/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: Fragments Create a Unique Whole

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 5 2003 (IPS) - A slow, monotonous beginning gives way to surprising plot turns in “O homem que copiava” (The Man Who Copied), the latest film by Brazilian director Jorge Furtado.

What initially comes off as perhaps a frivolous romp suddenly turns into something substantial.

Fragments of miscellaneous idioms – film, television and animation – and styles – drama, comedy and crime thriller – feed this deceptive “lightness”.

Director and screen writer Furtado has finally proven his talent and creativity in a feature-length work 14 years after bursting onto the film scene with “Ilha das Flores” (Isle of Flowers), considered the best Brazilian short, fetching prizes at home and at the Berlin Film Festival back then.

Amidst his work on television since, he was able to put out his first feature, one without pretence, titled “Houve uma vez dois veroes” (Two Summers). It was in some sense an exercise preparing for the debut of “O homem que copiava”.

Praised by critics, it is unlikely that his new film will draw a million Brazilians to the theatres, although it is among the biggest box office successes of the national film industry.

The protagonist, referred to in the title, operates the photocopier in a stationery shop in Porto Alegre, capital of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

André, played by actor Lázaro Ramos – who has shone in several recent films -, jokes about his repetitive and monotonous duties, which allow him to daydream and occasionally read fragments of the books he is photocopying.

The film’s first half-hour is dedicated to constructing André’s character. Each night, from his tiny apartment, he spies through binoculars at the young Silvia, played by famed television drama actress Leandra Leal.

André’s childhood of poverty, abandoned by his father, is recalled through animated cartoons, a technique that is appearing in films more and more as a means to underscore details and make humorous commentaries.

In “O homem” it helps that the central character draws cartoons as a hobby.

The schemes André dreams up to get closer to the object of his passion, Silvia, end up requiring that he obtain 38 reais (13 dollars). It is the price of a bathrobe for his mother, a purchase he keeps putting off so that he can repeatedly visit the women’s clothing shop where Silvia works.

The “copier”, who counts his coins from his monthly salary of 302 reais (104 dollars), earns just enough to survive. So he ends up using the photocopier to counterfeit money – and buy the bathrobe.

It is the moment that the film takes on a new pace, that of a crime thriller, with a robbery of an armoured car, death threats, bribes and two murders.

André and Silvia, finally together, are joined by another accomplice couple, and the four achieve their shared dream of obtaining a great deal of money and moving to Rio de Janeiro.

Another surprise turn in the film is the revelation that it was not André but Silvia – the sales clerk with broad knowledge of international literature – who pulled the strings to conquer the object of her affections.

There is no regret about the crimes committed, everything is justified somehow, and there is no “moral to the story”. In the end, crime pays when it is committed by people who have been humiliated by society, whose incomes do not allow them the level of consumption dangled in front of them by the market and by advertising.

They take advantage of an opportunity to escape their mediocre destinies as retail employees in a tedious life without a future.

Fragmentation, says Furtado, is the film’s central theme, reflecting today’s culture, one of a great deal of information and “a little knowledge about many different things,” accentuated by television, Internet and the rest of the media.

Some scenes in “O homem” synthesise this idea. André as “voyeur” uses the fragments he sees through his binoculars, including reflections in the mirror in Silvia’s wardrobe, to put together an idea of the whole of her room.

With this new film, the director confirms his ability to tell a good story, using and mixing an array of audiovisual resources.