Country: Brazil
Year: 1977
Duration: 82'
"After Belair, there is the exile in Europe, then Morocco and
the Sahara desert, where he makes the mythical 16mm documentary Fora do
Baralho in 1971. Then everything starts to get really hard for
Sganzerla. It'll take six years to complete his following feature
effort, O Abismu, and another seven years to have it decently released
in the theaters. Starring Cinema Novo's sex symbol Norma Bengell, comic
TV artist Jorge Loredo, horror actor-Director Jose Mojica Marins and
veteran movie actor Wilson Grey, the film deals with ancient manuscripts
and flying saucers, but everything here is very political: stuck in a
lousy present ruled by ignorance, the only hope lies in a remote past or
in a distant future. Or in the songs of Jimi Hendrix - Up From the
Skies, Pali Grap, Wait Until Tomorrow, In From the Storm - that
Sganzerla cuts, edits and pastes, anticipating DJ culture. Hendrix is
the first Sganzerla alter ego myth of genius, misunderstanding and
decline, which will later also include Noel Rosa, Oswald de Andrade and
mainly Orson Welles." (R. Gardnier)
Biography
film director
Rogerio Sganzerla
Rogério Sganzerla was born in 1946 in the town of Joaçaba, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Between 1964 and 1965 he wrote film critiques for the cultural supplement of the newspaper "O Estado de São Paulo" and for other newspapers. In 1967, he collaborated with Andréa Tonacci on his first film, the short film Documentário. He directed his first full-length film in São Paulo in 1968, O Bandido da Luz Vermelha, which caused a scandal and led to his clamorous break with Cinema Novo. He defined the outlines of Cinema Marginal, or "udigrudi" (according to a denigrating definition by Glauber Rocha), which weren't recognized by its exponents, including the various "Paulist" filmmakers. Nor was it recognized by Julio Bressane, who had become a friend of Sganzerla's in those years. During those years he was also exchanging ideas with Augusto De Campos, the famous exponent of Brazilian poesia concreta, and with the exponents of Tropicalism. In 1969 he directed A Mulher de Todos, starring the actress Helena Ignez, the "muse of the new cinema," who became his wife and often starred in his films. In 1970 he and Julio Bressane, along with Helena Ignez, founded the production house BelAir, which produced six films in a few short months (three by Bressane and three by Sganzerla). Gilberto Gil wrote the music for Copacaban a Mon Amour. Caetano Veloso, after seeing Sem Essa Aranha, wrote the song Qualquer Coisa. Like Bressane, Sganzerla was forced to leave Brazil by the military dictatorship: he and his wife moved to Paris, then to London. After returning to Brazil, in 1977 he directed O Abismu, starring Norma Bengell (who is also the producer), Wilson Grey and José Mojica Marins. He next directed the so-called trilogy about Orson Welles' experiences in Brazil: Nem Tudo é Verdade (1986), Tudo é Brasil, and O Signo do Caos (2003). This last film, which took many years to complete, was presented at the Festival of Brasilia at the end of 2003. Rogério Sganzerla died on January 9, 2004. Helena Ignez plans on making a film based on the screenplay which her husband had been working on during his final years. This film, Luz na Travas - A Revolta de Luz Vermelha, returns to the "red light bandit," thirty years later. In 2001 the book "Por um Cinema Sem Limite" (azougue editorial, Rio de Janeiro), was published; it is an anthology of various writings by Sganzerla about cinema.
FILMOGRAFIA
Documentário (cm, 1966), O Bandido da Luz Vermelha (1968), A Mulher de Todos (1969), Comics/HQ (cm, doc, 1969), Quadrinhos no Brasil (cm, doc, 1969), Sem essa, Aranha (1970), Copacabana mon amour (1970), Carnaval na Lama (1970), A Miss e o Dinossauro (super8, 1970), Fora do Baralho (doc, 1971), Viagem e Descriçao do Rio Guanabara por Ocasião da França Antártica (cm, 1976), Umbanda no Brasil (cm, doc, 1977), Welles no Rio (cm, 1977), O Abismu (1977), Mudança de Hendrix (1971-78), Horror Palace Hotel (mm, doc, super8, co-regia: Jairo Ferreira, 1978), Noel por Noel (cm, doc, 1981), Brasil (cm, doc, 1981), Irani (cm, doc, 1983), E o Petróleo Nasceu na Bahia (cm, doc, 1984), Nem Tudo é Verdade (1986), Anónimo e Incomum (video, doc, 1990), A Alma do Povo Vista pelo Artista (video, doc, 1990), Isto é Noel (mm, doc, 1990), A Linguagem de Orson Welles (cm, doc, 1991), Perigo Negro (5° episodio di Oswaldianas), Tudo é Brasil (1998), Informação Koellreuter (cm, video, doc, 2003), O Signo do Caos (2003).