Journeys in Argentine and Brazilian Cinema

Road Films in a Global Era

Natalia Pinazza

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781137336033
• eBook ISBN: 9781137336040
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Art General

Many South American films that use the popular road movie format to examine regional culture and attitudes, especially in Argentina and Brazil. Pinazza performs a careful cultural analysis of the films and investigates how road movies deal with narratives on nationhood whilst simultaneously inserting themselves in a transnational dialogue.

Chapter 1

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National and Transnational Film Studies: The Argentine and Brazilian Case

The period in question begins in the mid-1990s when, after almost collapsing during the debt crisis of the previous two decades, Argentine and Brazilian film productions were transformed by new film legislation: the New Cinema Law (1994) in Argentina and the Audiovisual Law (1993) in Brazil. This section will provide an overall picture of the reemergence of these two national cinemas from the mid-1990s to the crisis of 2001 in Argentina and the creation of a national Cinema Agency, ANCINE, in 2000 in Brazil. Although both cinematic revivals occurred at a moment marked by changes of regime as well as economic instability, they have developed in markedly different ways in the two countries, and, given the particular conditions of their emergence, this section will present them separately.

The Reemergence of Argentine Cinema

After the end of the dictatorship in 1983, Raúl Alfonsín was the first democratically elected President of Argentina, but after a crisis brought on by hyperinflation, which resulted in rioting in the streets of Buenos Aires, Alfonsín was forced to resign in 1989, six months before his official term ended. In the same year, Peronist candidate Carlos Saúl Menem won the elections. Although his campaign promoted social welfare and was opposed to the privatization of state enterprises, his administration can be characterized as one of neoliberal policies that favored the private sector and commercial business over culture. As a result, during Menem’s first term in office, the Argentine film industry came close to bankruptcy: only 17 films were released in 1991 and just ten were made in 1992 (Falicov 2007: 80). Furthermore, economic problems, including a dramatic increase in unemployment, prevented the general public from going to the movies, engendering the closure of many movie theaters. The fate of the Argentine film industry changed when, in 1994, a law dubbed the Ley de Cine (Cinema Law) was passed and the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía (National Institute of Cinematography) was renamed the Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales, also known as INCAA (National Institute for Film and Audiovisual Arts). The cinema law is widely considered to be the key factor in the growth of national film production, as it developed new revenue-producing mechanisms such as taxes on video rentals and television advertisements in addition to the existing tax on box-office receipts. Moreover, the new law encompassed protectionist policies such as screen quotas, and encouraged an alternative to the traditional model of state support, with the participation of television stations as film producers. As a consequence, many of the films that received coproduction financing from private television stations, including, for example, the first Argentine blockbuster Cops (Comodines, Jorge Nisco, 1997), were cast with television actors. The combination of well-known television actors, Hollywood narrative structure, and television advertising campaigns attracted a larger number of Argentineans to the cinema, and in 1997 Argentine cinema outperformed Hollywood and others (Falicov, 2007) in the internal market, thereby constituting the first signs of a so-called cinematic renaissance. However, the increasing influence of television in Argentine films and the fact that INCAA was moving toward the Hollywood commercial model of cinema triggered a debate about the role of the state. On the one hand, there was a belief that the state has the responsibility to protect national culture from the market, whereas on the other the argument put forward was that the development of a film industry should be encouraged in order to attract a sizable home audience.

Although INCAA prioritized commercial films over independent cinema, it provided independent filmmakers with a few funding opportunities and initiated a short film competition for debut filmmakers that resulted in Historias Breves (1995), a compilation of the winning entries, which helped Argentine independent cinema emerge onto the national cultural scene. It was during this festival that many young filmmakers, including, for instance, Bruno Stagnaro and Adrián Caetano, the directors of the founding film of New Argentine Cinema, Pizza, Beer, Cigarettes (Pizza, birra, faso 1997), had the opportunity to meet and discuss the possibilities of collaborating on film projects. Furthermore, one of the short films of Historia Breves was Dead King (Rey Muerto, 1995) directed by Lucrecia Martel, an independent filmmaker who later garnered international acclaim with the award-winning The Swamp (La ciénaga, 2001) and The Holy Girl (La niña santa, 2004). These new films were often grouped under the terms: el nuevo cine argentino (New Argentine Cinema), las películas argentinas jovenes de éxito (Young Argentine Film Successes), and el nuevo cine independiente argentino (New Independent Argentine Cinema). Nevertheless, unlike the filmmakers of Cine Liberación in the 1960s who declared a manifesto that contained a set of ideas, this new crop of Argentine filmmakers would appear to reject the notion of belonging to a specific movement.

Critics coincide in arguing that this new independent cinema emanated from the proliferation of film schools in Argentina from the late 1980s onward and the rise in film criticism in the 1990s, including, for example, the launching of film journals such as Film, Sin cortes, Ossessione, and Haciendo cine that supplemented the older, established title El Amante de cine. In addition to these factors, the reestablishment of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival in 1996 after a 26-year hiatus and the inauguration of the Buenos Aires Festival de Cine Independiente (BAFICI) were crucial to the promotion of Argentine cinema and its reemergence on the international scene. In this regard, after winning the short film prize for Negocios (1995) at the Mar del Plata film festival, Pablo Trapero, one of the key figures in the recent renaissance of Argentine cinema, won a grant from the Rotterdam film festival, the Hubert Bals Funds, to make his first feature film, the internationally acclaimed Crane World (Mundo grúa, 1999).

In December 2001, Fernando de la Rúa’s government froze personal deposits and prevented individuals from accessing their savings in an attempt to avoid a collapse in the banking system. The population reacted to this economic measure, also known as El Corralito, with wide-scale protests that resulted in violent riots that forced President Fernando de la Rúa to resign. In this chaotic scenario, the Argentine political system plunged into crisis, seeing a succession of five presidents within a period of two weeks. Despite the economic recession and the uncertain future of the Argentine film industry, a number of low-budget films were produced, and the crisis in fact became a motivation for artistic expression. At the same time, the devaluation of the Argentine peso had a negative effect on national film production, because film stock and equipment were usually imported and this made the cost of a film rise dramatically. Nevertheless, this did create favorable conditions for coproductions, as human resources expenses were budgeted in Argentine pesos, and the exchange rates were extremely favorable for outside producers (Meleiro, 2006: 113). Indeed, transnational coproductions, grants obtained through international film festivals and private investors were the main sources of funding available for Argentine filmmakers during the recession.

The Reemergence of Brazilian Cinema

The boom in film production in Brazil is also known as the retomada do cinema brasileiro, which some critics refer to as the “Brazilian cinematic renaissance” or “rebirth of Brazilian cinema.” Nevertheless, the use of the terms “retomada,” “rebirth,” and “renaissance” is problematic, for “retomada” derives from the Portuguese verb “retomar,” literally translated into English as “retake,” which implies that Brazilian cinema production was “retaken” after a period of stagnation. From this understanding, Pedro Butcher (2005) remarks that “retomada” consists of a process of getting back to something that already has a history, a preexisting cinema, and thus he argues that “retomada” is different from “renaissance” and “rebirth,” as it is not possible to retake something that is dead. In this regard, Luiz Zanin Oricchio (2003) contends that Brazilian cinema production was not “dead” after the extinction of Embrafilme (The Brazilian Film Company), but almost “zero.” According to Lucia Nagib (2006), the prevailing view is that Brazilian cinema in the 1990s had to start from “zero,” and this became a motif in some films of the period that represented the nation’s quest for self-redefinition. Indeed, many films made in the 1990s often chart the decline of the nation-state, while seeking to rebuild a sense of community.

The administration of Fernando Collor de Mello, the first President democratically elected after the end of the dictatorship in 1990, did away with government support for Brazil’s film industry. In particular, it withdrew funding from Embrafilme, thereby plunging national cinema production into a profound crisis. In fact, the crisis in cinema reflected the general malaise affecting the whole nation in 1992. However, after Collor was impeached for corruption he was replaced by the then vice president, Itamar Franco, whose government implemented the Audiovisual Law (Lei do Audiovisual) in 1993, a move which proved to be a crucial factor in the growth of Brazilian cinema. Together with a number of resources coming from the Rouanet Law, which establishes public policies for national culture, the Audiovisual Law has subsidized nearly all Brazilian film production since 1995. Moreover, this law has made provision for tax write-offs for interested corporate investors and encouraged international film distribution companies to invest in national productions. Consequently, major American companies such as Columbia and Warner became involved with national production. Butcher (2005) also cites Riofilmes as one of the contributors to this cinematic revival, as it was the only distributor to work in film between 1992 and 1994, when the public and market rejection of national cinema was still high. The state has played a very important role in the revival of Brazilian cinema, by creating new strategic initiatives and programs and making a larger proportion of income taxes available for cultural activities as well as refurbishing movie theaters throughout the country.

Since the reformulation of the cultural sponsorship laws, Brazilian film production has increased dramatically. For while fewer than 12 films were made in the early 1990s, 155 feature films and more than 100 documentaries were made between 1995 and 2000 (Moisés, 2003: 11). The first sign of the national cinematic revival was Carla Camurati’s Carlota Joaquina: Princess of Brazil (Carlota Joaquina: Princesa do Brasil, 1995), which attracted viewing figures of over one million. Furthermore, three Brazilian films were nominated for the Oscar for best foreign language film between 1996 and 1999: O quatrilho (Fábio Barreto, 1995 nominated in 1996), Four Days in September (O que é isso, companheiro?, Bruno Barreto, 1997, nominated in 1998), and Central Station (Central do Brasil, Walter Salles, 1998 nominated in 1999).

Similarly to the Argentine case, the reemergence of Brazilian cinema in the mid-1990s was due in large part to the appearance of a new generation of filmmakers who moved away from the notions of national cinema entrenched by filmmakers associated with the avant-garde movements of the 1960s. Perhaps this shift from earlier filmmaking aesthetics was a result of the experiences that the new crop of professionals had gained in other audiovisual media, for the crisis in national production in the early 1990s forced production companies to turn to different types of media, in particular through advertising. In this context, key figures of the Brazilian cinematic revival, including Fernando Meirelles, Walter Salles, and Andrucha Waddington, all worked for important audiovisual production companies in Brazil: O₂, Videofilmes, and Conspiração, respectively. Consequently, the films of debut filmmakers were heavily influenced by the language of television, advertising, and video clips. It is also the case that using a language influenced by the immediacy and viewing of television proved an effective way to attract Brazilian spectators to the cinema, and thus, expand the national cinema’s share of the market. Aware of these factors, Globo, the most influential television network in Brazil, created a film subsidiary called Globo Filmes in order to invest in national production. Subsequently, this commercial model of film production often benefited from television merchandising and featured famous television actors.

Despite the reformulation of the law and the consequent aforementioned changes, the Brazilian film industry still lacked a more systematic organization. As Gustavo Dahl (2006) points out, the tax deduction model privileged production over other equally important sectors of the film industry, including distribution and exhibition. In the light of this problem, the Third Brazilian Cinema Congress was held in 2000, gathering filmmakers and general representatives of filmmaking throughout the country with the aim of stressing the pressing need for a more effective film policy (Dahl, 2006). It was in response to this call that Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s government created the National Cinema Agency (ANCINE). Since its creation, ANCINE has played a key role in the development of a film industry in Brazil, by dealing with private investors and promoting contests that give debut filmmakers and scriptwriters an opportunity to make films. Moreover, because of its transparency of data and reports on the film industry in Brazil, ANCINE’s website has facilitated research into the Brazilian film industry.

A Move Away from the National and Transnational Binary

A transnational approach to film criticism is necessary to explore the position of Argentine and Brazilian national cinema within the global cinematic landscape, as it recognizes both the increase in coproductions in Latin America and counterhegemonic responses from the countries of the so-called Third World (a highly contested term that will be furthered examined in the course of this book). The counterhegemonic responses encompass the counterflows of cultural products. Transnational approaches to cinema are particularly appropriate to examine national cinemas in a globalized context characterized by the erosion of the nation-state, deregulation, economic internationalization, the formation of regional blocs, and the increase in multilateral agreements, including cultural ones such as international film coproductions. However, while such approaches provide fresh understandings of the current situation of emerging economies, they tend to neglect the remaining importance of the cultural policies of nation-states, the public role of culture within a national context and the imbalances of transnational exchange such as US domination in the film industry. Therefore, I will investigate the limitations of this approach for the analysis of contemporary Argentine and Brazilian cinemas, and explore the continuing significance of a critical focus on the nation in a globalized context. Before exploring existing critical treatments of “transnational cinemas” and elaborating the theoretical framework that this study will adopt, it is essential, first of all, to recognize that although transnational filmmaking practices have increased in a globalized context, they are far from new, as is shown by studies such as Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination: Set Design in 1930s European Cinema (edited by Tim Bergfelder, Sue Harris, and Sarah Street, 2007) and “Film Europe” and “Film America”: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange 1920–1939 (edited by Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby, 1999). In “Transnational Developments in European Cinema in the 1920s,” Higson states that “transnational cinema is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, filmmaking and film exhibition have been transnational since the first public film shows in the 1890s” (2010:70). Second, the term “transnational” has a homogenizing role for, as Mette Hjort states in “On the Plurality of Cinematic Transnationalism,” “the term ‘transnational’ does little to advance our thinking about important issues if it can mean anything and everything that the occasion would appear to demand” (2010:12). In order to avoid such homogenizing usage, this literature review will develop existing perspectives on the term “transnational” and indicate how it will be employed in this book. The aim of this section is to highlight the problematic nature of the binary approach of national versus transnational, in order to develop a subtle and more flexible critical paradigm.

In the article “Concepts of Transnational Cinema,” Will Higbee and Song Hwee Lim identify three main approaches to theorizing transnational cinema: the first focuses on the national/transnational binary, the second approach “privileges an analysis of the transnational as a regional phenomenon,” and the third approach relates to “work on diasporic, exilic and postcolonial cinema” (2010: 9). In spite of this distinction, these approaches more often than not interweave, and thus one or more approach can be adopted at the same time. For instance, when addressing Argentine and Brazilian cinema as part of a regional phenomenon, issues relating to the national are also at stake. Similarly, the analysis of diasporic cinema may raise questions relating to regional and local phenomena, whose blurred distinctions allow notions of nation, nationalism, and transnationalism to be continually questioned as ideological constructs.

In Argentina and Brazil, and Latin America more generally, the notion of “nation” per se implies a complex identity-negotiation symptomatic of a history marked by colonization, hybridity, and migration. The use of nation as a framework for the analysis of the two focal cinemas does not necessarily assume that national identity and tradition are formed and fixed in place. In fac...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction
• 1  National and Transnational Film Studies: The Argentine and Brazilian Case
• 2  Home: National Crisis, Fragmented Family, and Death
• 3  Europe as Destination and Point of Departure
• 4  Bordercrossing in the Southern Cone
• 5  The Return to the Sertão and Patagonia
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index