Cinema on stage or the scene in the movie: humanism and politics in the epic film of Manoel de Oliveira and Glauber Rocha

Abstract

This project , linked to the Group for Research in Drama and Film (GPDC) of UNESP and integrated into the thematic project (in conjunction) "Drama deadlocks: representation and theatricality in the performing arts and their relationships with other arts", proposes a comparative study between the film director Portuguese Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015) and the Brazilian Glauber Rocha (1939-1981) from the hypothesis that the two filmmakers adopt in cinematic language a disjunctive method of diegetic composition that approaches the epic theater of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956 ). It is to identify and describe, in a corpus involving three masterpieces of each of the two filmmakers, a number of epicizantes resources in the manner of Brecht used systematically. The intention is to assess the effects of the epic form of two productions in consolidating a political dimension that in Glauber Rocha is quite evident but in Manoel de Oliveira has not been understood in its full potential, perhaps to present covertly, often mediated by fine irony and without any purpose of ideological art instrumentation. The comparative study will include films whose characters represent an entire community national reach in the case of NON OR VAIN GLORY OF IMPOSE (1990), by Manoel de Oliveira or so underprivileged social groups poor Bahian coast fishermen and Brazilian hinterland poor respectively in BARRAVENTO (1962 ), GOD AND THE DEVIL IN THE LAND OF SUN (1964) and THE DRAGON OF EVIL AGAINST THE HOLY WARRIOR (1969), by Glauber Rocha; the simple people of Curalha, a small village in northern Portugal, and poor people living around the stairways of St. Kitts in the Moorish quarter, historic center of Lisbon, respectively in ACT IN THE SPRING (1963) and THE BOX (1994) by Oliveira. It is intended to highlight, at the heart of the epic structure, functional components that in both cases seem to suggest ways that imply an acute awareness of the policy dimension, namely the distinct presence of the female figure; stigma or disability as a distinctive element of actors or characters engaged diegetic joint function (especially the blind character in both cases); the critique of religious deception embodied in mystical characters or so-called "holy". We expect to illuminate specific aspects of Portuguese and Brazilian cultures taken up by the two filmmakers. (AU)