (Thanks, Logan.)
Announcement: I've decided to replace tomorrow's film, the great Man Marked to Die, with Jorge Bondansky and Orlando Senna's 1976 Iracema, a documentary about the problems surrounding the construction of the Transamazonic Highway. Reasons for the change include the runtime (120 versus 90 minutes) and the range of issues discussed (Man Marked to Die is a much denser work and more difficult to discuss in the short time that we have). Iracema is discussed a number of times in our textbook, and is a key work in Brazilian film history for several reasons I'll be outlining tomorrow.
Oh, and the title Iracema, significantly, is an anagram. Of what?

Encore screening

There will be an encore screening of SÃO PAULO, ANONYMOUS SOCIETY, this Saturday, April 28th, 9pm. You should have received an email with the specific details. If you are interested in coming and you didn't receive the details, please email to let me know.

Cool Ass Family

So again like Red Light Bandit I did not like this film. I dont think i was supposed to, the outlook so bleak in this film. Aesthetically it had a lot more to say than Red Light Bandit, i think the photos told a story and/or juxtaposed with the family. The family seemed to be telling a story and as was mentioned in class today specifically gender roles. It feels like a family whose roles sometimes switch a forewarning of Brazils future perhaps. The woman is the mother and father, the second in command is the man in trunks and he is the maybe sexually abusive father, while the "child" mumbles through, i thought because he is not being looked after properly by his parents. It is like the child struggles because he is not being looked after by his parents, the parents are unorganised because they are looked after by the state? And then that is juxtaposed with photos of military and religous officals. The one striking thing i found about this film was that sexuality was rampant. The Dad sleeping with the son, the actor from Macuniama singing and being incredibly flamboyant asks interesting questions of what gay rights were at this time. Other than that this film had some other notable features the long takes, the music and the cuts. Some must be due to monatery constraints, others maybe to mess with our heads and i think questioning what our definition of film language is.

Red Light Bandit

This film is weird. I immediately dislike films that think themselves as intellectual films. Look at us arent we clever for messing around with linear storytelling. The answer is no. Probably the best film we watched was Sao Paulo because it was a mans journey and the frustration that surronds him and how he is unable to deal with it. That was a film. Whereas here the director attempts way too much instead of actually just letting the performances or linearility of the piece speak for themselves. The main annoying part is that these types of experimental films are fundamentally flawed. If youre goal is to reach as wide an audience as possible and to inspire change, then you need to be as straight forward as humanely possible. Maybe at the time this piece excited people because this was a real guy who stuck two fingers up at the establishment but I really cant think of anything good about this film.

Some thoughts about Bressane's film

When we watched Land in Anguish we talked about Glauber Rocha's frustration at being unable to facilitate political change no matter how hard he tried. I thought that today's film Familia Do Barulho stood in contrast of Land in Anguish because it was so casual and didn't seem to be trying to communicate any sort of clear message. It shows us the elements of film production(the marker, the tripod) and also shows us the setbacks of low budget filmmaking (non sync audio, etc.). By showing us these setbacks it comments on Rocha's frustrations and the limits of third world cinema.

A response to Logan and Jon A.

Our book includes the essay "When Women Film" in which authors Elice Munerato and Darcy de Oliveira inevitably discuss the roles of Brazilian women in front of the camera as well as behind it. The essay observes, as Logan has, that there exists a curious absence of substantive, ambitious and active women voices in Brazilian film in the 1960's. The selection of films presented in class backs up the claim. In an interview, two women filmmakers told authors Munerato and Oliveira: "...it is difficult to bring [feminist] issues -- issues of which these filmmakers are highly aware -- to the screen, partially because of a lack of cinematic models."

Surveying all of the female characters in the films we've watched, from GANGA BRUTA to THE RED LIGHT BANDIT, we may conclude that Brazilian women of the '30s, '40s, '50s, and '60s are indeed fulfilling the traditional roles that society had forced upon them, with few great "leaps" that would lead to a deconstruction of these roles.

Some complexities/ambiguities can be seen in LIMITE, BARREN LIVES, BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL, and LAND IN ANGUISH. The women in these films are present psychologically and fulfill various individual ambitions. In a larger sense, they seem just as much a part of their oppressed setting as the men, without any apparent gender separation.

MACAUNAÍMA, AWAKENING OF THE BEAST, and THE RED LIGHT BANDIT are more problematic, though I would like to make a case for all three.

The traditional female characters in Brazilian cinema, as Munerato and Oliveira point out, are concerned with domestic affairs, or are in "nurturing" service professions: they may be nurses, seamstresses, madames, secretaries, and prostitutes. Seen through the prism of feminism, the prominent female character in MACUNAÍMA, who is a guerilla terrorist, is atypical. Her reaction to being raped is anything but sensical. Rationalizing her actions -- though the distance of black humor makes it concretely difficult -- one could reasonably conclude that she sees in Macunaíma's initial actions a weakness, one that she exploits for her own pleasure in sex.

The pattern in AWAKENING OF THE BEAST, to take a very different example, is not to hide sexism, or to present (or reaffirm) a normative social reality, but to offer a critique of sexism through a series of unfavorable portraits of men caught in degenerate acts.

Lastly, there is today's film, THE RED LIGHT BANDIT, in which director Sganzerla pays homage to the femme fatale of the American cinema of the '30s, '40s, and '50s in the character of Janete Jane (played by the amazing Helena Ignez). Jane may not take any great "non-traditional" leaps – she is presented as highly individualistic, even if she works into the nurturing cliché and eventually caves by turning in the Bandit to J.B. – though she is a woman capable of making decisions and of having her own highly personal ambitions (superficial and material, but with their own idealism). She eventually suffers for her choices, in the brutal scene where she is killed by the Bandit and is circled by her friend in ceremonial fashion as African drumbeats are heard in the background (one of the film's many tributes to LAND IN ANGUISH). Here, Sganzerla ultimately dignifies Jane, in my opinion one of the great characters in '60s Brazilian cinema.

Helena Ignez is the main performer of next week's film, FAMILIA DU BARULHO (ONE OF A KIND FAMILY). As the non-verbal, animal-like dominatrix in a perverse family dynamic, her performance has no antecedents or followers. She is, quite simply, striking.

(Above pic: The Red Light Bandit [1968])


Ignez in Júlio Bressane's A Família du Barulho (1970)


Ignez in present times posing next to a poster of The Red Light Bandit

A Reflection:

Following our discussion today and after watching Rogerio Sgazerla’s The Red Light Bandit I realized what my discomfort, and in some levels disappointment with the last few films we’ve screened in class is, the absence of a conscious female presence. The eroticized female characters within films like "The Red Light Bandit", and "Mancunaima" are only present physically. They lack substance, ambition, and most importantly active voices. It leaves me to consider that if the female characters within these films are being robbed of the opportunity to protest against being objectified, sexualized, and marginalized by the male characters within the films, what was happening to women in modern society of the time? And what is still happening to women in present day Brazil?

Who is responsible for dispelling, deconstructing, and re-defining the myth that plagues the minds of many about Brazilian Women?

After watching these films and in the mist of the Don Imus case, I am reminded that women of color (Specifically: Black and Latina) are at the intersection of oppression. We are women and we are of color, and historically in America that places us within the same framework to be exploited.

Awakening of the Beast

At first I thought of Awakening of the Beast as a sort of Brazilian exploitation film, but as it went on I found that it seemed much too conscious of it's pollitical undertones to be purely exploitation.

It was a unique experience nonethelesss. I felt the whole film was this sort of juxtaposition of ideas and concepts. I also got a very light sense of a "Fellini-esque" relationship in regards to women, especially in the beginning of the film. The objectifying, along with the misogynistic tones...it all seemed to be there.

I feel like this is the sort of film you need to watch again to fully grasp. It's quite a rush of images and exhibitionism, that you don't recall every thing you saw a couple days later. Either way, quite an experience. A pleasant albeit bizarre experience.

Horror Vs. Comedy

The discussion over the role of women in Macunaima got rather heated last week. I for one appreciated the fact that the oversexualized role of women in the film was merely in the sense of satire. However, the rape scene involving the guerilla Ci and Macunaima in a sense disturbed me through in effective cinematic device. I discussed this on tuesday, though i feel that it is worth mentioning again. The rape is intercut with Chaplin-esque comic blundering that leaves the viewers conflicted as to why they are laughing at the obvious comedy on screen, even though a rape is about to be perpetrated. The same goes for the scene when Macunaima beats the woman, while it is intercut with scenes of Wenceslau comically falling face first into his food. The visceral nature of these scenes both involving violence towards women, though present shares its screen time with a laughable situation, creating a sort of real mindfuck with the viewer. Definitely Effective filmmaking.

Speaking of mindfucks, Coffin Joe was one of the strangest, though highly entertaining films i've seen recently. The films was definitely frustrating to watch, which in my opinion really became part of the enjoyment of watching it. i was left utterly speechless after viewing it, and the twist at the end (the "LSD" injected into the patients was merely tap water) was shocking in its pulp-y sort of sensibility. I would like to see more of this series if only it were available in the states.

Awakening of the beast

I describe this film as Tarantino meeting a B-Movie. Coffin Joes sense of ego was unreal. Everyone talked about how he was the scariest man they had ever seen and it was hilarious. He felt the need to mention himself every so often and it really frustrated me, the point of movies is to make a point and to entertain. I really hate shameless self promotion in film and Coffin Joes ego held this from being a fantastic piece. I did like how the film without warning went into colour. That was great, and came out of nowhere. The sequences there were great, impressive for the time it was done. I also liked the ending where it is revealed that they werent on LSD but water. i felt like that asked questions of the drug taking generation, it sort of asks if you are always so high on drugs how do you know you cant have a good time without them? The start sprawled for way too much, i thought the film was just going to be a parable for what happens when you go on drugs and i was glad to see characters from those stories in the ending. But apart from that i didnt really get it. I suppose it was meant to be tongue in cheek but it just flew over my head. (The girl being killed by the tree???) This film just frustrated me because it could have been great because of Coffin Joe and it failed also because of Coffin Joe.

Macuniama

This film is one of my favourites from the class. it is weird and surreal but not for the sake of it. By making it so tongue in cheek every section of society can be parioded to evoke humour but have a real point behind it. Such as the death of the giants at the end. On one hand its weird watching a giant host a banquet, where the guest seem happy to be eaten by piranhas, on the other there is valid socail criticism about the burgeoise and how they (literally) feed off the working class to maintain status. I think its endemic of the political situation in Brazil at the time. The most troubling scene for me is the rape scene with the terrorist. It isnt actually acted out, probably because it would be banned straight away but the criticism as a criticism of the feminist movement at the time it works. This character explodes in on the men shooting and killing. She doesnt need men at this point. However when Macuiama rapes her its like she has become the good little wife. I think the deeply mysoginistic filmmaker is saying that men should control thier women and such radical movements like feminism could be dealt with easily because after this scene she becomes a child bearer and lets Macuniama live in her house. There is more satiricalness here, because Macunima exploits her. The filmmaker switches his view and asks do we want women this way? To obey a lazy ignorant raping waste of a human? Other than that it was great to finally see colour in a film and did anyone else think that Macuniama looks like Miss J from Americas Next Top model

Macunaima

Macunaima was such a weird movie, but it was fun to watch. It was great seeing our first color film and it definitely enhanced the story. I didn't really know what to expect because I was waiting to read the chapter in the book after I had seen the film. The beginning section really set up the fact that this was not a typical movie. It was so over the top, which made the subtext stand out more. I could tell that the film was making comments on Brazil, but I don't really know too much about the society so I didn't understand everything. I recognized some of the fables in the movie and it was fun to see how they interpreted and incorporated all of them into one story.

MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET)

I saw this documentary at the Chicago International Doc Fest. It is definitely unlike any documentary that I have ever seen. Shot on 35mm with a 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio, with amazing cinematography and commanding music, the film feels more like a fiction film than a documentary. Some might have issues with the way the film is structured, in that it jumps back and forth, between stories. Others might feel that its shots are too staged or that ethical lines have been crossed by protecting murderers and kidnappers. Nonetheless, Manda Bala is a immensely interesting look at modern day San Paulo, with a critical glance. This film would be great to look at for those of you that are in the corporate abuses or domestic policy groups. Here's the synopsis:

Brazil is known for its beautiful beaches, lush rain forests, and vibrant culture. However, in recent years, the country has developed more of a reputation for corrupt politicians, kidnapping, and plastic surgery. Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) artfully connects these seemingly disparate elements and conducts a dazzling, yet harrowing, examination of the tragic domino effect that has reshaped the face of the country and created an entire industry built on corruption. From its unlikely opening on a money-laundering frog farm, Manda Bala displays a strikingly distinctive tone. Featuring a stylish score and articulate interviews with kidnappers, kidnap victims, and the people who profit off them, as well as the paranoid people whose lives they impact, it looks and sounds more like a stylized fiction film than a heavy political doc. However, it is never glib or trivial, and always inventive and haunting. It documents Brazilian reality without falling into patronizing cliches and reveals that corruption and kidnapping represent two sides of the same violent crime: the rich steal from the poor people of Brazil, while the poor steal back some of the rich people.


http://www.mandabala.com/index.html

Helen Hill: Free Screening at Heaven Gallery

In reference to his New Orleans trip, Gabe mentioned the experimental filmmaker/animator Helen Hill, who was murdered in her home earlier this year.

In her memory, my friend Dave Hedges is putting on a screening of her work at Heaven Gallery

its this Saturday, it's free and definitely worth checking out:

Land in Anguish and Macunaima

I think that with both of the last two films we find a lot of information and intention underneath a confusing, distracting, exterior. Macunaima is successful as a weird, avant garde film, but I think it was trying to do be a lot more than that. The social commentary, the references to folktales, etc. All of that stuff gets buried in how silly it seems. I bet that the translation of dialogue adds to this aspect of the experience. I find the same problem with one of my favorite films from Robert Buchar's Czech New Wave class (which I took a few semesters ago): Fruits of Paradise by Vira Chytilova. It is visually stimulating and exciting, but underneath this there is an extremely dense text that you is hard to understand and truly appreciate without a knowledge of the language and the historical background.

Macunaíma

This was the most interesting film of the course in my opinion. While watching the film I kept thinking how much it looked like an old John Waters film (especially Desperate Living). The crude set ups like a grown man acting as a baby, pool of blood with bodies, and an eaten piece of leg answering its owner through the person that ate it, all give your stomach and brain a slight twist as you try understand what is going on while preparing to hold off the possible gag reflex. I wonder how much this was just a product of the time and how much was originated by the adapter. What were the repercussions that came from this film in the form of censorship? Is this film story/style still seen in modern filmmakers from Brazil or just a niche crowd?

Orson Welles

We mentioned Orson Welles in class once because he went to Brazil, so I figured it was appropriate to feature this fantastic news on our blog:
The Other Side of the Wind, Orson Welles's final, uncompleted film, which has languished in a cold-storage vault in Paris for more than 30 years, may finally arrive in theaters next year, director Peter Bogdanovich said at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando on Friday, the New York Sun reported. The newspaper said that Bogdanovich had told the Florida gathering, where he received the American Visionary Award, that he has reached an agreement to complete the film with a "well-known cable network," presumably Showtime, which has long expressed interest in the project. Welles died before completing the editing of the film, and the negatives have been at the center of legal wrangling between the film's backers and the Welles estate. "It's like Bleak House," Bogdanovich told the Orlando Sentinel last week, referring to Charles Dickens's 900-plus page masterpiece. "It just went on and on and on."
from imdb.

Showtime had previously tried to pay for it but withdrew once Welles daughter threatened legal action (though she legally had no right to the film), so they must have realized that this time around and we'll finally see it. There are a few scenes released in a documentary called One Man Band, and they're really fantastic.

Land in Anguish

I can certainly see how this was a landmark film in 1967. Its style and ambitions are grand and cynical and told in a passionate and politically aware tone. However, it has aged poorly. It was mentioned that Godard was an influence on this film. I see Rocha's ambitions higher, Shakespearian even. Characters have seemingly endless monologues that poetically express their feeling of despair over the political climate in which they live. While watching this film, I felt restless, followed by a rage-like feeling that a bull must feel before the gates are opened before him at a rodeo. I am positive that this is what Rocha's aspiration for the audience to feel; but I did not feel uncomfortable because of the political corruption on screen before me. I felt frustrated because of the constant meanderings of a depressed poet who thinks we need to hear constantly how cruel life is. I agree with the poet, but I'm from the school of less is more and this film just assaults you, and not in a good or thought provoking way. It over shoots its goal. Its goal is admirable and I do not doubt Rocha's genius, the beginning was certainly promising but it slowly devolved from there. It was overly melodramatic where it could have been quietly devastating and politically convoluted where it didn't need to be. This is a very flawed film, but I'm glad I saw it in mixed in with a class that has shown some of the best films I have ever seen to add depth and complication to an impressive array of films.

Romario's Quest for 1,000!

This might not exactly pertain to Brazilian Cinema, but bear with me...one of soccer's all time greats, Romario is one goal away from the coveted thousandth goal! He wasn't able to do it against Botafogo, however (which is good news, because they're my team) so 1,000 will have to wait a little longer.

Either way, I'm sure all of you will remember where you were the day Romario scores his 1,000 goal. Don't forget this milestone in sports history, Brazilian history, and world history.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=418203&cc=5901

Land in Anguish

I recall that fella who came in and talked with Gabe about this movie and its director that he saw a lot of influence on or from Werner Herzog. And I'd say that other than the histrionic acting, nothing else connected the two. Even then, I'd restrict that kind of acting for only the movies, and even only the characters that Kinski plays, other than that, I didn't see the link he has observed. I was wondering if anyone else had an opinion or insight on the subject...

Foreign Policy Group?

Hello. I don't know if you had a chance to email each other. I lost the page with emails. If for some reason you already talked about the assignment, can you please email me at ajblaszk@yahoo.com. Thanks.