In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

SAIS Review 21.1 (2001) 317-322



[Access article in PDF]

Film Review

Disorder and Regression in the Land of the Future

Karen Backstein


Cronicamente Inviável (Chronically Unfeasible), 101 min., in Portugese, with English subtitles. Directed by Sergio Bianchi, produced by Agravo Productions, 1999.

Thirty-five years ago, in a notorious revolutionary tract entitled "An Aesthetic of Hunger," Brazilian director Glauber Rocha called for a cinema of violence, a cinema opposed to Hollywood's "technicolor effects." Rocha, the most forceful and stylistically avant-garde filmmaker in Brazil's Cinema Novo movement--the country's socially progressive, aesthetically daring New Wave of the early 1960s--minced no words. He asserted that the "tragic originality" of Cinema Novo's work was its hunger, and that "we know--we who made these sad, ugly films, these screaming, desperate films where reason does not always prevail--that this hunger will not be cured by moderate governmental reforms..." 1

Some things have not changed in over a quarter of a century. For all its differences from Cinema Novo's output, Sergio Bianchi's Cronicamente Inviável (Chronically Unfeasible) shares itsred-hot fury and screaming desperation. It takes aim at a society still suffering from starvation, poverty, and entrenched economic inequality. Like Rocha, Bianchi is out to make the misery so palpable that the spectator simply cannot ignore the assault. Not surprisingly, the film ignited a critical debate in its native land. Eduardo Souza Lima, in the newspaper O Globo, noted (in perhaps an understatement) that "watching Cronicamente Inviável isn't the most comfortable experience," 2 while José Geraldo Couto, in the Folha de São Paulo, remarked that "[i]f a cinema of cruelty exists--understood as a cinema that investigates cruelty...Sérgio Bianchi could be considered one of its most legitimate representatives." 3 However, in exchange for those [End Page 317] uneasy moments of nervous recognition, viewers will find a cogent, vividly dramatized, wildly energetic, and always surprising analysis of social relations present not only in the Third World, but everywhere.

Though the flavor of Bianchi's savage stew is uniquely its own, the tasty morsels are seasoned with the spice of the most provocative filmmakers in history. Aside from sharing Rocha's activist rage, Cronicamente's searing satire--especially concerning the bourgeoisie and its dining etiquette--has much in common with the themes explored by Spanish director Luis Buñuel. Buñuel, with his anarchic, surrealistic style, simply delighted in uncovering the layers of hypocrisy--social, sexual, and religious--in which the elite classes wrapped themselves. Bianchi is also influenced by Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein and his concept of "montage," an editing style in which seemingly unrelated shots are "slapped" together to create new and unexpected meanings. For Bianchi, however, significance emerges less from the juxtaposition of single shots than of disparate sequences. Designed to anger, offend, interrogate, and instigate at every instant--but without providing easy answers to complex questions--the film serves up a mixture of documentary and fiction, of politically declaiming and melodramatic irony. It is also set to a beautifully chosen soundtrack of diverse and meaningful music, including the popular and lively axé from Bahia, Rio's famed Bossa Nova, and both Brazilian and European classical selections.

Cronicamente Inviável's narrative, which makes sharp, disjunctive jumps from one character and place to another, resists easy summarizing. Through vignettes, it presents us with a rich cast of characters, from the oppressed to the oppressors, the revolutionary to the complacent, going about their lives. Remarkably, this portrait succeeds in representing nearly every Brazilian region, class affiliation, and professional choice, from businesspeople and academics to male prostitutes and smugglers. Some characters even manage to be both "legitimate workers" and black marketeers at once. Many figures step on to the stage, and each reveals a different perspective on the world. Professor Alfredo offers detached, dispassionate, and ultimately discredited commentary on the political valences of both happiness and violence in Brazil. Maria Alice and Carlos represent Rio's upper class: she sees herself as socially progressive and is afflicted by a pervasive sense of mauvaise...

pdf

Share