Glauber o Filme, Labirinto do Brasil

This documentary by Silvio Tendler about the career and personality of Glauber Rocha shows lots of footage of his wake, scenes and data of all his movies, and, the most interesting, testimonies of many filmmakers, artists and intellectuals who had close relatonship with him. Many of those testimonies are indulgent and reverent, but there are also clues that unveil much more about that character (who, as was said, became unanimously praised only after his death): he was absolutely arrogant and self-centred, he was loved by his friends but was also quite high-strung, he was much more politically confused than is often stated (his support for dictators Geisel and Figueiredo was certainly the most bizarre example of that, but not the only one), and it is impressive how many times people (who liked him!) referred to him as crazy (and the film shows various situations that seem to prove that). He was also quite disrespectful with others' works (particularly other filmmakers, but also actors who worked with him), and the episode held in Venice Festival (what a shame!) is a remarkable example: when he lost to Lous Malle, he made a scandal offending Malle and the critics. I have not watched Atlantic City, but I consider his Elevator to the Gallows as better than any film by overrated Glauber. More important and less polemical than it, I may add that Glauber's Idade da Terra is indeed a terrible film, as most critics considered, and it is the worst movie by him I have watched so far.

The great deal about this documentary on filmmaker Glauber Rocha is the amount of rarely seen images and footage from Glauber's films, personal material, news coverages on events (like the film festival where Rocha complained about losing the award of Best Film for his final movie "A Idade Da Terra" to Malle's "Atlantic City") and the most interesting clips, the one of his funeral, strangely blocked by the director's family for many years, a hypocritical (yet understandable) act considering that Glauber filmed an unauthorized documentary on painter Di Cavalcanti's funeral.

Other than that, the movie contains good interviews with friends and acquaintances, who share good stories of his creative process, his mannerisms and also intriguing accounts that reveals Glauber as someone out of this world, just like his movies. One topic that was interesting and very provoking was an alleged friendship between him and general João Figueiredo, later president of Brazil - maybe not exactly friendship but a certain sense of admiration. Rocha, though very leftist and opposed to the military regime, was seen by Figueiredo as someone who made great cinema, in his words, "macho movies" and that's the reason that during his time as a censor when everyone was nervous about the filmmaker, the general didn't complained much when Rocha's films "Black God, White Devil" and "Terra Em Transe" were submitted to world festivals.

For what I can remember, this was a good documentary, right on the target, I have good memories from it though quite chaotic and random in his presentation. A complete biography on the man is very needed, a genius of his stature is worthy of a great movie. 8/10