Slides for Lecture 1 on An Overview of Brazilian Cinema: History, Industry, Movements

1. Lecture Programme
Week 1 Introduction to Brazilian Cinema: an overview of history,
industry, and movements.
Week 2 Myths of Origin: Como era gostoso o meu francês and Iracema.
Week 3 National allegories – the Family and the Nation: Macunaíma,
Central do Brasil and Pixote.
Week 4 Mythical landscapes - O sertão and a favela: Vidas Secas,
Mutum (with brief ref. to Abril Despedaçado), Black Orpheus and Linha
de passe.
Week 5 Performance and Reflexivity in Contemporary Brazilian
Documentary: Boca de lixo, Jogo de cena and Ônibus 174.
Week 6 Culture clashes: Como nascem os anjos and Terra Estrangeira.

2. Filmography
All of the films excluding Boca de lixo (Eduardo Coutinho, 1992) and
Mutum (Sandra Kogut, 2007) are available in the Taylorian. I will
make these two available by uploading them to ‘Google skydrive’ to
download or watch online.
Tutorials:
Mondays from 3-4pm in weeks 2-7 have been set aside for tutorials,
which will take place in room the basement lecture theatre of 47
Wellington Square. (Tutorial dates: 27th January; 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th
February; and 3rd March.)
Provisional essay deadlines: 24th or 31st January; 10th and 24th
February and 3rd March. (?)

3. Assessment of Essays
See the following, all available online:
1.FHS Marking guidelines 2014 – the last section on essays in
Literature/Linguistic Papers.
2.Style sheet.
3.Advice on submitting essays for special subjects.
General guidelines on literary/linguistic essays:
‘Essays will be assessed on their relevance to the question attempted,
on their structure, on the appropriateness of the illustrative material
used and, where possible, on their originality. Candidates are advised
to pay close attention to the structure of their answers: if the question
specifically requires “discussion”, one-sided answers will be penalised.
Answers may show either in-depth knowledge, or breadth of reference,
or both. In papers IV to XIII, evidence of knowledge of critical issues
will be expected. Arguments should be supported by illustration, but
lengthy quotation from texts may not be appropriate. Length of essay
is not necessarily a virtue.’

4. Rachel Randall
20/01/14
Introduction to Brazilian Cinema:
An overview of history, industry and movements

5. Cultural Influences (I):
Europe and North America
•Influenced by Portuguese language
and culture owing to lengthy
colonial period (1500 – 1815).
•Portugal has also represented a
culture to react against, a theme in
various films.
•France was the source of cultural
models, standards and trends in
19th century.
•In 20th century, the US became the
source of cultural production that
dominated –through Hollywood
film.

6. Cultural Influences (II): Afro-Brazilians and Indigenous Heritage
•Brazil was run as a slavocracy for nearly 300 years.
•This resulted in a complicated legacy of interaction between Europeans
and Afro-Brazilians, as well as indigenous peoples.
Influences of this interaction often overlooked:
•The practice of candomblé, a religion of African origin, is still popular.
•Influence of Tupi-Guarani on the development of Portuguese.

7. The Importance of Location (I)
The homeland ‘is not simply a “setting of the national drama,” but a
major protagonist in the stories and myths about the nation. Natural
features such as lakes, mountains, forests, valleys and rivers take on
historical significance and can be turned into symbols of popular virtues
and “authentic” national experiences.’
(Smith in Signorelli Heise 2012: 13-14)
Cecília Amado’s Capitães de areia (2011),
set in Salvador.

8. Symbolic Locations (II): The ‘Sertão’
-Originates from the word ‘desertão’ and often used
indiscriminately to refer to barren backlands of Brazil.
-Can refer specifically to the north-eastern region of the
country, where its sugar production industry was concentrated.
Walter Salles’ Abril despedaçado, set in
Brazil’s old sugar producing region.

9. What constitutes a Brazilian film?
Spaniard Penelope Cruz in
Woman on Top (2000)
Mexican Gael García Bernal in
Walter Salles’ Los diarios de motocicleta

10. Should we study ‘popular’ Brazilian cinema?

11. Turn of the century:
The beginnings of Brazilian cinema
•Cinema arrived in Brazil in 1896.
•Cinema-going did not become a habit until the early 1900s.
•Rio de Janeiro was the country’s original ‘capital’ of film.
•The first Brazilian films were either:
(1)pseudo-anthropological documentaries
(2)Newsreels which focused on crime.
•Despite their poor quality, they were more popular than
foreign films.
•Nevertheless, Hollywood productions quickly dominated the
market.

12. •Chanchadas are musical comedies,
prevalent during the 1940s-50s.
They were both:
•Popular, perhaps because of their
relation to folk culture.
•Formulaic, including elements of:
slapstick, a romance, and dance.
•Chanchadas have been described as the
only truly Brazilian film genre, given that
they occurred independently of ‘the tastes
of the colonizer and contrary to foreign
interests’ (Gomes in Martin 1997: 265).
Brazilian Film in the 1940s and 50s: The ‘Chanchada’

13. Brazilian Film in the 1960s: Cinema Novo
• Founded by a group of young,
politically motivated directors.
• Influences: the French Nouvelle
Vague and Italian Neo-Realism.
‘A estética da fome,’ written by
director Glauber Rocha stated its
intentions:
• to film ‘com uma cámara na mão e
uma ideia na cabeça’.
• to bring the suffering of the
disadvantaged to the middle-class
audience.
These documentaries employ:
hand-held cameras, naturalistic
lighting, bleak settings, non-
professional actors.

14. 1970s and 80s: Cinema under the dictatorship
• Filmmakers applied to government
for culture grants to make their
films, a practice which was
criticised.
• Nevertheless, several highly
successful films were made during
the 1970s as a result of public
funding.
• It was during this era that Como
era gostoso meu francês (Nelson
Pereira dos Santos, 1971) and
Macunaíma (Joaquím Pedro de
Andrade, 1969) were made.
• Both of these can be read as critical
of authoritarian regimes.

15. 1980s: The ‘Abertura’ and stylistic shifts
• Upon the transition out of
dictatorship, there was a shift
from the Cinema Novo’s aesthetic.
• Contemporary films, while still
pertaining to represent social ills,
often did so from the perspective
of an individual character.
• E.g. Héctor Babenco’s Pixote: A
Lei do Mais Fraco (1981).
• Like other successful
contemporary films:
‘It deftly blends personal pathos and
denúncia [social critique]’
(Armstrong in Rêgo and Rocha 2011:
179).

16. 1990s: the ‘Retomada’
• The industry took a blow in the early 90s when President
Fernando Collor de Mello stopped state funding of cinema.
• In 1992, only two long feature films were released.
His successor, President Itamar Franco, stimulated film
production through:
(1) ‘O Prêmio Resgate do Cinema Brasileiro’, which re-allocated
the assets of ‘Embrafilme’.
(2) ‘A Lei Audiovisual,’ under which companies received tax
benefits if they invested in ‘audiovisual’ cultural projects.
• From 1994 – 2000, 200+ feature length films were made and
the industry was reborn.

17. Contemporary Brazilian Documentary
• Since the 1990s a new style of
documentary film has emerged.
• Its roots remain inextricable from
the socially committed Cinema
Novo. However, it differs on
several points which include:
1. Foregrounding the distance which
exists between the (often) middle-
class filmmaker and his subjects.
2. Deliberately blurring the line
between documentary and fiction.
Professional actor, Marília Pera
in documentary Jogo de Cena
(Eduardo Coutinho, 2007)

18. Contemporary Brazilian Cinema: TV and film
• Recent fiction and documentary film often draws attention to the
relationship between cinema and TV.
• In today’s scene there exists a genre continuum, both between the
real and the fictional, and between media:
‘directors, writers, performers and audiences [often] move between
film and other media, including broadcast television’ (Armstrong
in Rêgo & Rocha 2011: 179).
• TV is the means by which most Brazilians have access to cultural
productions.
• Globo realised ways that the two media could help each other,
thus resulting in co-productions and Cidade de Deus successful
spin-off series Cidade dos Homens.