Review of Eva Paulino Bueno, O Artista
do Povo: Mazzaropi e Jeca Tatu no cinema do Brasil. Maringá:
Editora da Universidade Estadual de Maringá, 1999.
Darién J. Davis
Middlebury College
Brazilian cinema constitutes an important if not vital aspect
of Brazilian cultural production in the twentieth century. While
quality television programmes often overshadow Brazilian cinema's
importance, Brazil's cinematographic industry is arguably the
strongest in Latin America, with substantial amount of investment
from
state and private
enterprises.
In the 1940s, film entrepreneurs created Cinédia and Vera
Cruz, modeled after MGM in Hollywood. Based on Hollywood genres,
but lacking the Hollywood distribution apparatus, these companies
soon fell into bankruptcy. The 1950s saw the emergence of a new
cinema movement, cinema novo, which was interested in
film with social relevance at a time when Brazil was experiencing
rapid economic expansion lead by President Juscelino Kubitschek
(1955-1960). In search of national roots, many of these films
looked at the ethnic and social groups often denied visibility
in the official history. Films of the popular sectors such as
Glauba Rocha's Black God White Devil (1964), Anselmo Duarte's
The Given Word, and Nelson Perreira dos Santos' Barren
Lives (1963), stimulated national introspection and received
widespread international attention. In 1969, the state created
the first government film agency, EmbraFilm which was responsible
for financing, distributing and promoting many more national
films, comedies and Brazilian dramas throughout the Brazilian
territory. EmbraFilm made it increasingly difficult for foreign
films to be shown in movie houses, while requiring that Brazilian
films, not always of good quality, be shown. Thus by the 1970s,
Brazil was producing many films from serious social dramas to
comedies, musicals and pornography.
Despite the diversity of Brazil's cinematic production, scholars
have tended to focus on Brazil's most acclaimed international
stars whether it was Carmen Miranda in the 1930s or the more
politically sensitive actors and film makers of cinema novo.
Eva Paulino Bueno's work, O Artista do Povo: Mazzaropi e Jeca
Tatu no cinema do Brasil aims to shift that focus by examining
an important local actor and film maker, who in many respects
was no less witty and charismatic than Carmen Miranda while being
as politically sensitive as the film makers of cinema novo.
This was Mácio Mazzaropi (1927-1981).
An actor, director, and producer of films, Mazzaropi's career
began in the 1950s and he remained active until his death in
1981. As Bueno herself put it Mazzaropi was an idiosyncratic
artist and an astute businessman whose work, though uneven and
varied, had an enormous impact on Brazilian audiences for almost
three decades. But this work is not a biography. Bueno attempts
to give reader's an understanding of Mazzaropi's work, although
she never quite gives us much information about Mazzaropi the
man. She provides insightful analysis of the films which he directed
and in which he appeared
but we get very little behind the scenes commentary. Thus the
strength of this book lies in the analysis of the content of
films rather than in its assessment of the production or reception
of the film by Brazilian audiences.
In chapter one, "As Aventuras de Jeca Tatu: Classe, Cultura
e Nação", Bueno places Mazzaropi into his
proper historical context and introduces the reader to Mazzaropi's
most celebrated screen character: the capaira Jeca Tatu. Bueno's
placement of Mazzaropi's films is limited to film history, however,
as the author does not discuss the broader context of Brazilian
cultural history. The author treats Mazzaropi's artistic development
while contrasting his work to the major films of cinema novo
rather than accentuating the larger political or cultural occurrences
under President Kubischek in Brazil in the 1950s, and the many
points and counterpoints of Brazil's cultural production. Bueno's
decision to limit her focus is understandable given the enormity
of such a task, although one wonders if there were other film
makers or artists like Mazzaropi or any major influences on his
artistic vision which would be worthy of note. According to Bueno,
Mazzaropi's films can be divided into phases, but Bueno does
not present a systematic vision of these phases or what informed
them. It was in the very first phase, however, when Mazzaropi
developed as an actor that he became associated with the figure
of the capaira.
Following the introduction, each chapter examines specific films
through major themes which help us understand and place Mazzaropi's
films into ideological perspective. Chapter two, for example,
examines the films made before 1958 in which Mazzaropi played
the principal actor although the films were directed by a number
of different directors. According to Bueno, films such as Sai
da frente (1951), Nadando en dinheiro (1952), A
carrochina (1955), among others, comprise a group of films
that treat the conflict of 'opposing realities' such as the animal
world and the mechanical, the rural and the urban or the masculine
and the feminine (p. 33). They are also films about the universal
theme of metamorphosis and change. While Bueno provides enlightening
and interesting analysis of all of the films in this phase it
is unclear how the author envisions these productions as Mazzoropi's
films since Mazzaropi worked under many different directors.
What role did Mazzaropi play in shaping the film's vision? What
was his relationship to the directors? These questions are never
posed. If it is true, as Bueno asserts, that the first films
present the conflicts of Brazil, to what extent is Mazzaropi
responsible for how the films "contam a história
dificil e complexa do homen que tenta enfrentar as mudanças
que não sabe sondar, os desejos que não compreende,
as deferenças que não pode penetrate." ? (p.69)
In chapter three, Bueno attempts the complex analysis of language,
race and origin in another group of films, many of them treated
in the chapter two. Bueno approaches these film with little reliance
on current anthropological definitions of identity or with any
eye to identify politics. She explains (p. 78) that she is interested
in the inter-textuality and the dialogue among films which Mazarropi
seemed to have been constructing. Yet it is precisely for this
reason that a clear theoretical approach might have been warranted.
In the description of Meu Japão brasileiro the
politics of identity and racial and national identification is
far from clear, for example. Are the "japoneses" to
which she refers from Japan or born in Brazil ? The same question
might be inverted for the "jovem filha de japoneses"
with whom Mario, the son of the local priest, has fallen in love.
Similar issues arise in the description of O fuzileiro do
amor (1955). The irony of a non-black director ridiculing
the racism of blacks who denigrate their own race needs to be
developed. How are readers to understand the complexity of 'black
face,' in the context of Brazil a country made up of a majority
or near majority of Afro-Brazilians ? And why does the black
man in 'black face' necessarily "lean toward the white side"
in this particular film? Similar issues arise in Bueno's analysis
of race and identity in Jeca e seu filho preto, a film
analyzed later in the chapter. Moreover statements such as "Angela
Maria é percibida como mulata" needs to be further
explained. By whom? What does this mean?. What are the nuances
and implications of a entertainment star being "perceived
as a mulatta"? Bueno's description of the historical problem
of racism in Brazil could be better elaborated.
The use of language as a marker of race rather than ethnicity
in Chico fumaça (1956) also warrants critical attention.
In her analysis of the dialogue among Brazilian films, Bueno
often approaches these films uncritically as her assessment of
Cacá Diegues' Quilombo illustrates. That she believes
that "a linguagem e não a raça determina a
diferença" seems only to touch the tip of the iceberg,
although this might also be a problem of Cacá Diegues
own vision.
In the last three chapters, Bueno exposes a number of important
themes in Mazzaropi's oeuvre including his treatment of
history and his criticism of Brazilian society, his views on
religion and spirituality, and issues related to what Bueno calls
issues of "gender and the cosmic body," principally
in the discourse between the female and the male. Although Bueno
notes in chapter four that Mazzaropi's vision comes from the
perspective of a white man, she insists that race is not a major
factor since the vision comes from a poor white man who "participa
de muitos dos problemas dos escravos". While this might
be true, readers would benefit from a more subtle presentation
of the inter-connection of race and class in Brazil. Despite
the similar position in which poor whites and blacks occupy in
Brazilian society, 'whiteness' denotes privilege. Moreover, it
is important to understand where the capaira sits in
the complex social hierarchy of modern Brazil.
At times, Bueno offers new and interesting insights into many
of Mazzaropi's films. The analysis of Candinho, for example,
is both indepth and novel, as are many of her views on other
films. In other cases, however, historical information about
given themes treated in the films would have helped in the analysis.
Such is the case of O corinthiano, which deals with the
subject of football.
Chapters five and six follow a similar pattern of the previous
chapters, as Bueno elucidates and explains given themes that
appear in Mazzaropi's films. Missing, however, is a concluding
chapter or epilogue which would serve as a forum to bring all
of the major themes together and to allow the author to provide
readers with a much more complete vision of Mazzaropi's oeuvre.
Without it the book feels like a series of related essays. Still,
this is an important undertaking which highlights a filmmaker
and actor often missing from many books on Brazilian and culture.
Bueno's style is clear and direct. The strength of this book
is in its literary analysis and its dialogue with other works
on Brazilian film.
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