Directors Luiz Carlos Lacerda and Petrus Cariry in Cine Chat The directors brought their latest films, Introduction to the Music of Blood and Clarisse or Something About Us, to the floor for discussion.
Yesterday, the Cine Odeon welcomed Luiz Carlos Lacerda, better known as Bigode, his cast and crew, and the film critic Rodrigo Fonseca to talk about the director’s latest work Introduction to the Music of Blood. The film, an adaptation of an unfinished work by the author Lúcio Cardoso, tells the story of a family living in the interior of Brazil, caught between the archaic and modern worlds, experiencing daily anxieties in an atmosphere of desire and repression.
Fonseca began the debate by asking Bigode where the inspiration to adapt Cardoso’s work came from. The director revealed that the author himself asked for the film to be made. After Cardoso suffered a heart-attack, his sister got in touch with the director, telling him it was a lifelong desire of the author’s that the work be adapted for the screen. The text was momentarily lost, however, only recovered in 2012 as Bigode started work on a documentary about the author.
The film stays true to the beginning and end of the novel, but the director added his own touches to the central part of the plot, even adding his own character, the character of Chico. He did express, however, a desire to maintain true the characteristics Cardoso’s writing style. Fonseca then asked about the copious use of silence in the film. Bigode replied that he felt this would be the best way to cinematographically express Cardoso’s introspective and psychological style.
Actress Greta Antoine stated that she loved working with Bigode and the rest of the team, and that the month they spent on the farm in Abaíba , in Minas, was one of the happiest times of her life. Fonseca went on to highlight the quasi-documentary style of the film, to which Bigode replied that even though this is a fiction piece, there is a true-to-life emotional edge to the characters, and he used the camera as a tool to emphasise this.
Finally, Bigode underscored his intentions to return to the classical style of Brazilian directors Nelson Pereiro dos Santos and Humberto Mauro. Satirising those national productions that are inspired by North-American and European films, he added: “I don’t even want to hear the word Oscar.”
On Sunday at the Centro Cultural Justiça Federal, there was suspense and surprises all round: the public were glued to the screen as Petrus Cariry’s dramatic Clarisse or Something About Us came to a cathartic close. Afterwards, the cast and crew invited the audience to partake in a discussion led by the journalist Mauro Trindade.
The director opened by revealing that the initial idea for the script came to him while he was dreaming, hence the surrealist touched to the dialogues and acting. Mauro Trindade drew parallels with the book Hitchcock/Truffaut, pondering whether, as he observed, the film prioritised images over words. Cariry confirmed this notion, saying that the film was, above all, a work that appealed to all the senses.
Asked about the relationship between his directing and other artistic forms, specifically painting, the director professed himself a great admirer of visual arts, stating that all his projects are more inspired by visual than verbal impulses.
The actress Sabrina Greve said that bringing her character to life was one of the biggest challenges of her career to date, mainly because her way of constructing the role, which began with the psychological grounding of the protagonist before exploring other personal elements: physical, corporal and sensual. Another point of interest was the script itself, which had lots of room for manoeuvre and in the end ceded to much improvisation.
Cariry informed those present that the film underwent a complicated editing process, and that the oniric feel of the final product was inspired by the work of David Lynch. The director concluded the conversation by speaking a bit about cinematic production in Ceará, in the North-east of Brazil, as well as his future projects, which promise to continue the dark, dream-like, sombre mood created by Clarisse.
Adapted by texts by Vinícius Spanghero and Pedro Alves.
Photos: Lariza Lima
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