A Miss e o Dinossauro

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).

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).

Helena Ignez

Helena Ignez (Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, 1942), the former wife of Glauber Rocha and of  Julio Bressane, is now married to Rogério Sganzerla. She is one of the central figures of  Brazilian dramaturgy of the ’60 and ’70s. Bressane and Sganzerla found in her an actress who dared to dare and invented with them a new cinematography and a new language. A few of the films she has acted in are O Bandido da Luz Vermelha (1969), A Mulher de Todos (1970) and Copacabana mon amour (1970) directed by Rogério Sganzerla.  

FILMOGRAFIA

A miss e o Dinossauro (co-regia Julio Bressane, Rogéiro Sganzerla, cm, 1970), Reinvenção da rua - Uma reflexão (mm, 2003).