The New Brazilian Cinema The New Brazilian Cinema Edited by Lúcia Nagib in association with The Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford Published in 2003 by I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com in association with The Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford www.brazil.ox.ac.uk In the United States of America and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan a division of St. Martin’s Press 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © The Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford, 2003 Copy editing: Neil Hancox and Stephen Shennan Translation: Tom Burns, Stephanie Dennison, Vladimir Freire, Lúcia Nagib, Lisa Shaw and Roderick Steel. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 1 86064 928 9 paperback 1 86064 878 9 hardback A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Text prepared by the author as CRC Typeset in New Baskerville by Luciana Cury, São Paulo, Brazil Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin Contents List of illustrations viii Notes on contributors xi Foreword xv Introduction xvii Acknowledgements xxvii Part one: Producing films in Brazil 1 A new policy for Brazilian Cinema JOSÉ ÁLVARO MOISÉS 3 2 The cinema that Brazil deserves CARLOS DIEGUES 23 Part two: Fiction film and social change 3 Brazilian Cinema in the 1990s: the unexpected encounter and the resentful character ISMAIL XAVIER 39 4 Humility, guilt and narcissism turned inside out in Brazil’s film revival FERNÃO PESSOA RAMOS 65 5 C h ronically Unfeasible: the political film in a depoliticized world JOÃO LUIZ VIEIRA 85 Part three: Documenting a country 6 It’s all Brazil AMIR LABAKI 97 7 A cinema of conversation – Eduardo Coutinho’s Santo Forte and Babilônia 2000 VERÔNICA FERREIRA DIAS 105 Part four: Sertão and favela: the eternal return 8 The sertão and the favela in contemporary Brazilian film IVANA BENTES 121 9 The sertão in the Brazilian imaginary at the end of the millennium LUIZ ZANIN ORICCHIO 139 10 Death on the beach – the recycled utopia of Midnight LÚCIA NAGIB 157 Part five: Screen adaptations 11 Nelson Rodrigues in the 1990s: two recent screen adaptations STEPHANIE DENNISON 175 12 An oblique gaze: irony and humour in Helvécio Ratton’s Love & Co MARIA ESTHER MACIEL 193 Part six: History and film history 13 Cabral and the Indians: filmic representations of Brazil’s 500 years ROBERT STAM 205 14 For all and traditions of popular musical comedy LISA SHAW 229 15 ImagiNation 245 JOSÉ CARLOS AVELLAR Part seven: Epilogue 16 Then and now: cinema as history in the light of new media and new technologies LAURA MULVEY 261 Index 271 List of illustrations 1 Dalva (Alleyona Cavalli) and Vítor (Paulo Vespúcio Garcia) in Um céu de estrelas 43 2 Branquinha (Priscila Assum) and Japa (Sílvio Guindane) in Como nascem os anjos 45 3 Alex (Fernanda Torres) and Paco (Fernando Alves Pinto) in Terra estrangeira 51 4 Júlia Lemmertz and Alexandre Borges in Um copo de cólera 57 5 Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) and Josué (Vinícius de Oliveira) in Central do Brasil 61 6 Michael Coleman (Henry Czerny) in Jenipapo 75 7 Andréa/Maria (Fernanda Torres) and Charles Elbrick (Alan Arkin) in O que é isso, companheiro? 76 8 Carlota Joaquina (Marieta Severo) in Carlota Joaquina – princesa do Brasil 77 9 Maria Alice (Betty Gofman) in Cronicamente inviável 87 10 Luiz Carlos Prestes in O velho 101 11 Terra do mar 103 12 Eduardo Coutinho in Babilônia 2000 107 ix 13 Teresa in Santo forte 111 14 A popular festival in Crede-mi 129 15 Patrícia França and Toni Garrido in Orfeu 131 16 Maria Emilce Pinto in Sertão das memórias 145 17 Lampião (Luís Carlos Vasconcelos) and Maria Bonita (Zuleica Ferreira) in Baile perfumado 149 18 João (Luís Carlos Vasconcelos) and a jailer (Tonico Pereira) in O primeiro dia 159 19 Maria (Fernanda Torres) in O primeiro dia 169 20 Alicinha (Ludmila Dayer) in ‘Diabólica’, an episode of Traição 183 21 Alves (Marco Nanini) and Ludovina (Patrícia Pillar) in Amor & Cia. 195 22 Silvino Santos in O cineasta da selva 223 23 Yndio do Brasil 225 24 For all 235 25 Alva (Sonja Saurin), Ninhinha (Barbara Brandt) and Liojorge (Ilya São Paulo) in A terceira margem do rio 249 Notes on contributors JOSÉ CARLOS AVELLAR was the president of Riofilme, the film distribution company of Rio de Janeiro, during the first years of the revival of Brazilian film production (1993-00). He is currently the director of Martim 21, a distribution company of Brazilian and Latin-American films, and the coordinator of the Programa Petrobras Cinema, that funds films and other activities related to cinema. He is a film critic and film historian, and the author, among other books, of Cinema dilacerado (Rio de Janeiro, 1986) and A ponte clandestina (Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo, 1995). IVANA BENTES is a film and visual arts researcher and critic. She is Associate Professor of Audio-visual Language, History and Theory at the School of Communication of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and an associate researcher at the Advanced Programme of Contemporary Culture (PACC) of UFRJ. She is the author of the book Joaquim Pedro de Andrade: a revolução intimista (Rio de Janeiro, 1996) and the editor of Cartas ao mundo: Glauber Rocha (São Paulo, 1997). She is the co-editor of the jour- nal Cinemais: revista de cinema e outras questões audiovisuais. STEPHANIE DENNISON teaches Brazilian Culture and Cinema at the University of Leeds, UK, where she also directs an MA pro- gramme in World Cinema. She has published articles on Brazilian Cinema, and, among other projects, she is currently co-writing a book on commercially successful Brazilian films (forthcoming with Manchester University Press). VERÔNICA FERREIRA DIAS is a filmmaker with a Master’s degree in Communication and Semiotics from the Catholic University of São Paulo, with a dissertation on Eduardo Coutinho. xii THE NEW BRAZILIAN CINEMA She has taught Theory of Communication and Educational Technology: TV/VT at the Faculdade Associada de Cotia, Brazil. CARLOS DIEGUES is one of the best-known Brazilian filmmak- ers. He started filming during the Cinema Novo in the 1960s, with Ganga Zumba (1964), and has so far directed 15 feature films, among them A grande cidade (The Big City, 1966), Xica da Silva (1976), Bye bye Brasil (1980), Quilombo (1984), Tieta (Tieta of Agreste, 1996) and Orfeu (1999). AMIR LA B A K I is the leading film critic of the daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo and a columnist of the newspaper Valor Econômico. He is the founder and director of It’s All True – The International Do c u m e n t a r y Film Festival (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro). He is the author, among others, of the book O olho da revolução – o cine- ma-urgente de Santiago Alvarez (São Paulo, 1994) and the editor, among others, of O cinema brasileiro/The Films from Brazil (São Paulo, 1998) and Person por Person (São Paulo, 2002). He is a former direc- tor of the Museum of Image and Sound, São Paulo (1993-95). MARIA ESTHER M A C I E L is Associate Professor of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her books include As vertigens da lucidez: poe- sia e crítica em Octavio Paz (São Paulo, 1995), A palavra Inquieta: homenagem a Octavio Paz (Belo Horizonte, 1999) and Vôo transver- so: poesia, modernidade e fim do século XX (Rio de Janeiro, 1999). She is the co-editor of Borges em dez textos (Rio de Janeiro, 1998). She is currently working on literature and cinema, carrying out research on Peter Greenaway. JOSÉ ÁLVARO MOISÉS was the National Secretary of Cultural Support (1995-98) and the National Secretary for Audio-visual Affairs (1999-02) at the Ministry of Culture, Brazil. He is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of São Paulo and was a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford (1991-92). He is the author of several books, including Os brasileiros e a democra- cia (São Paulo, 1995). LAURA MULVEY is Professor of Film and Media Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has been writing about film and film theory since the mid-1970s. Her books include NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii Visual and Other Pleasures (London, 1989) and Fetishism and Curiosity (London, 1996). In the late 1970s and early 80s, she co- directed six films with Peter Wollen including Riddles of the Sphinx (BFI, 1978) and Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti (Arts Council, 1980). In 1994 she co-directed the documentary Disgraced Monuments with artist/filmmaker Mark Lewis. LÚCIA NAGIB is Associate Professor of Film Studies at the State University of Campinas and the director of the Centre for Cinema Studies at the Catholic University of São Paulo. She is a film and art critic of the daily newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. Her books include Werner Herzog, o cinema como realidade (São Paulo, 1991), Em torno da nouvelle vague japonesa (Campinas, 1994), Nascido das cinzas – autor e sujeito nos filmes de Oshima (São Paulo, 1995) and O cinema da retomada – depoimentos de 90 cineastas dos anos 90 (São Paulo, 2002).