Glauber Rocha - Deus E o Diabo na Terra do Sol aka Black God White Devil (1964)

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REVIEW
" "Black God, White Devil", which opens a two-day stand today at the Fifth Avenue Cinema as the final offering in the retrospective of Brazil's revolutionary Cinema Novo, is, at once, one of the most visually effective and artistic examples of the work of Glauber Rocha, a leading light among Cinema Novo's young directors. But as a contemporary allegory fulminating darkly against miseries inflicted on the poor by landowners and the Government, it is more mystically stylized than moving.
Rocha's dedication to a barbaric theme is obvious but his religious symbolism and floklore make for stark, strictly native drama to which it is hard to re-relate despite literal English subtitles for the Portuguese dialogue.
The essentials of his plot are simple. Basically, he is relating, with the aid of off-screen troubadours (cantadores) the dual struggle of Manoel, an oppressed cowhand who seeks salvation as a devoted follower of Sebastian, a black, religious mystic, and then with Corisco, one of the last, fierce outlaws battling the landowners.
His tragedy is, of course, unavoidable after he murders a rancher who has tried to rob him. Sebastian (personifying spiritual help) is killed by Manoel's patiently suffering wife, Rosa, and Corisco (the temporal savior) is ultimately dispatched by Antonio Das Mortes, the killer hired by the church and landowners.
Rocha, it should be noted, made this, his second feature, in 1963 when he was 25 and his black-cloaked, dour executioner became the hero of the sequel, "Antonio Das Mortes" shown here last year.
As Manoel, Gerardo Del Ray, is an authentically driven, illiterate and confused peasant for whom there is no salvation. Lydio Sylva and Othon Bastos, to whom he turns, emerge as strange, larger-than-life figures on a strange landscape, as does Mauririo Do Valle as Das Mortes.
Rocha, it is apparent, is more concerned with his symbolism, injustices and the arid, sombre "sertao" of provincial Bahia in which he filmed, than in compelling characterization. His symbols are broodingly obvious parallels to Biblical events and his outlaws are theatrically savage.
"The Earth belongs to man, not God or the Devil," Rocha proclaims climactically. And his film, like his credo, is simple, black-and-white, more arresting as a shocking polemic than as memorable drama." A. H. Weiler, NY Times, September 25, 1971

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Friday, May 14, 2010

Glauber Rocha - Deus E o Diabo na Terra do Sol aka Black God White Devil (1964)

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