/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-BRAZIL: Copacabana, a Haven for the Elderly

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 24 2001 (IPS) - A healthy portion of the Brazilian middle class’s memories are concentrated in Copacabana, a coastal neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro that developed and aged during the 20th century, turning into a paradise for retirees – now the theme of a new film.

“Copacabana” portrays the district’s evolution from a human perspective, through the story of Alberto, a photographer who has lived his entire life here and celebrates his 90th birthday surrounded by his friends and memories.

The film’s director, Carla Camurati, is a 40-year-old actress who won fame on TV Globo’s soap operas, but who decided more than seven years ago to dedicate herself to film directing, just when the Brazilian industry was in the middle of its worst crisis.

Her first feature-length work, “Carlota Joaquina”, about the events leading up to Brazil’s independence in the early 19th century, was a success. It brought more than 1.3 million people to the movie theatres, marking the rebirth of the national film industry in 1995.

The new film is a tribute to the Copacabana neighbourhood, a place that influenced the director’s childhood with its four kilometres of beaches and the famous Copacabana Palace hotel, which captured the fantasies of the nation in the mid-20th century – and where Camurati’s grandfather was head of the tearoom.

But, says Camurati, it is also an ode to the elderly, “who the country ignores and does not respect,” and who hold increasing importance as demographic data show the rapid ageing of the Brazilian population.

The director maintains her personal style and occasionally offbeat sense of humour – which caused a certain amount of scandal at the film’s premiere. In one scene, an elderly woman is shown masturbating with a pillow in a living room, and is apparently unconcerned when she is “caught” and reprimanded by her daughter.

The 90th birthday of Alberto triggers a series of memories that overwhelm him, to the point that the former photographer throws himself at a woman who he has confused with the prostitute who awakened the strongest desires of his adolescence.

To celebrate his birthday, he invites his friends, all elderly, to dance and sing in an apartment along with children and some provocative prostitutes, whose presence is not fully explained, save for the fact that Copacabana is also a paradise for sex, with innumerable erotic shows and widespread prostitution – both male and female – and plenty of transvestites.

“It is a somewhat ‘Fellinian’ perspective,” said Héctor Babenco, a successful filmmaker both in Brazil and the United States, as he pointed to the likenesses of “Copacabana” to certain works by the late Italian director Federico Fellini.

It has something “close to the grotesque, but without reaching the level of parody or caricature,” it is a portrait of a Brazilian reality that does not attempt to revolutionize film, said Babenco, an Argentine-turned-Brazilian, in an interview with the ‘Jornal do Brasil’ daily.

For his part, Inacio Araujo, a film critic for the ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’ newspaper, commented that “Copacabana” is the combination of two distinct types of movies: one is sublime with its tender portrayal of the elderly and their memories, while the other is charged with vulgarity, such as the inclusion of a character that is a Jewish stereotype.

The film begins with a recounting of the story behind the name of the famous Brazilian beach, where a neighbourhood comprised exclusively of tall buildings has been constructed, encircled by mountains and the ocean, now home to 180,000 people.

The name Copacabana comes from an Incan site, originally in Peru, but now in Bolivian territory, where the Virgin Mary was venerated following the European Conquest. A replica of the virgin was sent to a Catholic parish in the Rio de Janeiro district, which was subsequently baptised with that same name.

This is the saint who has accompanied Alberto since he was an infant and was abandoned at the doors of a church. In the movie’s dialogue, the Virgin Mary speaks Spanish, in keeping with her Peruvian “nationality.”

The memory reawakened by his birthday leads Alberto to relive personal and historic events, such as a military uprising in a local barracks in 1922, the visit of the German dirigible Graff Zeppelin some years later, the Carnival celebrations and the visits of several internationally-known personalities.

Copacabana, which has reached its 109th anniversary, symbolises the ascent of the urban middle class, which was the principal political and social actor in Brazil following the Second World War. To live along that beach, gazing out at the sea, was the dream of all Brazilians.

The pressures for more space in this Eden transformed Copacabana into a “vertical city,” with its tall apartment buildings, all kinds of businesses and services, and hundreds of hotels and restaurants. Despite the traffic congestion and pollution, most of its residents are extremely loyal to the place and say they would never leave it.

As a result, 57 percent of the local population is over 50. There are people living here who come from all around the world, with their own diversity of personal histories. The film shows us only a small part, but faithfully reflects the human landscape of Copacabana.