Consuming Visions: Cinema, Writing, and Modernity in Rio de Janeiro (review)

Consuming Visions: Cinema, Writing, and Modernity in Rio de Janeiro is an innovative study of the relationship between writing and film in Brazil, since Brazilian film's inception. It is a well written book that addresses the main aspects of premodernist literature in Brazil, and the history of Brazilian cinema, including their interaction with and influence on Brazilian culture and society. The book is extremely comprehensive, offering a detailed historical background of Brazilian society, economics, politics, literature, and cinema between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of twentieth centuries. These historical details are so precise and complete that they also include how literature and film inform women's studies in Brazil.

The book starts with a much elaborated preface, which familiarizes the reader with its purpose and the main topics included, such as, for example, the immigrants' contribution to film. Part 1 concentrates on the relationship between cinema and urban society in Rio de Janeiro. Part 2 highlights and analyzes different social and cultural factors that developed within the city. Part 3 explains how later Brazilian society and literary engagement with film helps us understand distinct phases of modernism and their ruptures with tradition. One of the interesting points the author makes is the changing role of women in Brazilian social life, and the role film had in transforming Brazil's social scenery. The book's appendices provide a list of works cited, parts of screenplays, and explanatory notes.

In brief, the book's main strength is its discussion of the interrelationship of cinematic, literary, and social factors from approximately 1870 to 1920. To the author's credit, she is extremely accurate and precise when illustrating what went on in São Paulo in the beginning of the twentieth century, despite the fact that her focus was on Rio. Both the social and political events that happened in São Paulo at that time set the tone of the transition from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo as the first Brazilian city, which remains so today.

Another of the book's strengths is its contextualization of facts and events historically, which helps the reader obtain a more general understanding, especially readers who may be lacking a strong background in Brazilian film and literature. In other words, Consuming Visions: Cinema, Writing, and Modernity in Rio de Janeiro reaches its objective, which is to provide its audience with an accurate understanding of premodernist Brazilian literature and its relation to modernism, as well as the history of Brazilian film and Rio's new identity, which was shaped during that time.

The reader also benefits from having the dialogues of both literary books and films transcribed, which allows for a better understanding of how the plots reflect Brazilian society and vice versa. Nevertheless, in some examples, such as the description of Rosalina (Constallat's female protagonist), the narrative was a little long, and some readers might lose the point the author was trying to make about the influence of society and politics on the protagonist.

In summary, the book is highly recommended, due to its precise information, historical assessment of where and when Brazilian movies appeared, and how they influenced Rio's development and enabled new types of consumers, ranging from exslaves to women. Students of Brazilian film and literature, as well as Brazilian film and literary researchers, will benefit from this study. In addition, Latin American women studies researchers will surely enrich their knowledge about the role of women in society. Finally, anyone interested in Brazil's literary, cinematic, immigrant, political, and artistic history will add to their knowledge by reading this book.