Country: Brazil
Year: 1985
Duration: 90'


From the homonymous work by Machado de Assis, one of the great names of Brazilian literature. Brás Cubas, who lived in the 19th century, is dead and, from the great beyond, reflects on his life and discovers that he was a rich man who had lived a mediocre life. His posthumous memories are populated by caricatures of people who make up the mosaic of an archaic and backward society, lacking in human reasoning, just like the Brazilian society of the second half of the 19th century, of which Brás Cubas was an exponent. "This was the first deliberate effort on the part of Brazilian cinema and myself to make an inter-semiotic translation of a classic written in Portuguese, the homonymous novel by Machado de Assis, into a film. The way I made it, it was a humorous film, with very sarcastic irony" (J. Bressane).

Biography

film director

Julio Bressane

Julio Bressane was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1946. As an adolescent, he frequented the haunts of the nascent Cinema Novo, establishing ties with Paulo Cezar Saraceni, Glauber Rocha and Leon Hirszman. At 19 years of age, he was assistant to Walter Lima Jr. for the film Menino de Engheno and then later to Fernando Campos for A Viagem. He debuted as a director in 1965 with the short film Lima Barreto: Trajetória. O Anjo Naceu and Matou a Familia e foi ao Cinema are received as a break with Cinema Novo. Cinema Marginal or "udigrudi". The term was never recognized by his esponents. In 1970, with Rogerìo Sganzerla and Helena Ignez, he founds the production house Belair, whose activity is brusquely interrupted by the military dictatorship, which forces the three founders into exile. Bressane lives a few years abroad, mainly in London and New York, he travels to Morocco and in Asia until 1973, when he returns to Brazil. Over the past few years, after a long period of ostracism by international festivals, his films have been presented with growing success in Taormina, Venice, Turin and Rotterdam. In 2002, the Torino Film Festival presented a complete retrospective of the Brazilian director.

FILMOGRAFIA

Lima Barreto: Trajetória (1965-1966), Bethânia Bem de Perto (1966), Elis Regina (1966, film perduto), Cara a Cara (1967), O Anjo Nasceu (1969), Matou a Família e Foi ao Cinema (1969), Barão Olavo, o Horrível (1970), A Miss e o Dinosauro (1970, film perduto), Cuidado Madame (1970), Memórias de um Estrangulador de Louras/Memories of a Blonde Strangler (1971), Amor Louco/Crazy Love (1971), A Fada do Oriente (1972, film perduto), Lágrima Pantera (1972, film perduto), O Rei do Baralho (1973); Viagem Através do Brasil I (1973-1974), Viagem Através do Brasil II (1973-1974), Viagem Através do Brasil III (1973-1974-1975), O Monstro Caraíba - Nova História Antiga do Brasil (1975), Viola Chinesa - Meu Encontro com o Cinema Brasileiro (1975), A Agonia (1976), O Gigante da América (1976), Cidade Pagã (1979), Cinema inocente (1980), Tabu (1982), Brás Cubas (1985), Sob o Céu, Sob o Sol, Salvador (1987), Sermões - A História de António Vieira (1989), Quem seria o Feliz Conviva de Isadora Duncan? (1992), Galáxia Albina (1992), Infernalário: Logodédalo - Galaxia Dark (1993), O Cinema do Cinema - Criação e Recriação da Imagem no Filme Cinematográfico (1993), Antonioni - Hitchcock: A Imagen em Fuga (1993), As Canções que Vôce fez pra Mim (1994), O Mandarim (1995), Miramar (1997), São Jerônimo (1998), Dias de Nietzsche em Turim (2001), Nietszche in Nice, Filme de Amor (2003).

Cast

& Credits

Regia, sceneggiatura e colonna sonora: Julio Bressane.
Director of photography: José Tadeu Ribeiro.
Sound: Dudi Gupper, Guará (Guaracy Rodrigues).
Operatori: José Tadeu Ribeiro e Julio Bressane.
Editor: Dominique Paris.
Director assistant: Rosa Dias, Ovídio de Abreu.
Poemi: «v» de Virgilia (via) Décio Pignatari; Nascemorre di Haroldo de Campos.
Art director: Luciano Figueiredo.
Costume designer: Vera Barreto Leite.
Cast: Luiz Fernando Guimarães, Bia Nunes, Cristina Pereira, Renato Borghi, Regina Casé, Ankito, Dedé Veloso, Paschoal Vilaboim, Maria Gladys, Wilson Grey, Sandro Solviati Siqueira, Guar· (Guaracy Rodrigues).
Production company: Julio Bressane Produções Cinematográficas
Menu