Master Thesis Brazilian Cinema Identity in the Age of Postcolonial Globalization
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University of Amsterdam 2015 Master Thesis Brazilian cinema identity in the age of postcolonial globalization Student: Ermeson Vieira Gondim Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Emiel Martens Second reader: Dr. Kaouthar Darmoni Acknowledgments I would like to thank my life partner, Markus Wolschlager, for all his love and support, for his incentive and trust, for all the good moments he is been able to offer me to make me happy. Thanks to my parents, Zilmar Vieira Gondim and João de Aquino Gondim, for their unconditional love and for all they have given to me; especially education and respect for the truth and peoples’ rights. A special thank to my supervisor, Emiel Martens, for his support, comprehension, generosity, and for his sense of humour that helped make our meetings easier to bare. And finally, I would like to thank all the professors I met at the University of Amsterdam, who have helped to broaden my knowledge even further in this new step of my academic life. Thanks for all! 2 Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................................... 2 CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................ 3 TITLE ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ 4 1 INTRODUCTION TO THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................. 5 2 THEORY I: MODERN WORLD ...................................................................................................... 10 2.1 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................10 2.2 FROM THIRD WORLD TO THE THIRD CINEMA ...................................................................................12 2.3 CINEMA NOVO: THE “CANNIBAL CINEMA” (1960S) ........................................................................21 2.4 WORLD CINEMA ......................................................................................................................................31 3 THEORY II: POST-MODERN WORLD ......................................................................................... 35 3.1 FROM NATIONAL TO GLOBAL CINEMA ................................................................................................35 3.2 BRAZILIAN CINEMA (THE RETOMADA PERIOD - 1990S) .................................................................40 3.3 NEW-NEW-BRAZILIAN CINEMA (2010S)..........................................................................................47 4 CASE STUDIES ................................................................................................................................ 59 4.1 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................59 4.2 FILM 1: “ONCE UPON A TIME I, VERÔNICA” (DIR. BY MARCELO GOMES; 2012) ........................61 4.3 FILM 2: “ARTIFICIAL PARADISES" (DIR. BY MARCOS PRADO; 2012) ............................................63 4.4 FILM 3: “FUTURO BEACH” (DIR. BY KARIM AÏNOUZ; 2014) ..........................................................65 4.5 RESUMÉ ....................................................................................................................................................68 5 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................. 73 FILMOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................. 78 3 Title Brazilian cinema identity in the age of postcolonial globalization Abstract Brazilian society until the 1980s and most especially in the 1950s and 1960s was seen through a modernist and nationalist lens. Cinema Novo (1960s/early- 1970s) reverberated this view of Brazil in its films. The political and economic changes during the 1980's collaborated to change Brazilian cinema in its re- emergence in the 1990s after the dismantling of EMBRAFILME by the former president Fernando Collor de Mello. It was transforming thus, its political and ideological inclinations as well as its aesthetics into a less political, more commercial and globalized cinema. In the late-2000s Brazilian cinema started to diversify its production rejecting old clichés about its traditional territories: the sertão (backlands) and the favela (slum), as well as searching for more realistic narratives for those spaces. Unlike the past, it has invested more on personal stories and affect than on national allegories to report social problems. These new developments point to the necessity of re-mapping Brazilian cinema’s political and aesthetic choices to assess its current identity, taking in consideration the processes of globalization and internationalization of Brazilian cinema. This thesis seeks to know how globalization has shaped Brazilian cinema identity from the third-worldist cinema perspective to a more post-modern global one. The research method is based on gathering information provided by theorists who discussed Brazilian cinema in three different periods: in the 1960s, 1990s and late 2000s onwards to trace a map of its political, historical and aesthetic choices today. The idea of Cinema Novo involved in a national-political- ideological project as it is supported for example by Randal Johnson, will be contrasted, with the notion of a Brazilian cinema more inspired on the idea of cosmetic of hunger in a globalized economy as supported by Ivana Bentes. The thesis argues that Brazilian cinema has turned away from the political cinema of the 1960s but also from making ‘parody’ or recycling old stories, territories and mythical figures of earlier times. By comparing aesthetics, politics, and means of production in three different periods the thesis seeks to assess a clear picture of the Brazilian cinema identity in the present time. Key Words Third Cinema, Cinema Novo, New Brazilian cinema, globalization, identity. 4 1 Introduction to Theoretical Framework Brazilian cinema today is notably a worldwide phenomenon. People are watching Brazilian films from New York to London, from Amsterdam to Berlin in commercial movie theatres, in film festivals or via stream. The increased production in the last 20 years is remarkable; not even less how much Brazilian cinema has managed to diversify its themes, genres, styles and become globalized. However, some questions still should be answered in order to assess current Brazilian cinema identity. How has it entered into this process of globalization? What effects and consequences it produces on a cinema that has been historically related with the national struggles against decolonization and neo-colonialism in the Third World? Has this objective completely been abandoned or it has found other forms of dealing with ethic and aesthetics? In short, what are the consequences of globalization on Brazilian cinema identity? This is the research question that this thesis seeks to answer. Counting from the 1960s, it could be argued that Brazilian cinema has lived three phases. A first period that encompasses the militant cinema of Cinema Novo ranges around the 1960s to the early 1970s; a second period represented by the phase of the ‘rebirth’ or ‘retomada’ of Brazilian cinema (1990s to late 2000s), represented by the period after the dismantling of the Brazilian Film Company – EMBRAFILME – by the former president Fernando Collor de Mello in 1990, and a new period from the late 2000s until now that I will refer as post-retomada period. Through a critical study the thesis assesses questions about politics and nation building paradigms; first due to Cinema Novo’s commitment with a nationalist and anti-colonial project and because it has been considered synonymous of Brazilian cinema as Randal Johnson has argued (“Brazilian Cinema Novo” 96); In addition, due to the fact that those paradigms have been very important to shape 5 the perception on how the nations should be understood and constructed, how national identity is constructed, and without a doubt, it has influenced on how cinema builds its narratives. Once the notion of national cinema and the representation of national identity are in dispute in this theoretical discussion on what constitutes Brazilian cinema today, this thesis assesses the very paradigms and critical analysis on the emergence and notion of nation and nationalism. It introduces the work of Tatiana S. Heise where she proposes two camps for the debate on the advent of nations: the modernist paradigm and the anti-modernist critique (11). Heise argues that “the modernist paradigm emerged in the 1960s” and that it “envisaged the nation as the ideal agent and framework for social development” (Heise 12). However, the modernist project requires from citizens a loyalty should surpass other differences and affiliations that according to Heise, can only be mobilized through the sentiment of nationalism (Heise 12). However, that “from the early 1980s