The Paradoxical Effect of the Documentary in Walter Salles’s Central do Brasil

This article explores the fusion between the conventions of the documentary and fiction films in Walter Salles’s Central do Brasil (1998), tracing this synergy back to the impact of the documentary and Neorealism on the New Latin American Cinema and Cinema Novo, its Brazilian counterpart. After acknowledging Alberto Cavalcanti’s role in the development of British documentary and cinema in Brazil, this text examines Salles’s film in terms of Juliane Burton’s typology of the observational mode. Particular attention is given to Bill Nichols’s work on the textual conventions shared by the observational documentary and fiction films. The affective impact, which Nichols foregrounds, is reinforced by applying Gilles Deleuze’s views on the close-up. This article concludes by noting the intertextual reverberations between Central do Brasil and Cinema Novo, a phenomenon typical of the mid-1990’s revival of Brazilian cinema, which would come to be defined as Cinema da Retomada. This article is available in Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol33/iss1/2 The Paradoxical Effect of the Documentary in Walter Salles’s Central do Brasil Cynthia M. Tompkins Arizona State University Though Walter Salles’s Central do Brasil ‘Central Station’ has garnered much critical attention, the debate regarding the impact of documentary techniques on the movie remains to be settled. Thus, Deborah Shaw argues that despite the “documentary approach ... used in the filming of key scenes, such as the letter writers at the station ... these talking heads never acquire the status of individuals worth caring about” (164-66). Similarly, Lucia Nagib, who sets the movie in the context of the film revival of the mid-1990s, argues that Salles presents an aesthetically pleasing and sanitized view of rural migrants from Northeast Brazil that ultimately betrays the agenda of Cinema Novo directors, both by recourse to the salvational role of religion as well as by the closure resulting from the conventions of melodrama. Conversely, I argue that the infusion of documentary techniques exerts an affective impact on the audience. In other words, by presenting fiction as conveyed through the conventions of observational documentaries, the audience is led to care about the plight of the Nordestinos ‘inhabitants of the North Eastern backlands;’ furthermore, as the luminescent beauty of the close-ups reinforces the affective impact, the scant development of their stories becomes all the more frustrating. In contextualizing the movie, and from Josue’s (Vinicius de Oliveira) point of view, Central do Brasil continues the rich tradition of Latin American films focused on the plight of poverty stricken children, which began with Luis Bunuel’s focus on the Mexican underclass in Los olvidados ‘The Young and the Damned’ (1950), and was followed by Fernando Birri’s Tire die ‘Toss Me a Dime’ (1960), a 1 Tompkins: The Paradoxical Effect of the Documentary in Walter Salles’s Cent Published by New Prairie Press 10 ST&TCL, Volume 33, No. 1 (Winter 2009) neorealist approach to Argentine children begging for coins as they ran alongside the tracks. In Brazil, Salles’s film has been compared to Hector Babenco’s Pixote (1981), a bleak portrayal of the predicament of children living on the street. Indeed, concern about the living conditions of Latin American youth is emblematic in the filmic production of the 1990s, and continues unabated.1 Both Victor Gaviria’s Rodrigo D no futuro ‘Rodrigo D No Future’ (1990) and La vendedora de rosas ‘The Rose Seller’ (1998), dwell on the impact of drug trafficking among the underprivileged in Colombia. Similarly, Barbet Schroeder recreates the plight of Colombian minors as hit men in La virgen de los sicarios ‘Our Lady of the Assassins’ (2000). Likewise, Fernando Meirelles’s Cidade de Deus ‘City of God’ (2002) exposes the ever-present violence in Brazilian favelas ‘slums,’ and Maria V. Menis’s El cielito ‘Little Sky’ (2004) denounces the lack of opportunities for youth in contemporary Argentina. Yet, more important perhaps is the effect of the movie on the incipient genre of the Latin American road movie, given that Central do Brasil was followed by Maria Novaro’s Sin dejar huella ‘Without a Trace’ (2000), and that Salles’s Diarios de motocicleta ‘The Motorcycle Diaries,’ Pablo Trapero’s La familia rodante ‘Rolling Family,’ Alfonso Cuaron’s Y tu mama tambien ‘And Your Mother Too,’ and Carlos Sorin’s El perro, Bombon: El Perro were all released in 2004. In terms of generic conventions, road movies “embrace ... the journey as a means of cultural critique ... seeking the unfamiliar for revelation [and/or for] refuge from social circumstances felt to be lacking or oppressive in some way” (Laderman 1-2). Characteristically, the “frustrated, often desperate” characters embark on a journey that results in an “open-ended, rambling plot structure” (Laderman 2). As a road movie, Central do Brasil shows the “opposition between the ‘demoniac’ city and the sacred countryside” (Xavier 59). The rambling plot that ensues after Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) leaves Rio with Josue in tow allows for the depiction of alternative lifestyles based on trust and sharing, such as the experience with Cesar—the evangelical truck driver that gives them a ride, the sharing of food with the pilgrims on the truck, and the scenes with Josue’s brothers. Cinematically, road movies “generally use frame compositions that incorporate the front or side windshields and rearview mirrors [to allow for] driver point of view shots,” which is particularly evident 2 Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, Vol. 33, Iss. 1 [2009], Art. 2 http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol33/iss1/2 DOI: 10.4148/2334-4415.1689