Cultural Contexts of Glauber Rocha’s Filmmaking

Alicja Helman

kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University (Poland)

Abstract

Helman presents the mini-monograph of the work of Brazilian director Glauber Rocha in the context of the specificity of Cinema Novo. According to the author, Glauber Rocha appears as a tireless revolutionist, a contestant and experimenter. Helman presents the biography of the artist, selected elements of the history of Brazil relevant from the point of view of Rocha’s work, as well as the Cinema Novo movement itself, which is an important reference point for the director. Then she focuses on the director’s feature films, focusing mainly on presenting his artistic strategies and analysing the formal side of his films, which - according to Helman - is an important factor in dealing with political, social and cultural issues (myths, rituals and ceremonies) present in Rocha’s films. At the end of the article, Helman notes: The reading of scientific and critical texts and the opinions of the recipients almost every time confirm that the explication of meanings of Rocha’s films requires knowledge from outside of the text, and reaching for contexts that are often very distant and extensive. If Rocha’s films surprised and confused viewers of the 1960s and 1970s, then today, after many years and so many new experiences in the language and form of cinema, should not they be more transparent to us? No. Rocha did not shape the universal language that is the language of today’s cinema. He created his own language. And the language remained his own.


Keywords:

Glauber Rocha, Cinema Novo, Brasil

Pernambucano de Mello, Frederico. Guerreiros do Sol: Violencia e banditismo no Nordeste do Brasil, São Paulo: A Girafa 2011.
  Google Scholar

Carter B. Horsley, Glauber Rocha is Dead at 42: Innovative Brazilian Director. www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/obituaries/glauber-rocha-is-dead-at42-innovative-brazilian... (dostęp: 4.12.2017)
  Google Scholar

Johnson Randal, Stam, Robert . Brazilian Cinema. New York: Columbia University Prass 1982.
  Google Scholar

Viany. Alex. The Old and the New in Brazilian Cinema, „The Drama Review” 1970, nr 14 (2).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1144539   Google Scholar

Por. Randal Johnson, Robert Stam, Brazilian Cinema, op. cit. Wyrażając własny pogląd, zarazem podkreślają, iż jest to opinia powszechnie podzielana.
  Google Scholar

Ibidem, s. 35−36.
  Google Scholar

Cytuję z przekładu angielskiego (brak informacji o tłumaczu) zamieszczonego w Internecie. Por. http://www.dokumenta14.de/en/south/891_the aestheticsof... Dostęp 1 XII 2017.
  Google Scholar

Rocha, Glauber: The Aesthetic of Hunger and the Aesthetics of Dreaming. https://www.documenta14.de/en/south/891_the_aesthetics_of_hunger_and_the_aesthetics_of_dreaming... (dostęp:1.12.2017)
  Google Scholar

Johnson Randall. Cinema Novo x 5: Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Film, Austin: University of Texas Press 1984.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7560/710900   Google Scholar

Xavier, Ismail. Allegorias of Underdevelopment: Aesthetics and Politics in Modern Brasilian Cinema. Minnesota/St. Paul: University of Minnesota Press 1997.
  Google Scholar

Croce, Fernando .Barravento. http://www.cinepassion.org/Reviews/b/Barravento.html. (dostęp: 2.12.2017)
  Google Scholar

Gatti, José . Impersonations of Glauber Rocha by Glauber Rocha (w:) Alisa Lebow (red.), The Cinema of Me. The Self and Subjectivity in First Person Documentary. New York: Columbia University Press 2012.
  Google Scholar

Cunha, Euclides da, Os Sertões. São Paulo: Tres 1984.
  Google Scholar

Voraine, Jakub de. Złota legenda. Wyd. II Warszawa: Pax 1983.
  Google Scholar

Magalhāes, Elyette Guimarāes d . Orixas de Bahia. Salvador, Bahia: Secretaria da Cultura e Turismo, Empresa Gráfica de Bahia 2003.
  Google Scholar

Gardies, René. Structural Analysis of a Textual System: Presentation of a Method, „Screen” 1974, vol.15, nr 1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/15.1.11   Google Scholar

Gardies, René. Glauber Rocha, Paris: Seghers 1973.
  Google Scholar

Stamm, Robert. Land in Anguish Revolutionary Lessons, „Jump Cut” 1976, nr 10−11.
  Google Scholar

Zalewski, Andrzej. Strategiczne dezorientacje: perypetie rozumu w fabularnym filmie postmodernistycznym. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Kultury 1998.
  Google Scholar

Ficamos, Bertrand. Glauber Rocha’s „Claro”, on the Tragic Legilibity of Chaos (w:) Alison Lebow (ed.), The Cinema of Me, London-New York, WallFlower Press 2012.
  Google Scholar

Hertog, Simon. There’s Nothing More International Than a Pack of Pimps: A Conversation between Pierre Clementi, Miklos Jancsó, Glauber Rocha and Jean-Marie Straub. http:/www.rouge.com.an/3/international.html
  Google Scholar

Daney, Serge, La mort de Glauber Rocha, „Liberation” 24 August 1981.
  Google Scholar

Cinema and social Change in Latin America. Conversations with Filmmakers. Julianne Burton ed. Austin: University of Texas 1986.
  Google Scholar

Klinger, Gabe. Glauber Richa. Senses of Cinema, „Great Directors”, 2005, issue 34. sensesofcinema.com/2005/great-directors/rocha/.
  Google Scholar


Published
2018-09-30

Cited by

Helman, A. (2018) “Cultural Contexts of Glauber Rocha’s Filmmaking”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (103), pp. 183–217. doi: 10.36744/kf.1927.

Authors

Alicja Helman 
kwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland

Historyk i teoretyk filmu, eme­rytowana profesor Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Prowadzi badania w zakresie teorii filmu i komparatystyki. W dorobku naukowym ma ponad 20 książek autorskich, m.in.: O dziele filmowym (1970, 1981), Film faktów i film fikcji (1977), Przedmiot i metody filmoznawstwa (1985), Słow­nik pojęć filmowych (1991-1998), Historia semio­tyki filmu, t. 1-2 (1992-1993), Twórcza zdrada. Filmowe adaptacje literatury (1998), Urok zmierzchu. Filmy Luchina Viscontiego (2002), Ten smutek hiszpański. Konteksty twórczości filmowej Carlosa Saury (2005), Odcienie czerwieni. Twór­czość filmowa Zhanga Yimou (2010), Ścieżkami utraconego czasu. Twórczość filmowa Chena Kaige (2012).



Statistics

Abstract views: 118
PDF downloads: 48


License

Copyright (c) 2018 Alicja Helman

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.

In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.