Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
repression of dissent by the colonial authorities was a brilliantly subversive use of a
national myth to make contemporary political points.
The other response was to make films so elliptical and packed with symbolism that
nobody outside film schools could understand them. The influence of 1960s French
film-makers, especially Godard, was overwhelming in the main exponent of this genre,
Glauber Rocha
. Still widely admired by the Brazilian intelligentsia, his films created a
stir on the European art-house circuit of their time, but his best-known works,
Terra
em Transe
(“Land In Trance”, 1967) and
Antônio das Mortes
(1969), are unwatchable
today, save for their historical interest.
Modern Brazilian cinema
As the military dictatorship wound down,
realism
returned to Brazilian cinema,
notably with Leon Hirszman's portrayal of the São Paulo car-factory strikes in
Eles Não
Usam Black Tie
(“They Don't Wear Dinner Jackets”, 1981) and Cacá Diegues's excellent
Bye Bye Brazil
(1979), which followed a tawdry group of circus perfomers through the
country's hinterland against a marvellous soundtrack by Chico Buarque. Hector
Babenco's
Pixote
(1982) became the best-known film abroad from this period, but
Bye Bye Brazil
is the real classic.
The 1990s
It was not until the consolidation of
democracy
in the 1990s that Brazilian film-makers
could relax, put politics in its proper place as part of life rather than the crux of
everything and start producing the kind of films that could catch the attention of
international audiences in a way Brazilian cinema in previous decades - often
fascinating but ultimately a little parochial - was never quite capable of doing.
There were indications of new directorial talent well before the hits came. Female
directors emerged for the first time, with
Carla Camaruti
producing a highly
entertaining take on early Brazilian history in
Carlota Joaquina
(1994), and
Helen
Solberg
's
intelligent and thought-provoking exploration of Carmen Miranda's life and
myth in the drama-documentary
Carmen Miranda
-
Bananas Is My Business
(1994).
Young directors also emerged;
Andrushka Waddington
was all of 30 when he directed
Eu Tu Eles
(“Me You Them”) in 2002, a reworking of the old
cinema novo
theme of life
in the northeastern
sertão
, but this time with the central character a woman choosing
from a variety of husbands rather than the other way around, and with yet another
superb soundtrack, this time by Gilberto Gil.
But three films in particular catapulted Brazilian cinema to international attention.
O Que É Isso Companheiro
(literally “What's Up Comrade”, but sensibly renamed
“Four Days in September” for English-speaking audiences), released in 1997, is a
taut, beautifully done thriller directed by Bruno Barreto, re-creating very accurately
the kidnapping of the American ambassador in 1969 and featuring Alan Arkin in a
cameo role as the ambassador. It was a hit internationally, but not as big a hit as two
later films by the young and extravagantly talented directors
Walter Salles
and
Fernando Meirelles
.
Central Station
Salles's
Estação Central
(“Central Station”), released in 1998, tells the story of the
developing relationship between a young boy and an old woman thrown together by
chance, as they travel by bus from Rio into, inevitably, the interior of the Northeast,
where all Brazilian film-makers seem to head when they need a metaphor for the
national condition. The plot, which could easily have turned sentimental and mawkish
in less assured hands, is excellently acted and directed and becomes almost unbearably
moving at the end.
