Brazilian
director Andrucha Waddington takes the view that "our
job is to make a continuation of what these wonderful
Brazilian film-makers started." He is referring not only
to Nelson Pereira dos Santos, director of Vidas Secas,
but to the entire group of Cinema Novo directors. "I'm
not here to reinvent anything. I am here to tell stories."
The
story Waddington has chosen to tell in Eu, Tu, Eles
(I, You, Them) is set in the same desolate geography
as the classic, Vidas Secas, but may raise eyebrows in
some corners. Darlene De Lima Linhares (Regina Case) plays
a countrywoman in the outback of northeastern Brazil who
over a period of time finds herself living with three
men, all of whom she loves.
"The
film is based on a true story of a woman who comes to
have three men living
in her house with her," Waddington recounts. "She gets
married to the first man, but it is not so good. Then
comes a second man, who is the cousin of the first man,
and she gets involved with him. And to provoke jealousy
in the second man, the first man brings the third man
inside the house and she lives with them all."
Waddington
compares the film to a ballet: "All of the men have their
time when they are on top and on bottom. They go through
all regions of emotion. It is this up-and-down motion
that resembles a ballet."
Northeastern
Brazil is notorious for its harsh living conditions and,
outside the coastal cities, most "nordestinos" live in remote
areas where the mores
of Brazil's largely Catholic society hold no sway.
"I
think [this situation] happens in that region because
it is so remote, so isolated," the director continues.
"There is no point of view of society over them, and that's
how it was possible for this
situation to occur."
Like
many directors in the Cinema Novo of the 1960s, Waddington
has coaxed naturalistic performances from his mainly professional
cast. "During two months of rehearsal, we improved the
script to clarify which story we were telling, because
it could have been a comedy," he says, "That was not what
I wanted. By the time we started shooting, everyone was
looking for
the same picture."
Although
the interest of Sony Pictures Classics was largely responsible
for the provision of post-production funds, Waddington
insists that this is a film for Brazil. It is a Brazilian
story, he says, and one which he thinks Brazilians will
feel deeply. "I'm not so concerned about what people think,"
he says in reference to audience reaction. "I'm much more
concerned about what people feel."
Jeffrey
R Sipe
