1967 ‘Terra em Transe’ Directed by Glauber Rocha
Eldorado, a fictitious country in America, is sparkling with the internal struggle for political power. In the eye of this social convulsion, the jaded journalist Paulo Martins opposes two equally corrupt political candidates: a pseudopopulist and a conservative. In this context, Paulo is torn between the madness of the elite and the blind submission of the masses. But, in this complex tropical reality, nothing really is what it seems to be.
Terre en transe, Gi se ektasi, Ziemia w transie, Tierra en trance, Terra in trance, Land in Anguish
Glauber Rocha going to the guts of Latin American populism and vomiting it back at us. Still as perfect as an angry dispatch from the frontline of war can possible gets. It is an eternal present tense that just refuses to age.
"As nossas riquezas, as nossas carnes, as vidas, tudo, vocês venderam tudo, as nossas esperanças, o nosso coração, o nosso amor, tudo, VOCÊS VENDERAM TUDO!"
Rocha devia ser é doido de fazer Terra em Transe no despontar da ditadura no Brasil. Não me surpreende ele ter sido assassinado com "tuberculose". Esse deve ser o filme mais brasileiro junto à Cabra Marcado para Morrer, e eu atribuo o contínuo estado de contemporaneidade dos aspectos políticos aqui apresentados menos à genialidade do Glauber do que a insistência em continuar sendo oprimidos por 'aqueles'.
***One of the best 150 films I have ever seen.***
Two years before Costa-Gavras constructed the best political drama of the decade and one year after Algeria achieved independence thanks to the vision of Gillo Pontecorvo (cinematically speaking), Terra em Transe became a rare phenomenon. Few political dramas have achieved a giant status of mastery and technical innovation. Glauber Rocha, who mostly focused his filmmaking style and talents in the direction of westerns, dares to speak out loud for the sake of the Brazilian nation. Due to the heavy censorship of the tumultuous 60s, he disguises the truths of the country with a fictional creation, which is one of the smartest and most stylish decisions I have personally witnessed. The…
An essential masterpiece and best-known work from a crucial architect of the Brazilian Cinema Novo movement. It's an intensely emotional and loud outcry for the revolution which unfolds in Eldorado, a fictional region in Latin America which is readily identifiable as Brazil and observes reporter Paulo Martins rejecting the two main and identically unscrupulous political parties. Director Glauber Rocha shoots in a highly kinetic style which employs an abundance of close-ups with characters routinely breaking the fourth wall and delivering impassioned monologues directly to the camera.
Jardel Filho delivers an incredibly passionate portrayal as Martins, and the vibrations are plentiful as it spotlights the disconnect between the politicians and the people they were elected to represent. The frequently filmed cabinet…
Dear Cod, how did a film so corrosively cynical about the political process get made under the noses of the Brazilian junta?
And how can such a frenzied, LOUD movie be so entirely cerebral in its affect?
Fragmented post-Godard narrative orbiting around the crises of conscience faced by an idealist who enters the political system for good reasons, gradually recognizing that the electoral politics he's immersed in only exists as a feedback-loop that maintains and propagates power and withholds the opportunities for meaningful change from the electorate... who, in turn, are so naively confident in the democratic process (and otherwise so apathetic and "indolent") that they're blind to the third-path possibilities open to them, and indifferent to their own ability…
Bring me your false idols, your corrupt bodies, your empty promises, your bereft policies, your bureaucratic motions. Lay down at the feet of The People your true intentions, your inane lies, your hidden decisions. Care not what they or I or even you think of your own irresolution and appetency for power. Democracy is a delusion; populism is pretense; nationalism is an utterly false notion. Freedom isn’t dead, it was never born. Their positions are dictated by industry; their convictions governed by blind consensus gentium; their strength is fueled by illusions.
We pull the blade against the grain and wonder why we’re covered in blood; over and over and over again until eventually we are slicing rather than shearing and…
"Dominarei esta terra.
Botarei estas histéricas
tradições em ordem!
Pelo amor da força!
Pela harmonia universal
dos infernos,
chegaremos a uma civilização!"
Glauber nos leva para uma das décadas mais fervorosas da história do Brasil, realizando um verdadeiro estudo sobre a política brasileira. Terra em Transe consegue articular muito bem temas tão caros à América Latina como populismo, conservadorismo, militarismo, imperialismo, entre outros.
Não deixa de mencionar ainda as contradições do típico intelectual de esquerda brasileiro - representado por Paulo Martins - que se vê como um verdadeiro salvador do povo mergulhado na passividade e na ignorância. É um exemplo didático do elitismo da esquerda e da sua incapacidade de articulação.
O filme soa tão atual e profético porque o…
We are all in eternal revolution. Political struggle does not end. Entranced Earth digs deep into a rotten world, finding only failure in the political dynamics of Latin America. Nominally the film set in the fictional republic of Eldorado, but the allegory for Brazilian politics is clear. It shows a double-sided failure, one coming from the oppressors directly and another coming from the weakness of any opposition. To fail to oppose is to let fascism win. To this end, conservatism and liberalism are oppression in different guises, both subservient to maintaining the same power structures.
Entranced Earth is set in the intersection of politicians, the media, and the corporate world. The three prongs of power. People don't matter in politics,…
“Escute: a luta de classes existe! Qual é sua classe?”
Um primeiro comentário: como é difícil fugir da discussão da ideias quando se trata de Terra em Transe. O filme tem um aspecto cerebral e político muito relevante, e isso acaba recebendo mais destaque do que os aspectos cinematográficos. É quase como se o filme fosse um livro de pensamento político. Só que na verdade ele não só expressa as ideias que discutimos, mas as expressa no estilo incorparável do Glauber Rocha. A pergunta que eu me faço é: o que esse estilo traz à essas ideias?
O filme é estruturado como um grande flashback, do fim pro começo. A derrota abre o filme: nosso protagonista foge enquanto o governo…
I appreciate its political critique, but I just wish it less tedious to sit through.
Festival Alegorias do Subdesenvolvimento filme #1.
Apesar de tê-lo revisto há não muito tempo, resolvi mais uma vez vê-lo por causa dos ótimos insights do Ismail Xavier para o filme, coisas que me passaram desapercebidas, sem falar que o filme fala de coisas que reiteradamente acontecem no Brasil de tempos em tempos, por isso é necessário revê-lo sempre.
Eu teria que rever Deus e o Diabo, mas creio que no momento Terra em Transe seja meu Glauber favorito, a gente sempre encontra coisa nova nele e é sempre intrinsecamente ligado de como as coisas funcionam politicamente no Brasil - e o texto! o texto é deveras maravilhoso.
Box Versátil Coleção Glauber Rocha.
"The hunger of the absolute."
Want to know why nothing that seems essential ever works? Glauber Rocha was curious about it too in 1967--Nationalism, Marxism, Colonialism, corruption, ideology, love, friendship, trust, promises, intentions, leadership, power, Capitalism's black pill, fiefdoms' perfect banners, poverty, poetry, incarceration, terror, persecution, hedonism, insurrection, celebrity, greed's whipped breasts, wisdom, church, rights, duty, history, newsprint, desire, responsibility, the real versus the unreal, excellence, intelligence, currency, funding, obligation, card games of ethics, the grandeur of failure, equality, hope, despair, decisions, polarity, flags, bread & circus, revolutions after revolutions, politics--this weapon of the elect--of the gods, military, laws, assassinations, dictatorships, arms, violence, patriots, spirit, slavery, nobody, everybody, Jesus, past, future, medo e medo e medo e fogo e fogo e…
