Tribute to Eduardo Coutinho who died on February 2, 2014, by Carlos Diegues, on February 6.

Eduardo_CoutinhoFor believers, God is the unknown, God is what we cannot control. We attribute the mystery to God to avoid the depression of helplessness. For non-believers, it is enough to replace God with destiny.

When we manage to explain the phenomena unfolding before our eyes, religion and superstitions turn into myths, which destroy their authority. For centuries, the sun has revolved around the earth, so as not to shake the power of the Church.

According to Genesis, the first sin committed by a human being was knowledge. By opposing the orders of the Lord, Adam and Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of good and evil, conquered reason, which differentiated them from the rest of Creation.

The second sin was a murder within a family – jealous of Abel, Caim murdered his brother. The “familicide” continues to populate the mythology of our origins, since Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son to serve God. Or when Oedipus killed Laïos, his father.

In the name of Reason that we have conquered in spite of God, we do not manage to accept the unexpected, which we consider antinatural; this is what the Greeks call tragedy. We prefer not to try to understand it, not to try to decipher its nature. We accept it, sometimes frightened and inert, as a fatality that we cannot avoid, without trying to know where it comes from and where it is going.

Since the death of Eduardo Coutinho, much ink has been poured about this great filmmaker; but almost nothing has been written about the tragedy of which he was the victim. The praise for Coutinho and his work is more than fair. He was not only the greatest documentary filmmaker in the history of Brazilian cinema, but also one of the most important filmmakers in contemporary cinema around the world.

His films were a constant attempt to get to know and understand human beings, and especially those who are not considered important. Coutinho knew that humanity was one, that our differences do not separate us. Everything was natural, and he watched with spontaneity and curiosity.

Coutinho’s generation, to which I also belong, was formed in the 1960s, when the world experienced revolutions in behavior, breaks with the past of injustices, the past of preconceived ideas and unnecessary rules. The negation of established institutions has brought us to civil rights, sexual freedom, pop culture, the consecration of relativism, the affirmation of blacks, the liberation of women, gay pride, instant information, to the value of psychoanalysis as reconstruction of the individual, to sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.

The 1960s welcomed the ambitions of a youth who wanted to change the world, breaking with previous generations. According to Contardo Calligaris (Italian psychoanalyst living in Brazil), the counterculture was “the only revolution of the twentieth century that worked, which concretely changed the lives of many people, not to say all. ”

These changes notably marked the anti-psychiatry inaugurated by the Italian Franco Basaglia and the English Ronald Laing. These scientists considered madness to be original, sometimes radical, forms of manifestations of the human intellect. The conventional “madman” was seen as a sort of messenger of novelties about Man, which “normal” people could not express.

In the 1970s, Michel Foucault, one of our idols of relativism, published a book whose title was the first sentence of the deposition made to the French court in 1835 by a man accused of murder: “Me, Pierre River, having slit the throats of my mother, my sister and my brother. Pierre Rivière, a young farmer, murdered his seven-month-pregnant mother, his 18-year-old sister and his seven-year-old brother with a sickle. What motivated such a brutal act? Foucault tried to explain it in an intelligent and sophisticated way, by joining the legal perspective to the psychiatric one. But Pierre Rivière’s mother and brother and sister were definitely dead.

These crimes of “familicide” are repeated throughout human history. Now that the planet’s population is multiplying exponentially, everything that happens there is also multiplying, and tragedy is no exception … Thanks to the progress of communication, information circulates quickly, in the world. world, thus increasing the number of crimes.

Life ends without you knowing where the blow came from, but a work like Eduardo Coutinho’s will stay forever. Throughout history, his films will remain in everyone’s memory, while his death will be evoked as a tragic anecdote which will in no way alter his work. But… what if Daniel could have been interned, removed from those he could destroy, in a more humane way than the barbarism of psychiatric hospitals?

We have to make a documentary on Coutinho, it’s the greatest tribute we can pay him. Not an innocent documentary, but a film that questions life, as he knew so well how to do. It is not enough to make a classic statement of the friends who loved and admired him so much, like all of us. You have to listen to the protagonists of his films and the people he could have filmed, but also his neighbors, his prosecutor son, his injured widow and especially Daniel.

Carlos Diegues

Posted in tribute | Comments Off
THE 16TH EDITION OF THE BRAZILIAN CINEMA FESTIVAL IS NEARLY APPROACHING!
Posted on 03/24/2014 by festival

Come and discover the anthology of the best Brazilian fictions and documentaries at the Cinéma l’Arlequin from April 1 to 8, 2014.

cartazFCBP2014

This Brazilian spring at Harlequin will indeed be placed under the sign of History, which will combine with the present and the past. The fervor linked to the World Cup will be tinged with the memory of a darker period, that of the dictatorship. April 1, 2014, the opening date of the festival, will mark the 50th anniversary of the military coup of April 1, 1964.

The whole world having its eyes riveted on Brazil, the Brazilian Film Festival of Paris has therefore exceptionally chosen 2 themes for the 2014 edition: Football and dictatorship.

On the program, tributes, debates with the film crews, world premieres, school sessions and professional meetings.

Through a selection of the best productions of Brazilian cinema, this 16th edition will question the construction of a moving Brazilian identity that has been formed and continues to transform thanks to one, despite the other, and vice versa.

We will regularly reveal exclusive news while we wait to meet you to celebrate 50 years of Brazilian history together!

Posted in festival | Comments Off
Paris Brazilian Film Festival 2014
Posted on 03/24/2014 by festival

Credit: Felipe Vianna

Posted in festival , videos | Comments Off
Posted on 03/21/2014 by festival
1950. In the Maracanã, goal of Uruguay: silence of the Brazilians, the longest in the history of football. Perhaps it was from then that this sport became a religion in Brazil.

1964. The coup d’etat, the dark years: a cruel defeat for Brazil and its democracy.

2014. A pivotal year for Brazil: that of the World Cup and fifty years of the coup d’état.

PraFrenteBrasil04We are pleased to present, on the occasion of this 16th edition of the festival, Allez Brazil! and The Year When My Parents Went On Vacation , which brings these two themes to life. As tradition dictates, we invite you to discover the nine films in competition, but also recent documentaries and even an animated film, Rio 2096 , Cristal from the feature film of the last Annecy animation festival. We also pay tribute to documentary filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho by allowing you to (re) see his emblematic work, A Man Condemned to Die , finally restored.

For the first time, two films will be presented on the opening night. Serra Pelada , first of all, a tragic epic on the gold fever, then we will have the honor of welcoming the committed footballer Eric Cantona who will present Looking for Rio to us .

CORINTHIANSFinally, the closing will be the opportunity to discover the documentary Democracy in black and white , in preview.

In short, an exceptional program which allows the French public to discover twenty-five films.

1970. Memories: those of the 8-year-old girl that I was then. As Brazil wins the World Cup, the dictatorship hardens, songs are banned, adults speak in low voices. Armed men monitor, from their car, the passage in our street: the DOPS – Department of Political and Social Order. My family’s life is turned upside down with the hasty departure of my grandfather, who joins many other exiles abroad.

Football and dictatorship: two very topical themes to better understand our history.

This edition is dedicated to two great Brazilian citizens: Haity Moussatché, my grandfather, and the remarkable director Eduardo Coutinho. Two examples for our country.

A big thank you, finally, to my team and to the volunteers: we wish you all a good festival!

Katia adler

Posted in festival | Comments Off
Posted on 03/18/2014 by festival
The Brazilian Embassy in France, partner of the Brazilian Film Festival in Paris since its first edition, celebrates this major event in Franco-Brazilian film cooperation:

The 16 th edition of the Film Festival Brazilian Paris offers us the opportunity to reflect on two relevant themes: the FIFA World Cup and the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Brazil.

What has changed in Brazil since 1964 and how has football transformed in recent decades? At the time of the coup, Brazil had emerged victorious from two editions of the World Cup and was in full “reign” of Pelé, our greatest player until today. Brasilia, the new capital, had recently been inaugurated and the country’s political winds were blowing in different directions. The period also marked the beginning of Bossa Nova, and the beautiful songs of Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes were spreading around the world.

1964 and the installation of the military dictatorship will transform Brazil. The next thirty years will see a lot of turbulence in all areas. Brazil is developing economically, but social inequalities are growing. Political persecution and censorship are forcing our artists and intellectuals into exile, and many of them take refuge in France.

In this context, Brazil’s victory at the 1970 World Cup is a symbol of the contradictions and paradoxes of the time: the euphoria for the 3rd title exploded during the darkest period of the dictatorship.

À la fin les années 70, le début de l’ouverture politique et le retour des exilés coïncident avec une crise économique sans précédent.C’est aussi le début d’une longue disette dans le football mondial pour le Brésil. La victoiresuivante ne viendra qu’en 1994, au moment où l’économie brésilienne commence à se stabiliser. Depuis, le pays chercheà atténuer les problèmes sociaux qui l’ont tellement miné et qui se sont aggravés pendant la dictature. S’il nous reste encore de nombreux défis à surmonter, nous avons déjà beaucoup avancé. Tout au long de cechemin, le cinéma brésilien a tenté de représenter ces évolutions. Dans cette édition du Festival du Cinéma Brésilien, nous verrons une sélection de films sur la dictature et sur notre grande passion nationale – le football.

I hope this will be an opportunity for each of you to get to know a little better this intense period in the history of Brazil.