Antonio das Mortes

I was amazed to see that others have given this movie an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. It's extremely dated, confusing, and quite silly. Some people walked out of it when it showed at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, Calif., USA, recently. And that audience represents the acme of film buffs and connoisseurs --people who can tolerate almost anything.

It almost feels like a sequel to "Deus e o Diabo" (which I didn't like that much either) because of the slow camera and the vibrant music from the Northeast, considered a masterpiece by Mestre Glauber, for its musicality, representations through allegories that mix the ritual and folklore of the Northeast with all the colors, accents and beautiful photography, and for that alone it becomes remarkable.

For this work, Glauber Rocha received the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and he deserved it.

In a small town called Jardim das Piranhas, a bandit appears who introduces himself as the reincarnation of Lampião. His name is Coirana. Years after killing Corisco, Antônio das Mortes (a character from Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol) goes to the town to see the bandit. It is the meeting of myths, the beginning of the duel between the dragon of evil and the holy warrior. Other characters will populate the world of Antônio das Mortes. Among them, a disillusioned and hopeless professor; a colonel with delusions of grandeur, a police chief with political ambitions; and a beautiful woman, Laura, living in tragic solitude.

If you watch Hollywood movies only, this one may be hard for you. But it will be a great experience for some lunatics (like me) who believe in the power and in the freedom of the cinematographic images.

The subject is Brazil, the conflicts of a country that crossed a violent dictatorship at the time the movie was made. All the characters are representing groups of the brazilian society. Some of them, like the cangaceiros (poor and revolted people who became outlaws in the early 20th century), and the Saint (portrait of a blended religion that exists in Brazil, with elements of catholicism and african religions) are taken in a mythological approach. The delirious Glauber Rocha takes his characters to moral edges, leads them to crazy bang-bang scenes, to samba and war. There are no linear conclusions in the end. Only some new doubts and unusual beauty.

Glaubler Rocha were one greatest brazilian director for all times, your movies had often political criticism against the system, from this point he was really banished by military regime which censured all his movies, so he decided went to France, this picture show it clearly when he displayed in some characters your political vision, starting with a dare idea to use one the most important catholic saint in Brazil "Saint George" Glauber used a metaphor were the Saint symbolize a poor people and the Dragon means a rule of the colonels that took place in nort-easten for many centuries, the battle between the good and the evil, restored from several sources this picture comes alive to us in good shape best as possible, with a lot of bonus which gave us another point of view of this remarkable director who died so young, but as a visionary filmaker deserves to be discovered by brazilians fans!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5

this is one of the most beautiful films that i have come across. The beautifully changing styles of narration to get to a complete absurd or a rather dream like experience at the end of the film makes it one of the most beautiful essay on form. a must watch for anyone who is interested in understanding how a narrative style can change in the process of a film.

glauber rocha is like a magician who brings out the pigeon from nowhere and turns into a rabbit and makes it into a formation of a cloud. it is pure poetry.

The characters for Rocha are pure ideas, the movements and kinesics , takes them out of the fences of realism to the level of an oral narrative or a mythical one for that matter. As the movie progresses it turns, it can be best said, to take up the form of a folk dance.

it is a normal phenomena to notice the drop outs in the first quarter of the film,before the turn over starts. the wrong perception created by the experiences of the various films that had ruled our viewings.

at the end i will like to say it is a sure treat for anyone interested in the grammar and language of cinema.