Filmography
Antonio das Mortes
Credits
Glauber speaks...
Review
CREDITS
Original Title: O Dragão
da Maldade Contra o Santo Guerreiro.Fiction, long-length, 35mm, Eastmancolor.
Rio de Janeiro, 1969. 2.600 meters, 95 minutes. Production:
Mapa Filmes;
Distribution:
Mapa Filmes; Release:
9 June 1969, Rio de Janeiro;
Producers:
Glauber Rocha, Zelito Viana,
Luiz Carlos Barreto, Claude Antoine; Production
Directors: Demerval Novais de Carvalho,
Agnaldo Azevedo; Executive
Producer: Zelito Viana; Production
Manager: Tácito Val Quintas;
Director:
Glauber Rocha; Assistant
Directors: Antônio
Calmon, Ronaldo Duarte; Argument
and Screenplay: Glauber Rocha;
Cinematographer:
Afonso
Beato; Camera:
Ricardo Stein;
Sound: Walter
Goulart; Editor:
Eduardo Escorel;
Scenographer:
Glauber Rocha;
Costumes Designers:
Glauber Rocha, Paulo Lima, Paulo Gil Soares;
Ms. Lara's dress: Hélio
Eichbauer; Titles:
Roberto Lunari;
Poster: Jânio
de Freitas; Music:
Unkrimakrimkrim, Ritmetrom (Marlos
Nobre); Coirana (Walter Queiros); Antônio das Mortes (Sergio Ricardo); Macumba
de Milagres (anonymous); Lampião's
Arrival at Hell (anonymous); Location:
Milagres (Bahia - Brazil); Awards:
Best Director, FIPRESCI Award, Luis
Buñel Award, and International Confederation of Art and Essay Cinema at
the Cannes Film Festival, 1969; Best Film at the Povlaine Film Festival, Belgium;
Golden Owl Trophy - National Quality Award - INC?1969/Brazil; Public's Award at
the International Week of the Cinéma d'Author - Banalmadena/Spain,1969
Cast:
Maurício do Valle - Antoniodas Mortes; Odete Lara
- Laura; Othon Bastos - the teacher; Hugo Carvana - the police chief; Jofre Soares
- the colonel; Lorival Pariz - Coirana; Rosa Maria Penna - Santa Bárbara; and
the people from Milagres.
Initially, the dragon
is Antonio das Mortes and Saint George is the cangaceiro. Later, the true dragon
is the landholder whereas the warrior saint proceeds to be the teacher when he
holds the cangaceiro's and Antonio das Mortes' guns. Briefly, I wanted to say
that such social roles are not eternal or static, and that such components of
social groups that are solidly conservative or reactionary or accomplices of the
powerful can change and contribute to changes. They only have to understand where
the true dragon is."
REVIEW
"(...) At first, in Black God White Devil, Antonio
das Mortes appeared to release the sertão from the pious people and the cangaceiros.
He was conceived in this manner by Glauber Rocha, who tried to show in this character
a person who had his own mysticism and an authentic philosophy from the Brazilian
Northeast inspired in the local folklore. Although his work was paid for, Antonio
das Mortes felt, at the same time, that it was necessary to release the world
from those evils and that nobody could incarnate the 'justiceiro' better than
him, assuming the justiceiro's condition as a person who was predestined by superior
forces stronger than himself, sublimating his failures by acting with violence.
Incomprehended, contradictory, but above all
a man alone with his luck, the picture of Antonio das Mortes attracted general
attentions. The strength of this character did not scape the sight of keen reviewers
and of the public and he could hardly be left aside, such is the potential that
it represents as a creation. (...)
The story is simple. One day, in a small village
called Jardim das Piranhas, a cangaceiro appears and presents himself as the
reincarnation of Lampião (a famous and feared cangaceiro who became a legend
in the Northeast of Brazil). His name is Coirana. Years after having killed
Corisco, Antonio das Mortes goes to that village to see the cangaceiro. He is
not there for money. He only wants to check if it is true. It is the meeting
of two myths.
Coirana:
I have more than thousand
debts to call for
but if I speak of all of them
the earth will shake and roar
I'll just mention the ones that thrill
in the core of Lampião's will
who is man become woman
who is woman ask forgiveness
prisoners get set free
cangaceiros get arrested
and maiden women wed in church
Antonio:
Are you real or ghost?
answer now, you goat!
I, myself, do not care to believe
in that costume that you wear.
And then the duel between the dragon of wickedness and the warrior saint starts
to take place. But this story has other characters, who will inhabit the world
of Antonio das Mortes. Amid them, a deluded and hopeless teacher; a colonel tormented
by delirium of greatness and turned back to the past; a chief of police with political
ambitions; and a woman, Laura, who lives a tragic solitude. All are involved in
the action directed by Antonio and his contradictory concepts of moral and justice.
(...)"
Míriam Alencar,
Jornal do Brasil, Rio, 05/05/69
© TEMPO GLAUBER
