The Attempts Made By Any Third Cinema Filmmaker To Rewrite Their Own Histories Via Their Work - Coursework Example

Discuss the attempts made by any Third Cinema filmmaker to rewrite their own histories via their work. What kind of stylistic devices does the filmmaker employ to this end? Postmodernism had a great impact in the stylistic techniques that were used by makers of Third Cinema. In what turns out to be a direct result of the suffocation that Hollywood and European films gave viewers from developing and underdeveloped countries, Third Cinema, saw gradual growth and improvisations through the work of its directors. It is indeed interesting to know that the same director improvised upon his own work to create totally new algorithms in Third Cinema production, owing to the changes in society around him that he observed. It will not be too much to ask whether a person who is a film director has been able to find a new meaning in his passion for film making, especially when we take the singular case of Sergio Bianchi. What Is Third Cinema? In order to understand what Bianchi achieved through his works of film making, we have to start out by understanding Third Cinema from the core. Third Cinema was a term used to depict films that came from directors of developing countries and were devoid of the dramatic extravaganza of Hollywood (also called First Cinema) and Second Cinema (those that came from the European Union and were more directly derived from theater). Directors who began the trend of making Third Cinema include names like Rocha, Santos, Sembene, Ghatak, Ray, and Sen. These directors did not believe that the imperial predators and colonial powers were not the only ones defining movie making. Instead, they laughed at the excessive drama portrayed in Hollywood movies and called them as phoney films. The main aim of these directors was to portray real life as well as they could, through gripping storylines filmed using aesthetics that depicted the reality of the situation, rather than the attempt to make believe as was prone in theater and movie industry in those days. Main Stylistic Devices Used In Third Cinema: There were a host of stylistic devices that were used in these movies that set them apart from the rest of the creations in the film world. Yes, although most of these movies were made in different countries, the final outcomes were more or less structured on similar devices, something that led the Third Cinema frontier to grow stronger by the day. While Rocha was of the idea that film-makers who wanted to experiment with different film making styles went into creating Cinema Novo as it was often called in those days, most critics maintain that the development of Third Cinema came from the need to depict reality on celluloid and not recognize the sovereignty of Hollywood movie makers and movie making styles. This approach was characterized by use of surrealism, Brechtian theater, minimalism, earthy aesthetics and a lot of harsh colors. Arid deserts or parched lands offered some of the most gruesome backgrounds to stories being churned out in Third Cinema (Ekottoh & Kof, 2009, p.156). Sergio Bianchi : A Pioneer In Third Cinema Revolution Bianchi is known to have struck a chord with the believers of anarchism, some of whom are the forefathers of Cinema novo. However, his portrayal of contemporary times and the different social issues that plagued the lives of the common people was better defined and saw a definite growth in detailing over time. Many critics believe that there is not much growth to be seen in the cinematic works of this director. However, when we take a close look at how he went about singling out social issues by highlighting them in his movies, we get a clear idea as to how reconstruction of Third Cinema germinated in his works. Although, he presented his works to the society at a date much later than his competitors in the arena of Third Cinema, his works bridge the gap between Cinema Novo in its raw state and Third Cinema in its advanced stages. The present article charts the journey of visuals created by him in the form of full length and documented movies. A pioneer in social awareness, Sergio’s works started out with his depiction of the societal crisis that happened while Brazil underwent its major change from being a colony to a democracy sometime around the 1980s. Now, as is characteristic to any society, Brazil saw the evils of extreme poverty, homophobia, racism and environmental crisis. Bianchi strongly believed that his predecessors, namely, Santos and Rocha were creating Third Cinema only to appease the desire of political heads of countries that they belonged to. He refused to recognize the prevalence of society and its reality in their works, and maintained that most of the creations were dramatic extensions of what was happening in real life, with pictures that were pretty far from the real life scenario. In his movie Twisted Fate (1979), audiences are treated to frames which are candid and ask important questions pertaining to ground reality, right from the word go. The very fact that pollution was eating up the Brazilian society was depicted strongly in a scene wherein a middle aged half-mad woman addresses the audience with a simple query as to what the world will do when there is no air left in Brazil after the immigrants turn the Amazon into “toilet paper and typing paper”. Now this take on power change was Sergio Bianchi’s main way of calling his cinema something that is different from the creations of other Cinema Novo film-makers. While this movie came out in 1979, Brazil saw independence, democracy, and general elections happening in the 1980s. By 1982, Bianchi was back with his documentary, Should I Kill Them?, A film that caused ripples in the society that was already witnessing a major change. While most directors hoped for prosperity and happiness, Bianchi stay put to his roots of film-making. The documentary has a portion wherein reference is made to the Native Brazilians. Audiences are not treated to a gazing woman this time. Instead, they see a blank screen while a voiceover booms the thoughts and questions pertaining to the fast execution and disappearance of Natives. Candor was the same, but the treatment of stills and impact creation on the audience was through a different mode now. This time the psychological understanding of the situation was given more preference than mere depiction of the thoughts through a character in the film. As a result, the impact was deeper, and this charted out as the main reason why his movies saw immense criticism and discussion thereafter. This documentary succeeded in highlighting the ill effects of industrialization that was gripping at the throat of the Brazilian democracy. Let us now take a look at more stylistic devices that the film-maker used to differentiate his work from that of previous Cinema Novo directors. We cannot but agree to the fact that pain, misery, poverty, struggle, and reality stuck as horror to the audience when they went for shows of Barren Lives (1963) or Earth Entranced (1967). Like most Cinema Novo pioneers’ creations, these movies depicted real life more in aesthetics and storylines. From frame to frame, audiences were served with brutality of a changing society, and as Bianchi always maintained, a poetic take on the sadness around. The treats were devoid of cinematic depictions close to real life, but were cover-ups of what has to be shown. While this defined Third Cinema to a great extent, Bianchi’s style of causing a breakthrough saw gradual improvisations in itself. His depictions were more real and struck a chord with all sections of the audience, positive or negative opinions notwithstanding. The Gradual Shift in Bianchi’s Work The first stylistic device that we discuss upon is the use of directly assaultive interludes within the movie length, which mentioned few facts about the Brazilian society and asked interrogative questions to the unsuspecting audience. Most of the questions are derisive of the political power game and random industrialization seen in the era and were highly criticized in those days. Now, if we analyze this device, we see that according to Bianchi’s logic, a changing society should be able to answer questions pertaining to the evils that plague its growth. His pointers were always directed towards the fact that although Brazil was heading towards a national identity, the smaller factions were being ignored and in fact, silently gotten rid of by the politically powerful sections of the society. This device slowly vanished from his subsequent movies. By the time he made Chronically Unfeasible (2000), Bianchi had started concentrating more on exploiting the potential of his actors to do the rough talking through their characters. However, he leaves no stone unturned in ensuring that the necessary impact is reached. Audiences who watch his recent movies may not be treated to the direct interrogation of a soulful voice or gaze, but will inevitably find themselves trying to answer the question of silent annihilation that Bianchi has portrayed in his movies and asked the audience to take note of. One of the major aftermaths of Brazilian shift of power was environmental pollution. However, lifestyle changes were also a major indicator of how people were experiencing insecurity and phobias directing from social circles. The highlight on a deceased person’s ex-girlfriends’ thoughts in his 1988 fiction – Romance, was a very sensitive draw on how psychologies are affected every time a dear one involved in war and coups passes away. Although the main protagonist of the movie was a journalist who dies of AIDS, the memories and questions that he leaves behind are questionable and immensely perturbing for audiences. The loneliness and the anxiety only leaves different characters feeling insecure and portrays them seeking succor and solace in hyper-sexuality and homosexuality. Through this movie, Bianchi had raised the question regarding homophobia which was present in everybody’s minds. Segregating and cornering gay men was no solution to this new thinking that invariably got incorporated in the society within due course of time. A question that was both shocking and disturbing in those days, that finds its answers in country laws today, and that was considered way ahead of its times was put forth using systematic scenes of frequent and vulgar publicly staged sexual encounters of one of the characters of the movie, who is actually an old boyfriend of the deceased’s girlfriend and doubts he has contracted AIDS through her. Such confusion, and the insecurity that arises from it, has been depicted by Bianchi in a powerful manner in his recent movies. His journalistic takes on real life scenarios were what critics called his improvisation of the original film-making instinct in him wherein rude questions were dished out to viewers. Noted as a powerful documentary film maker, Bianchi left no chance to showcase his documentaries on real life through his movies. The fact that he used a staged out documentary t o showcase how people were displaced from a land, shown during a simple taxi cab ride that the heroine takes during the movie, speaks of the intelligent marriage of Third Cinema and Short film making rules. In the journalistic documentary, the painful experience of how scores of native Brazilians were moved from the very land that the highway she was driving through was built in, is what keeps the audience glued to the screen. We feel that this mode of producing informative drama was what made Sergio Bianchi a pioneer in the new age Third Cinema, one that scoffed at the heaviness with which political powers were going about industrializing a country. The emergence of Third Cinema was the main factor that highlighted the sufferings of developing economies (Marzano, 2006). A movie maker could not have depicted real life without using devices like monochrome lighting, open backgrounds, minimalist settings, and storylines that depicted how the common man was surviving his life in a politically changing scenario. While the first proprietors of Third Cinema did the experimenting with colors and story-lines, the ones who came in later developed devices that retold the history of Third Cinema, namely, by creating a new order in Third Cinema movie making itself, just like how Third Cinema had changed the face of world cinema earlier on. Not just that, film-makers like Sergio Bianchi, who found that simply using arid stills was synonymous to challenging the lavishness of Hollywood sets, and not exactly a depiction of reality. As a result, his movies not only challenged the set standards of Third Cinema but brought in a revolutionary style that not just took viewers close to what they see happening around them, but also redefined the use of stylistic devices in the process of filming. Over time, the director himself rewrote his own rules in using the same stylistic devices to create Third Cinema movies. There is no mistaking that although his initial movies met with debate and criticism, Bianchi was thoroughly convinced about the need to use the style he was adopting. However, he improvised upon the Brechtian interludes and minimalism to create frames that looked less threatening and accusing. Conclusion If reconstruction (Guneratne & Dissanayake, 2003, p.376) of the existing laws of Third Cinema ever happened, it started with the initiative of directors like Satyajit Ray and Sergio Bianchi, who did not depict reality for the drama in it, but for the sole reason to entertain audiences using simple narrations and clearly defined frames that easily allowed the audiences to differentiate between the fiction and the facts depicted in each movie. While Bianchi started improvising his devices to make them look more meaningful in his movies, the rest of them made sure that their movies provided the literature that every student of world cinema would take in with more seriousness. The fact that Bianchi used his movies to raise important questions pertaining to the changing face of the Brazilian society, that saw democracy in 1980s, shows us that films can be used to transport messages that are much stronger than what mere fiction or fantasy. Like always, media scores highest in inspiring people to when they are going through a revolution. While Homi Bhabha had negated all ideas of individual identity crisis amongst film-makers of Third Cinema (Pines & Willeman, 2008), it is very clear that these film-makers took pride in depicting the multi-layered cultures of their countries and churning out the original cultures through their movies. Bianchi as a director has done justice to his role of playing a visionary director who understands and revolutionizes the dictums of Third Cinema making through his movies. Ekotto, F. & Koh, A. (2009). Rethinking Third Cinema : The Role of Anti-colonial Media and Aesthetics in Postmodernity, LIT Verlag Münster Guneratne A. & Dissanayake W. (2003). Rethinking Third Cinema. Routledge: New York. Jamshaid, Z. (2012). The Evolution Of Third Cinema In A Brazilian Context : From Santos To Bianchi, Off Screen, 16 (7). Marzano, N, (2006) Third Cinema Theory : New Perspectives, Kinema a journal for film and audiovisual media, Source URL : http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/article.php?id=462&feature (Accessed on April 11th, 2014). Pines, J. & Willemen, P. (March 12, 2008). Questions Of Third Cinema, Strictly Film School, available at: http://filmref.com/journal/archives/2008/03/questions_of_third_cinema_edit.html (Accessed on April 11th, 2014) Read More