| Reviews / Comptes Rendus | Labour/Le Travail, 53

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Darlene J. Sadlier, Nelson Pereira dos Santos ( Chicago: University of Illinois Press 2003).

THIS BOOK FILLS a gap in North American studies on Brazil's cinematography. It is especially relevant because it is the first one published in English on this famous Brazilian film director. The book is a volume in the series, "Contemporary Film Directors," edited by James Naremore.

The major section of the book, "A Cinema of the People," is divided into nine smaller sections that are organized chronologically and concerned with different periods of his life and his films. The book also presents two interviews which were done with Dos Santos in 1995 and in 2001.

Sadlier notes that Dos Santos has been a prolific director for about 50 years. For instance, Dos Santos' first featured film, "Rio, 40 graus" (Rio 100 Degrees), was a 1956 production and his last film, "Cinema de Lágrimas" (Cinema of Tears) was finished in 1995. Dos Santos has also directed a series of short films and documentaries, has been involved in television, and is considered one of the fathers of the "Cinema Novo" movement in Brazil. This was an artistic movement in Brazilian cinematography to produce films which were socially conscious and "eager to raise the consciousness" of the people. (30)

Sadlier attempts to give the reader an overview of Dos Santos's work and the impact of history and political ideologies on this work. As Sadlier states in her preface, "I have attempted to give a full-scale chronological overview of Nelson Pereira dos Santos's films and a sense of how his work has evolved and been determined by various historical political, and cultural influences." ( XI)

Sadlier does well in showing the devotion of Dos Santos to making films about the people, especially those from Brazil's northeast, the poorest region of the country. Sadlier also points out how dos Santos was highly influenced by Marxism in his work and how he has portrayed social inequality and racial problems within Brazilian society. Indeed, as another important film director in Brazil, Glauber Rocha, stated in 1981, "Rio, 40 graus" "might be regarded as the developing world's first revolutionary film, since it exploded onto the scene even before the Cuban Revolution." (18) In fact, social issues related to poverty and race have been a constant in Dos Santos's work. In a 1995 interview he stated that, "As I have said race is a theme that because of my upbringing is incorporated into my existence." (159) He added that, "The other great issue, poverty, which is very linked to race, is a permanent theme in all my films; it's not possible to think about national identity without including the very serious problem of absolute poverty in some parts of Brazil." (159) He also considers that "the essential point in the struggle of anyone who wants to participate in the social movement of Brazil is the elimination of poverty." (140)

Yet, even though dos Santos's approach to his work was strictly Marxist, Sadlier noted that in his later films he had changed his approach in order to acknowledge the impact of popular culture and of religion in the lives of the poor, especially the Afro-Brazilian religions, such as Umbanda and Candomblé. In this fashion, as Sadlier pointed out, Dos Santos changed his political approach from an orthodox Marxist to a left-wing populist. Indeed, Dos Santos became critical of orthodox Marxists who ignore the aspects of the people that do not interest them. When commenting on a character, "a university professor," in one of his most recent films, "Tenda dos Milagres," made in1977, Dos Santos stated: "[The professor] represents the orthodox Marxist who throughout the years has been just as colonizing as the non-Marxist colonizer because he has not been able to transfer the mode of thought but has instead merely transferred the observations achieved through that method ... I am criticizing myself as well, because I have fallen into the same trap ... An intellectual like the professor ... envisions the transformation of society ... [However] His background, his class, and position prevent him from including truly popular manifestations — specifically religion — in his cultural universe." (96)

The major weakness of this book is that the description of films and of Dos Santos's early life can be a bit tedious and confusing to read due to the large quantities of detailed information. For instance, in the section devoted to the analysis of one of his most important films, "Vidas Secas" (Barren Lives, 1963), too much reference is made to the book by Graciliano Ramos from which the film was based on. Sadlier should have focused more on the film since this comparison is relevant only if the reader is familiar with the novel as well as with the film. Another weakness in the book is the mentioning of too many names of people, which breaks the flow of the book, especially for people who are not familiar with the Portuguese language.

However, the unique value of this book is the information on and analysis of a very important Brazilian film director and the acknowledgement of the influence of his work on the social and political issues of Brazil. Moreover, Sadlier provides an excellent analysis of "Como Era Gostoso o meu Francês" (How Tasty Was My Little French Man, 1972). She shows how the film extrapolated from the re-telling of a historical event in early colonial Brazil to a more critical analysis of Brazil's society in the 20th century. The film is based on the German explorer, Hans Staden's chronicle Brazil: The True History of the Wild, Naked, Fierce, Man-Eating People written in 1557 which describes his capture by the cannibalistic native group, the Tupinambá, when he was living among the Portuguese in the region encompassing today's Rio de Janeiro. Sadlier clearly shows Dos Santos's objective of linking cannibalism with worker and Native resistance in the capitalist world of the 20th century. As she states, "Although the major historical trauma it exposes is a familiar one of European domination and genocide, it suggests that this irreducible violence keeps returning and repeating itself in the here and now; meanwhile, it converts the traumatic event described in Staden's text — the cannibalistic act — into a provocative metaphor for the resistance to a modern society of global capital and foreign consumption." (59)

My overall impression of the book is that it is an important contribution to the better understanding of Brazilian issues in North America and it is also an important source for anyone interested in world cinematography. In this way, the book fulfills the objective of the series, "Contemporary Film Directors," which is to "broaden our awareness of important artists, to give serious critical attention to their work, and to illustrate the variety and vitality of contemporary cinema." (II)


Rosana Barbosa Nunes Brock University, and Glendon College/York University

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