cinemas of the south

The Re-birth of Brazilian Cinema
By Pedro Butcher

In the beginning of the 1990s, Brazilian cinema went through one of its worst crisis. Even though it was nothing new in a history marked by ups and downs, this new 'down' phase wasn't circumscribed to a question of money or commercial viability. It took the shape of a deep, institutional depression, with the media constantly bashing producers and filmmakers under the accusation of 'wasting government money' and insisting on the question: 'What do we need Brazilian cinema for?'

Actually, the crisis wasn't even circumscribed to Brazilian cinema; reaching deeper roots in social, economical and political aspects. The country was leaving more than 20 years of military dictatorship and our first elected president, Fernando Collor de Mello, a young extravagant playboy whose bold image was built with the help of Brazil's biggest media group (Organizações Globo), ascended in pools promising to 'modernise' the country by cutting government expenses and eliminating public servant's privileges. One of his first measures, after confiscating bank's accounts so as to 'detain inflation', was to extinguish Embrafilme (Empresa Brasileira de Filmes) and Concice (Conselho Nacional de Cinema), the main pillars of the national film production and distribution system. With nothing to replace them, the number of Brazilian features, that during the late 70s and early 80s (Embrafilme's golden years) reached a peak of 100 titles a year, dropped to near zero in 1991.

Collor's administration, however, was short. After a series of corruption scandals, he resigned by the end of 1992, just before Congress started voting his impeachment process, and was replaced by vice president Itamar Franco. From 2003 on, film production in Brazil would start a slow recovery that led to a new phase, baptised as 'retomada da produção' or simply 'retomada' ('retake').

Foreign Land (Terra estrangeira, 1995)

The new fund-raising system was timidly outlined still during Collor's years, as part of the new cultural politics, but in fact it only started working under Itamar's administration. It was built under the neo-liberal dominant logic of private administration of public resources, and its main tools were two laws: the Law Rouanet, allowing private and public companies to deduct from their income taxes part of the resources invested in any cultural production, and the Audiovisual Law, specifically designed for the needs of film production, following the same principle. It established that any company can deduct up to 3% of the income tax if the money is reverted to cinema production, and it also allows big distribution companies to deduct up to 70% of the taxes over the money sent out of the country, under the condition that they co-produce and distribute national features.

Both these laws, being of complex operation just as any device that involves tax benefits, took some time to show efficiency. In 1992, the federal government launched the Rescue Prize that distributed the residual amount of Embrafilme's resources between 90 projects of shorts and feature films, helping to give a first impulse to production. This very same year, the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro created Riofilme, offering support in the areas of post-production and distribution to the projects that had been held since the end of Embrafilme. From 1992 to 1994, Riofilme was the only company to handle distribution of Brazilian pictures in a time when they were still rejected by the media and sectors of the market (mainly exhibitors).

The term "retake", however, wouldn't be coined until 1995, when Lei Rouanet and Lei do Audiovisual started showing their first concrete results, and the number of films released grew significantly to 12. Two of these films were especially remarkable. The period comedy Carlota Joaquina, Princess of Brazil (Carlota Joaquina), by Carla Camurati, a burlesque satire to the coming of the Portuguese court to Brazil in 1808, became a surprise-hit without any special distribution scheme or media support. When it hit theatres, in January, nobody believed the film's potential. The reviews were mild and most of the experienced professionals of the market were sceptical about the distribution system adopted by the director, considering it to be 'commercial suicide'. Instead of delivering it into the hands of a distribution company with experience and infrastructure, Carla Camurati preferred to take care of the release herself, with the aid of her production team. The number of prints, advertising campaign, and even the transportation of prints to theatres was determined by Carla and her small staff. So, it was a big surprise when the public response was far superior than expected and Carlota Joaquina became the first film of this period to reach the mark of one million spectators.

Also in 1995, Foreign Land (Terra estrangeira), by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas, started to call international attention to the new films being produced in Brazil . Selected by more than 30 festivals, including Rotterdam and Toronto, Foreign land presented an urgent reflection about Brazil's self-esteem crisis after the disaster of Collor's administration, telling the story of a young man who decides to leave the country (just like many others actually did) to try a new life in Portugal. Under the disguise of a genre (the film noir), with a beautiful and melancholic black and white cinematography, the film discussed some themes that would be recurrent in this new phase of the Brazilian cinema, such as the search for a father, the loss of the mother, and the sensation of impotence and disillusion.

Me You Them (Eu tu eles, 2000)

After 1995, Brazilian cinema began a strong process of recovery that included a deep creative renovation and commercial and international affirmation. In the next few years, despite all difficulties, more than 100 young directors would début in feature films, among them Andrucha Waddington: Me You Them (Eu tu eles, 2000), House of sand (Casa de aerial, 2005); Lais Bodanzky: Brainstorm (Bicho de sete cabeças, 2001); Jorge Furtado: Two Summers (Houve uma vez dois verões, 2003), Beto Brant: Belly Up (Os matadors, 1997); Tata Amaral: A Starry Sky (Um céu de estrelas, 1996); Lírio Ferreira and Paulo Caldas: Perfumed Ball (Baile perfumado, 1997), Luiz Fernando Carvalho: To the Left of the Father (Lavoura arcaica, 2001), and many others. In the meantime, film festivals started to pay attention to what was going on here, and in 1996 and 1997, two Brazilian films were nominated as best foreign language films at the Academy Awards: O Qu4trilho (O quatrilho, 1995), by Fabio Barreto, and Four Days in September (O Que É Isso, Companheiro?, 1997) by Bruno Barreto, which also competed in Berlin.

In 1998, Walter Salles' Central Station (Central do Brasil, 1998) broke new ground as it became a worldwide success after being screened in Sundance and in Berlin, where it took the Golden Bear and gave its star, Fernanda Montenegro, the best actress prize. The story of the birth of this film is quite interesting. It all began five years earlier, when Maria do Socorro Nobre, a prisoner in Bahia, read a magazine with an interview with Polish-born (and long time radical supporter of Brazil) sculptor Frans Krajcberg. Fascinated by his history, she wrote him a letter that was promptly answered, giving birth to a beautiful and distant epistolary friendship. Being a friend of Krajcberg since 1985, when he shot a small documentary about the artist The Poet of the Vestiges (O poeta dos vestígios), Salles heard the story of Socorro and decided to register their first meeting for the documentary Life Somewhere Else (Socorro Nobre, 1995). Later, inspired by Socorro and Krajcberg's correspondences, he had the idea to create Dora, the main character of Central Station, a woman that writes letters for the illiterates in Rio 's biggest train station. Not by chance, the first close-up that we see in Central Station , that of a woman dictating a letter, is the face of Maria do Socorro Nobre.

Salles' documentary background served as an instrument to incorporate in Central Station the stories of people who crossed the shooting - they would actually dictate their letters to Dora, creating an interesting mixture of ficcion and non-fiction. With its narrative punctuated by emotion and affection, Central Station had an important role in the process of reintroducing cinema in the heart of Brazilian culture.

In the four years following Central Station's success, the foreign themes and characters that dominated the first years of the 'retake' became more and more rare, giving space to Brazil 's unresolved social and political issues. In 2002, four films dealing with social contrasts and urban violence contributed to generate a new tendency in Brazilian cinema: Fernando Meirelles' City of God (Cidade de Deus), Beto Brant's The Trespasser (O invasor), Karim Ainouz's Madame Satã and José Padilha's documentary Bus 174 (Ônibus 174) all dealt, in different ways, with a violent and urban country. Among them, City of God, by far, was the most controversial and influential.

City of God (Cidade de Deus, 2002)

Before these films, urban violence was a taboo for most producers and distributors. With the concern of reconquering a lost space in the market, many professionals of the industry rejected any project that could raise controversy and the rejection of the public. That idea started to change after the immense repercussion of a TV documentary called News from a Private War (Notícias de uma guerra particular), shown in cable TV in 1999, co-directed by João Salles (Walter Salles' brother) and Katia Lund, who later would assist Fernando Meirelles in the making of City of God. It was the first in recent years to show the problem of drug dealers in Rio 's favelas and their confrontation with the police.

Conceived as a modern epic, City of God deals with urban violence in a very ambitious way, describing how drug dealers installed themselves in one of Rio's biggest favelas, Cidade de Deus. Braulio Mantovani's Oscar nominated script, based on Paulo Lins' acclaimed book, is a fictionalized tale of the author's own experience, and it depicts a vast period of time (from the 60s to the 90s) to design a thrilling and shocking panorama of a violent escalade involving children and young men. With the exception of Matheus Nachtergaele, who plays the dealer Cenourinha, all the cast was formed by young actors, most of them coming from poor communities, which contributed to the authenticity of the project.

Due to City of God 's explosive theme, Fernando Meirelles had great difficulty in raising money for production. The laws based on tax deductions had a strong limitation regarding the subjects of the films that would be produced, as no company was willing to associate its brand to a controversial picture. Meirelles decided to partially finance the film himself, with the monies attained after years of directing commercials, an investment he would later recover.

City of God premièred in Cannes 2002, out of competition, and was released in Brazil three months later, in August, to become one of the most successful and controversial pictures of recent Brazilian cinema, with more than 3.3 million spectators in the domestic market, a worldwide distribution handled by Miramax and four Oscar nominations (director, screenplay, cinematography and editing).

The City of God repercussion changed the Brazilian market's perspective and proved that local audiences were interested in seeing hard themes on the big screen; at the same time, it also generated a strong public debate regarding the subject of violence among kids in Brazilian favelas. It was also criticised for the controversial way that the film approaches the subject, considered by many - including rapper M.V. Bill, an important advocate of City of God - to be too exploitative.

Carandiru (2003)

The following year, Hector Babenco's Carandiru (2003) reached an even bigger commercial success, with more than 4.6 million spectators in 30 weeks. It was also selected for Cannes (even though its international career was far less successful), repeating and expanding the concept of a local film-event inaugurated by City of God. Its starting point was also a best selling book, with personal stories narrated by Dr Drauzio Varella, who spent 13 years working as a volunteer in Carandiru, the biggest penitentiary of Latin America, in São Paulo .

While City of God showed a dense panel of violence in Rio, Carandiru concentrated on the more disperse and 'varied' criminality in São Paulo that isn't so much focused on drug dealing. The small stories of Carandiru tried to humanise the face of prisoners without transforming them into heroes: "Here nobody is guilty, doctor," says Chico (Milton Gonçalves), one of the prisoner's; or, in the words of Lula (Dionísio Netto): "In prison nobody knows where truth dwells." Through the eyes of a well intended social mediator, the respected doctor, played by Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, the public is invited to enter the prison and be acquainted with the stories that led the prisoners in there. In the end, Brazilian social tragedy acts as an inexorable destiny: a rebellion results in an invasion of the penitentiary by the police, with 111 dead prisoners and no policeman injured; an event that would later be known as 'Carandiru's Slaughter'.

The great success of Carandiru helped to transform the year 2003 into a phenomenon for Brazilian cinema. In fact, it was Brazilian cinema as a whole that was living a special moment. For the first time since 1989, the year's total audience surpassed the mark of 100 million spectators. Brazilian films, particularly, reached the amazing mark of 22 million admissions sold, with 21.4% of the market share.

Babenco's film wasn't the only national hit of the year. Six other features reached wide audiences in 2003: the lyric comedy Lisbela and the prisoner (Lisbela e o prisioneiro), by Guel Arraes (3.1 million), the sexual comedy The Normal (Os normais), by José Alvarenga (2.9 million), the religious epic Mary - Mother of the Son of God (Maria, mãe do filho de Deus), by Moacyr Góes (2.3 million), kids flicks Xuxa and the Elves 2 (Xuxa e os duendes 2), by Paulo Sergio Almeida and Rogério Gomes (2.3 million) and Didi - The Cupid Bungler (Didi - O cupido trapalhão) by Paulo Aragão and Alexander Boury (1.7 million), and Carlos Diegue's comedy God is Brazilian (Deus é brasileiro) attracting 1.6 million.

This enormous growth of national film was the combination of a commercially driven harvest and a wider scenario that included the strengthening of cinema in Brazil as a whole. But the great distinguishing factor for national cinema was the introduction of a new actor in this process: television.

Movies, Aspirin and Vultures (Cinema, aspirinas e urubus)

Globo Filmes

In 1998, Brazil 's main TV station, TV Globo, which is part of a giant media corporation, finally created a division dedicated to the co-production of feature films (Globo Filmes). In more than 30 years of existence, Globo had never before produced cinema, as Brazilian laws never obliged TV to do so (unlike many other countries). But a new campaign linked to Globo's fears regarding the transmission of audiovisual content through new technologies (including mobile phones, internet, etc), drove the group to start a wide campaign in the defence of "national content" (and, of course, defending its own prevalence as audiovisual producer in Brazil). That's why national feature films became interesting for Globo.

During its first two years of action, Globo's participation in movies was limited, while it researched the most appropriate model to be associated to the business, first trying to become a distribution company, later focusing exclusively on production.

One of Globo's first goals was to transform some of its existing production material - mainly miniseries' - into feature length films. The first attempt was quite successful: in 2000, Columbia Pictures released a reduced version of Globo's production for A Dog's Will (O auto da Compadecida, 2000), a famous play adapted by Guel Arraes and first presented one year before, in four chapters. It became a huge success also in theatres. But two other attempts to release previously seen material failed, redirecting Globo to co-produce independent projects.

Globo's association with other producers has a very special characteristic. The company never really finances the film or part of it. The co-production contract guarantees the producer a certain amount of media exposure by the time the film is released. Depending on the intentions of the distribution company (generally a major) and of the percentage of Globo's participation in the film, this media exposure can be bigger or smaller. The important thing is that the film will count on a huge national TV campaign not only in the traditional format of TV spots, but also in the so called cross media (the citation and promotion of the film in TV programs such as soap operas and talk shows).

This way, Globo demonstrated an immense power to enlarge national films in its main weakness in relation to Hollywood product: the capacity of marketing investments. That process reached a peak in 2003, when 10 of the 30 national features released had the support of Globo, including Carandiru, Lisbela and the Prisoner (Lisbela e o prisioneiro) and others. Together, they obtained more than 80% of the audience of local films.

City Drops (Cidade Baixa, 2005)

Other tendencies

However, while Globo inaugurated the concept of the Brazilian blockbuster, a whole set of independent filmmakers developed a work that searched for different ways of expressions and were not so influenced by TV aesthetics, such as Domingos Oliveira: Loves (Amores,1998), Detachments (Separações, 2002); Carlos Reichenbach: Buccaneer Soul (Alma corsária, 1993), Two Streams (Dois córregos, 1999), Garotas do ABC (2003), Property Confiscated (Bens confiscados, 2004); Julio Bressane: (Days of Nietzsche in Turin (Dias de Nietzsche em Turim, 2001), A Love Movie (Filme de amor, 2003)); Rogério Sganzerla (who passed away in 2004, before his latest film, The Sign of the Chaos (O signo do caos, 2005), was released); Beto Brant (Um crime delicado, 2005), or even Luiz Fernando Carvalho, who worked on TV but directed a first feature far distant from mainstream language To the Left of the Father (Lavoura arcaical, 2001).

At the same time, documentary proved itself one of the richest expressions of recent Brazilian cinema. Between 1995 and 2004, little more than 40 feature lengths documentaries opened in Brazilian theatres. Many of these, such as Here We Are Waiting for You (Nós que aqui estamos por vós esperamos, 1999), by Marcelo Masagão, Window of the Soul (Janela da alma, 2002), by João Jardim e Walter Carvalho, or Edifício Master (2002), by Eduardo Coutinho, reached wider audiences than several fiction films with far bigger budgets and advertising campaigns.

In the book Introduction to Brazilian Documentary (Introdução ao documentário brasileiro), critic Amir Labaki points to the fact that for most fiction films of great impact of the last few years there was a documentary attached, as a "seed or a mirror". As we already mentioned, Central Station was born out of Life Somewhere Else, City of God was very much influenced by News from a Private War, and Carandiru had the very interesting counterpoint of The Prisoner of Grade de Ferro (O prisioneiro da grade de ferro, 2004), by Paulo Sacramento, in which portable cameras were handled to the prisoners, responsible for most of the material used in the film. Other strong documentaries were those of Eduardo Coutinho, who confirmed himself as a master of the genre with The Mighty Spirit (Santo Forte, 1999), Edificio Master and The End and the Beginning (O fim e o princípio), and João Moreira Salles, who after the TV made News from a Private War, directed Nelson Freire, about Brazil's most celebrated living pianist, and Entreatos, about president's Lula campaign.

In 2005, Globo Filmes released what would become the biggest success of recent Brazilian cinema, Two Sons of Francisco (Dois filhos de Francisco), the biography of two popular country music singers that was seen by more than 5.3 million people. In May, Cannes selected two first features of young promising directors, shown in the Un Certain Regard sidebar: Movies, Aspirin and Vultures (Cinema, aspirinas e urubus) by Marcelo Gomes, and City Drops (Cidade Baixa, 2005) by Sergio Machado. Two very different films, but both full of energy and a strong desire to make a difference. Also, Walter Salles and Fernando Meirelles both debuted with their English language mid-budget productions: Salles directing for Buena Vista the horror Dark Water (2005) and Fernando Meirelles adapting John Le Carré's novel The Constant Gardener (2005) for British producer Simon Channing Williams.

Pedro Butcher
© FIPRESCI 2006

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