With a script apparently without too many pretensions, Walter Salles has made an impeccable period film, in a narration that also shines those who are not aware of the history of self -acting in Brazil and recalls the best of Italian neorealism
The Oscar ceremony, scheduled for March 28, will certainly be the most awaited in history. At least for Brazilian cinema. Walter Salles’s film “I’m Still here” – who tells the story of the family of the family of deputy Rubens Paiva, kidnapped and killed by the dictatorship during the main years, from the point of view of his widow Eunice Paiva – received three unpublished nominations This year: Movie Better, Best, Best, Film and Best International Actress, with Fernanda Torres. For this reason, there have been numerous suggestions for the contributions on the film made by academic academics of various areas of the humanities to the conversation in Brazil. Texts that try to explain the causes of success. Both from the point of view of the cinematographic technique, from the richness of the script, from the quality of the interpretations or by the historical and sociological importance of a work that places the finger, with surgical delicacy, in the wounds of the civil-military dictatorship that has lived Brazil Between 1964 and 1985. In the article below, the director of the documentary and the doctor in communication and semiotics of PUC-SP Cristina Fonseca writes on the power of the script, which has helped to transform an apparently intimate story into a milestone of the Fight for the truth about the crimes committed by the dictatorship.
The Japanese Akira Kurosawa, one of the greatest film directors in history, said that “with a good screenplay, a great director can make an excellent film, a mediocre director can make a reasonable film, but with a bad screenplay, even a great director I can’t do anything. “
Brazilian theater director Antunes Filho, this of the founders of the modern Brazilian theater, said that Brazil was a country of great actors, men and women. It was Ziembinski that emerged the legendary and unparalleled Cacilda Becker, one of the greatest Brazilian and World Cup actresses of all time.
Cacilda has revolutionized the performance. With his way of reciting and representations in which the speech is more natural, he would even change the diction of the actors of the classic theater. Other big names would have followed Cacilda’s path, such as Fernanda Montenegro herself, Marília Pera, Glauce Rocha and so many other stars among the gigantic stars and myths of our performance, bringing a truthfulness to Ziembinski’s statements.
But let’s go back to Kurosawa and the film in evidence in the country and in the world, “I’m still here” by Walter Salles, who has three Oscar nominations 2025, in a historical record for Brazilian cinema.
I confess that I went to watch the film as soon as he debuted, but he is afraid of not loving, given our difficulties for historical films and the thorny and traumatic address as the dictatorship. Then also because Brazilian political cinema already has great successes, almost unbeatable as “EMS Trance” (1964) by Glauber Rocha; “The Fuzis” (1964), by Roy Guerra, or to think of the avant -garde radical, the spectacular “Hitler Third World” (1968), by José Agripino de Paula.
The only country in Latin America who did not judge the crimes of the military coup of the period was Brazil, and this makes the new generations seem that monstrosity occurred in the period and that the terror implemented with AI-5 that must be forgotten.
And because the culprits have never been tried, we had to swallow the dark return of their widows: the second second degree general of 1964, who underwent a disqualified captain to realize the old dream of power.
The military presidency and authoritarianism deriving from it come from the Republic of the sword (1889-1894). Shortly thereafter, the military again tried to win the presidency in the Canudos war (1896-1897) in the Backlands of Bahia. In his delirium, General Moreira César thought he would return victorious to Rio de Janeiro who transported the head of Antonio Conselheiro spotted in the sword and thus assumed the presidential range.
But his dream gave failure, because while crossing the Vaza Barris river, with his white uniform of the Rubacuori, and climbed on an old road in the old city of Canudo, he was hit. They say that from an old Mandingueiriro who swims in his rustic trabuco and exclaimed still surprised to see the general: “ôxe !! this wants to die!”
With the loss of past failures and the voluminous expense of these battles, the military had to postpone their dreams of power until the 1964 coup and the terrible period that followed – as Walter Salles’s film says.
Speaking of the 1964 military dictatorship, attacking the torture established and the disappearance of the political prisoners who have never done justice with the arrest of their tormenters never hurts. But doing it without falling into the opuscule or Tacanha policy is delicate and difficult. Walter Salles has circumvented these risks in a very elegant way.
Sophisticated screenplay and great performances
Returning to Kurosawa and his vision of the importance of the screenplay in a film production, Walter Salles knew how to bring Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s bestseller on his mother and family and turn into a lean, direct and particularly refined film.
Instead of focusing on the figure of the persecuted victim, the vice revoked Rubens Paiva, who would be apparently easier, although risky, maintained the focus of the action, as well as the book in question, in the mother of the Eunice family.
A woman who, after the brutal loss of her husband, is still threatened to be kept at her home with her children, observed by shelves of repression. Then he was dragged, herself and one of his daughters, in prison, and held alone for a month to give testimonies.
It is the story of this fiber woman, who must reinvent himself in every aspect of his life; How to change the cities, leave the bourgeois life of a happy and safe housewife behind, raise only five children and invent a profession at the age of 48, who enchanted the public all over the world.
A well -made text, agile and frank that has made it possible to shine this immense actress, Fernanda Torres, which can be revealed to her fullness. He enters the room of our greatest Brazilian actresses, together with his mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who reaches brilliantly at the end of the film, attesting to what I say. Great enterprise of the director.
Fernanda Torres has her light, not a simple copy of her mother and this is not a little. In a truly brilliant performance, he knew how to exploit the advice that Fernanda Montenegro gave them, that in the face of great suffering the tragic heroine does not cry, and in the best of its contained expressions they designed a semi -parto in a moment of the plot.
The size of his interpretation work is gaining more and more strength as the story advances, and there Fernanda Torres proves completely. Walter Salles, with this film without apparent pretense, has let a qualitative leap be made in its director’s story. He managed to make a vintage film with a perfect reconstruction in a narration that shines mad and recalls in many ways the best of Italian neorealism.
His right hand also revealed the great actor Selton Mello, who with very little resource to support himself built a similar father also in the smile at truth, in another brilliant performance.
Faced with a heated theme such as the military coup in Latin America, where only Argentina has produced a series of films on this story for years, Salles has yet to show something different, demonstrating what we should know: it is not the Theme that makes art, but the art that makes the theme.
I went to the cinema to see a short job and I saw myself surprised by a great actor movie. Yes, the greatness of this film is not in the innovative form, nor in the uniqueness that cinema can reach with a great director, but is focused on minimalist acting by facing the lonely character that must remain alive in the face of so many vicissitudes. In any case, a universal approach that recalls the best of Robert Bresson and can please all at all ages.
The theme of the house taken and the unhappiness of those who remained may have verified in the old catacombs and in the persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire, recalls the hunt for the Jews made by Hitler and the Nazi soldiers. And also what the film shows: arbitrary arrest and torture deceived to the communists by the Brazilian military coup and throughout Latin America. And this is cinema.
We are facing a film that can help the new Brazilian generations to meet with their own story to understand that dictatorships can no longer occur. A film that requires justice against the notorious. And this is cinema.
Cristina Fonseca does not consult, works, has actions or receives funding from any company or organization that can benefit from the publication of this article and has not revealed any relevant link beyond its academic position.
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
