Brazilian Cinema

Michael, I think that you’d be surprised if you saw the light in which Zé do Caixão is portrayed in Brazil’s mainstream media. He’s mostly seen as someone to be laugh at, a creep of some sort, he has a very good show at Canal Brazil (an awesome cable channel), but every once in a while goes to reg TV where his ironies flies over the host’s head that thinks he has a show monkey on stage.

If you haven’t seen yet, I recommend the 2001 documentary film, Damned - The Strange World of José Mojica Marins (Maldito - O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins).


Shellhead, São Paulo is great! I don’t really think is the greatest city in the world or anything, but the diversity of culture, food, minds and faces does get your blood pumpin’. And better yet, without all of it being compartmentalized in little boxes, this is Brazil after all.

There is a crime problem all over Brazil, BUT I think it is oversold, I’ve lived in São Paulo my whole life and have never been mugged or suffered violence in any way, the only guns I’ve ever seen were in the hands of cops, and I live near rough neighborhoods, don’t own a car and walk home from the subway 1 a.m. coming drunk from a bar or club like no problem.

Talking about the US point of view about other cultures, I want to tell you a little about ours (or at least mine) of your country, the opinion about US here is really swingy, when it is useful people tend to rave about things over there, how tough it is on crime, judging kids like adults, sports leagues, technology, movies, or romantic views about the quality of education or the lack of corruption.

That, I mostly call bullshit, aside from sports, technology arriving sooner and cheaper, and the corruption levels not being as outrageously high as in Brazil, I feel the US are pretty average in those other things with an inclination towards religious fundamentalism, decline of education standards and humongous military costs that could be spent to better the lives of its citizens, just to justify a feeling of superiority.
Oh, and we make fun of you not using the metric system, too.

Brazilians, on the other hand, are (or were) know to have Complexo de Vira-lata (Cur Dog Complex) (or Mutt, the exact translation is impossible, the literal translation is to knock [trash] cans, a stray dog), the inferiority, in which the Brazilian puts itself, voluntarily, to the rest of the world; A backwards Narcissus that spits on its own image; To not find personal or historical value to boost its self-esteem.


That brings us to my recommendation of the day!!!

1969’s film Macunaíma is an adaptation of the 1928’s book by Mário de Andrade, it’s the story of Macunaíma, the Hero without a character, and it is an attempt to represent Brazilian culture and language as a whole. It is a surreal work that bends time, language, religion, race and culture on itself and adds shape shifting and giant slaying to make it awesome.

The book was part of the Movimento Antropofágico (Cannibal Movement) created by Oswaldo de Andrade with his Cannibalist Manifesto (which can be found in English here ), that was the most important movement in our Modernist literature and culture, an attempt to create “exportation poetry “, our voice and self-worth, to gobble, to critically gorge, to internalize and then export.

The book is way better than the film, but I still think the movie is worth, it is different, that is for sure.





The movie at Amazon
The book at Amazon