cineuropa.org

16 December, 2008

Bertolucci, from Brazil


Bernardo Bertolucci’s connection to Brazil and relationship with Brazilian artist fellows is certainly one of the tastiest attractions of “Estratégia do Sonho – O Primeiro Cinema de Bertolucci” (The strategy of dream – Bertolucci’s first cinema, in English) – an exhibition of the Italian director’s work in Brazil.

His words on Glauber Rocha – since the “Cinema Novo” era, the most famous Brazilian moviemaker abroad – are the introduction to a video where the Italian master talks about Brazilian friends and apologizes for not coming to the exhibition’s opening. Warm and sweet, the video is run before every section of Bertolucci’s films – in this case, the films of his so called “first phase”, started with “La commare seca”, from 1962, when he was 21 years old and with Pasolini’s screenplay, up to “La luna”, from 1979. On the total, eight dramatic features, one documentary, one short documentary and an episode of “Amore e rabbia”.

“The strategy of dream” first happened in Rio de Janeiro and then travelled to Sao Paulo, thanks to CCBB’s (Bank of Brazil’s cultural center) organization and Joel Pizzini’s curatorship. According to Pizzini, “the fruition of Bertolucci’s emblematic films in the country is very poor, being only possible by cable TV, ‘cineclubs’, rare DVDs or informal copies”.

Besides presenting the first Bertolucci to Brazilians and, of course, paying an homage to him, the event aims to create a dialogue between Italian and Brazilian moviemakers. Starting with a comparison between masters: “Like Glauber, Bertolucci has always disturbed the right and the same left with libertarian movies”, says the curator. The difference between them would be that Glauber “disappeared before great independent authors got caught by the big studios”.

See more on “The strategy of dream”, open until the 21st of December in Sao Paulo, on the exhibition’s website.