Don't look back: Myths, conceptions, and receptions of Black Orpheus

Studies in Latin American Popular Culture

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 155-177

  Perrone, Charles A ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0039413780     PISSN: 07309139     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (68)

1. The concept of "racial democracy" involves numerous historical, sociological, and political factors. Two basic aspects are the supposition of the absence of overt black-white tension in Brazil and the denial of racism on both personal and governmental levels. On the development of this term, as well as for historical background see: Thomas Skidmore, 2nd. ed. Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993) [1974], esp. 216-217, and Howard Winant, Racial Conditions: Politics, Theory, Comparisons (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), esp. chapter 9, "Rethinking Race in Brazil." For a useful historical synopsis of the African-Brazilian situation and current conditions, see Rosângela Maria Vieira, "Brazil," in No Longer Invisible: Afro-Latin Americans Today (London: Minority Rights Publications, 1995), 19-46. On the concept of a "nonracist society" and the "forced dialogue of nonracialism" in Brazil, John Henrik Clarke succinctly states: "Brazil is an African state with a smiling white minority forever announcing nonracialism and practicing none of it." Introduction to Abdias do Nascimento and Elisa Larkin Nascimento, Africans in Brazil: A Pan-African Perspective (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1992), ix.
2. The concept of "racial democracy" involves numerous historical, sociological, and political factors. Two basic aspects are the supposition of the absence of overt black-white tension in Brazil and the denial of racism on both personal and governmental levels. On the development of this term, as well as for historical background see: Thomas Skidmore, 2nd. ed. Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993) [1974], esp. 216-217, and Howard Winant, Racial Conditions: Politics, Theory, Comparisons (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), esp. chapter 9, "Rethinking Race in Brazil." For a useful historical synopsis of the African-Brazilian situation and current conditions, see Rosângela Maria Vieira, "Brazil," in No Longer Invisible: Afro-Latin Americans Today (London: Minority Rights Publications, 1995), 19-46. On the concept of a "nonracist society" and the "forced dialogue of nonracialism" in Brazil, John Henrik Clarke succinctly states: "Brazil is an African state with a smiling white minority forever announcing nonracialism and practicing none of it." Introduction to Abdias do Nascimento and Elisa Larkin Nascimento, Africans in Brazil: A Pan-African Perspective (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1992), ix.
3. The concept of "racial democracy" involves numerous historical, sociological, and political factors. Two basic aspects are the supposition of the absence of overt black-white tension in Brazil and the denial of racism on both personal and governmental levels. On the development of this term, as well as for historical background see: Thomas Skidmore, 2nd. ed. Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993) [1974], esp. 216-217, and Howard Winant, Racial Conditions: Politics, Theory, Comparisons (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), esp. chapter 9, "Rethinking Race in Brazil." For a useful historical synopsis of the African-Brazilian situation and current conditions, see Rosângela Maria Vieira, "Brazil," in No Longer Invisible: Afro-Latin Americans Today (London: Minority Rights Publications, 1995), 19-46. On the concept of a "nonracist society" and the "forced dialogue of nonracialism" in Brazil, John Henrik Clarke succinctly states: "Brazil is an African state with a smiling white minority forever announcing nonracialism and practicing none of it." Introduction to Abdias do Nascimento and Elisa Larkin Nascimento, Africans in Brazil: A Pan-African Perspective (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1992), ix.
4. The concept of "racial democracy" involves numerous historical, sociological, and political factors. Two basic aspects are the supposition of the absence of overt black-white tension in Brazil and the denial of racism on both personal and governmental levels. On the development of this term, as well as for historical background see: Thomas Skidmore, 2nd. ed. Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993) [1974], esp. 216-217, and Howard Winant, Racial Conditions: Politics, Theory, Comparisons (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), esp. chapter 9, "Rethinking Race in Brazil." For a useful historical synopsis of the African-Brazilian situation and current conditions, see Rosângela Maria Vieira, "Brazil," in No Longer Invisible: Afro-Latin Americans Today (London: Minority Rights Publications, 1995), 19-46. On the concept of a "nonracist society" and the "forced dialogue of nonracialism" in Brazil, John Henrik Clarke succinctly states: "Brazil is an African state with a smiling white minority forever announcing nonracialism and practicing none of it." Introduction to Abdias do Nascimento and Elisa Larkin Nascimento, Africans in Brazil: A Pan-African Perspective (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1992), ix.
5. Orpheus is a potent frame of dramatic and filmic reference since he has been endowed with exceptional powers of performative enchantment. Orpheus was the son of Apollo (or of the king of Thrace) and Calliope, the muse of epic poetry. As a shaman, magician, and musician, Orpheus sang and played the lyre with such power that he altered the course of nature. He fell in love with Eurydice, who perished from a snake bite soon after their marriage. Grief-stricken, Orpheus descended to the underworld in search of her. He implored Pluto and the keepers of hell to allow her to return to the world of the living. Persuaded by his magical song, they allowed her to follow him on the condition that he not look back until their ascent was complete. Unable to bear the burden of doubt, he did look back to see if Eurydice was indeed behind him, and she vanished forever. Upon his return to the world, the attractive Orpheus now shunned women; this infuriated the Maenads (or Bacchants, the female followers of Dionysius), who set upon him and tore him to pieces by a river. As his head floated downstream, it continued to sing and prophesy, and his lyre continued to play. Thus the persistence or continuity of music, a fundamental result inscribed in the legend. Orpheus was celebrated in the Hellenic tradition and by the Roman poets Virgil (in the Georgic) and Ovid (in Metamorphoses X). Horace made Orpheus a seer and a bard who once weaned savage forest-tribes from murder and tamed fierce tigers and lions. In the Art of Poetry, the Latin poet assigned Orpheus the strength of wisdom and the force of magic. Orpheus also appeared in much Medieval verse and lore, and during the Renaissance, writers reinterpreted the Latin sources, portraying Orpheus as the quintessential poet. In the Baroque period (1600-1760s), he became the patron saint of opera. From pre-Romantic to modern literatures, he has been studied as a figure of transformation and metamorphosis, coming to represent the poet (singer) and death-within-life. In music, Orpheus is a central symbol, alternatively associated with the power of musical ethos or the failure of musical enlightenment.
6. Quoted by José Eduardo Homem de Mello, Música Popular Brasileira (São Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1976), 59.
7. Vinícius de Moraes, "Orfeu Negro," in 2nd ed. Poesia Completa e Prosa (Rio de Janeiro: Aguilar, 1987), 527-528.
8. Alex Viany, "'Orfeu da Conceição': A peça e o filme." Typescript in archive of Cinemateca Museu de Arte Moderna, n/d [1956(?)].
9. Numerous foreign and domestic sources refer to this aid. A North American reviewer reports, for instance, that Kubitschek had the army provide electrical equipment to Camus when his production funds were nearly exhausted. Time, vol. 74., Nov. 16, 1959, 114.
10. In a curious development, the relative lack of response to the reprise of Vinícius's work among black youth in marginal neighborhoods of Rio turned some local producers toward the idea of "black soul" dance clubs. See Hermano Vianna, O Mundo Funk Carioca (Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 1988), 27.
11. This performance took place within the Projeto Vinícius de Moraes-Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil. To give an idea of the reputation of the text, Ultima Hora (Feb. 7, 1990) referred to it as a "clássico do teatro musical brasileiro."
12. The above-cited anthropologist Hermano Vianna, consultant for the new screenplay, reminds us that it is important to keep Black Orpheus in mind because it continues to be, without being a Brazilian film and widely disliked by Brazilians, a very common reference point for Brazil (Interview July 6, 1996). The resonance of the theme of Orpheus in film in Brazilian cultural consciousness is also evident in a 1996 crônica by Luis Fernando Veríssimo, "Orfeu Novo," sparked by the visit of superstar Michael Jackson to a favela in Rio de Janeiro to film scenes of a music video. Jornal do Brasil, Feb. 7, 1996.
13. Carlos Augusto Calil, "Fantasia do poeta," introduction to Vinícius de Moraes, Teatro em Versos (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1995), 11-12.
14. Sábato Magaldi, "Orfeu, peça e fita," Estado de São Paulo Suplemento Literário, August 15, 1959, 3.
15. Luiz Tosta Paranhos, Orfeu da Conceição (Tragédia Carioca) (Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1980), 59-60, 62-63.
16. On "Opinião" and this current in the theatre, see Leslie Damasceno, Cultural Space and Theatrical Conventions in the Works of Oduvaldo Vianna Filho. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996).
17. Paranhos, 51.
18. Vinícius de Moraes, preface to 2nd ed. Orfeu da Conceiçaõ (Tragédia Carioca) (Rio de Janeiro: Dois Amigos. 1967), 2. His positions are also expressed in the program notes to Orfeu da Conceição (Rio de Janeiro: Teatro Municipal, 1995, [rpt. 1956]).
19. Vinicius de Moraes, "Vinicius de Moraes pede para fazer o seguinte comunicado aos artistas," in Teatro em Versos, 113-114. This position was confirmed and seconded by actor-director Haroldo Costa (Interview, July 11,1996). However, Abdias later accused Vinícius of exploiting blacks and left the cast, according to Ruy Castro, Chega de Saudade: A História e as Histórias da Bossa Nova (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1990), 124.
20. Vinicius de Moraes, "Vinicius de Moraes pede para fazer o seguinte comunicado aos artistas," in Teatro em Versos, 113-114. This position was confirmed and seconded by actor-director Haroldo Costa (Interview, July 11,1996). However, Abdias later accused Vinícius of exploiting blacks and left the cast, according to Ruy Castro, Chega de Saudade: A História e as Histórias da Bossa Nova (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1990), 124.
21. Abdias do Nascimento, Preface to Dramas para Negros e Prólogo para Brancos (Rio de Janeiro: Teatro Experimental do Negro, 1961), 25.
22. Abdias do Nascimento, "Teatro Negro no Brasil: Uma Experiência Sócio-racial," Revista Civilização Brasileira IV; caderno especial 2 Teatro e Realidade Brasileira (July 1968), 208.
23. do Nascimento and Larkin Nascimento, Africans in Brazil: A PanAfrican Perspective, 46.
24. Vinicius de Moraes, "Radar da Batucada," In Teatro em Versos, 47.
25. Vinicius de Moraes, "A propõsito de Orfeu da Conceição" in Orfeu, 13-14.
26. Jean-Luc Godard, "Le Brésil vu de Billancourt," Cahiers du Cinéma 17: 97 (July 1959); rpt. in a homonymous volume by AMS Press New York, 1971, 59-60. Some of the details and options Godard cites - e.g. why not use a shuttle-bus driver instead of a trolley car conductor? or shoot some other site in the city? - do not really clarify his critique. On Cocteau and the French film context, see such works as John J. Michalczyk, The French Literary Filmmakers (Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, 1980) and Allen Thiher, The Cinematic Muse: Critical Studies in the History of French Cinema (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1979). A notable illustration of the marketing campaign and success of Camus's film is the publication of a fictional version of the film, see Violante do Canto, Orfeu Negro (São Paulo: IBRASA, 1961), translation of the original Paris: Séghers, 1959 edition.
27. Jean-Luc Godard, "Le Brésil vu de Billancourt," Cahiers du Cinéma 17: 97 (July 1959); rpt. in a homonymous volume by AMS Press New York, 1971, 59-60. Some of the details and options Godard cites - e.g. why not use a shuttle-bus driver instead of a trolley car conductor? or shoot some other site in the city? - do not really clarify his critique. On Cocteau and the French film context, see such works as John J. Michalczyk, The French Literary Filmmakers (Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, 1980) and Allen Thiher, The Cinematic Muse: Critical Studies in the History of French Cinema (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1979). A notable illustration of the marketing campaign and success of Camus's film is the publication of a fictional version of the film, see Violante do Canto, Orfeu Negro (São Paulo: IBRASA, 1961), translation of the original Paris: Séghers, 1959 edition.
28. Jean-Luc Godard, "Le Brésil vu de Billancourt," Cahiers du Cinéma 17: 97 (July 1959); rpt. in a homonymous volume by AMS Press New York, 1971, 59-60. Some of the details and options Godard cites - e.g. why not use a shuttle-bus driver instead of a trolley car conductor? or shoot some other site in the city? - do not really clarify his critique. On Cocteau and the French film context, see such works as John J. Michalczyk, The French Literary Filmmakers (Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, 1980) and Allen Thiher, The Cinematic Muse: Critical Studies in the History of French Cinema (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1979). A notable illustration of the marketing campaign and success of Camus's film is the publication of a fictional version of the film, see Violante do Canto, Orfeu Negro (São Paulo: IBRASA, 1961), translation of the original Paris: Séghers, 1959 edition.
29. Jean-Luc Godard, "Le Brésil vu de Billancourt," Cahiers du Cinéma 17: 97 (July 1959); rpt. in a homonymous volume by AMS Press New York, 1971, 59-60. Some of the details and options Godard cites - e.g. why not use a shuttle-bus driver instead of a trolley car conductor? or shoot some other site in the city? - do not really clarify his critique. On Cocteau and the French film context, see such works as John J. Michalczyk, The French Literary Filmmakers (Philadelphia: The Art Alliance Press, 1980) and Allen Thiher, The Cinematic Muse: Critical Studies in the History of French Cinema (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1979). A notable illustration of the marketing campaign and success of Camus's film is the publication of a fictional version of the film, see Violante do Canto, Orfeu Negro (São Paulo: IBRASA, 1961), translation of the original Paris: Séghers, 1959 edition.
30. Jean-Paul Sartre, "Orphée Noir," preface to Leopold Sédar-Senghor, ed. Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poésie Nègre et Malagache de Langue Française (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1948), esp. xvii-xviii. The essay was published in Brazil in 1950 in Quilombo, the organ of the TEN. In the fourth edition of the celebrated anthology (1977), André Julien notes the success of the English translation of the essay (Black Orpheus) and the use of the title Orfeu Negro in a film that "sought to express the living conditions and beliefs of blacks in Brazil" (viii).
31. Alex Viany, 2nd ed. Introdução ao Cinema Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro: Revan, 1993. [1959]), 119.
32. Zózimo Bulbul, "A presença negra nos cem anos do cinema," The Brasilians, April 1996, 16.
33. João Carlos Pecci, 2nd ed. Vinicius Sem Ponto Final (São Paulo: Saraiva, 1994), 285-286. To follow up on Vinícius's early optimism about film production in Brazil, the market success of Black Orpheus did not in fact bring a wave of co-productions with foreign capital. See the sarcastic commentary of Maria Rita Galvão and Jean-Claude Bernardet in Cinema (O Nacional e O Popular na Cultura Brasileira) (São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1983), 166.
34. João Carlos Pecci, 2nd ed. Vinicius Sem Ponto Final (São Paulo: Saraiva, 1994), 285-286. To follow up on Vinícius's early optimism about film production in Brazil, the market success of Black Orpheus did not in fact bring a wave of co-productions with foreign capital. See the sarcastic commentary of Maria Rita Galvão and Jean-Claude Bernardet in Cinema (O Nacional e O Popular na Cultura Brasileira) (São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1983), 166.
35. Manuel Bandeira, "Orfeu do Carnaval," in Andorinha Andorinha (Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1966), 139-140, [Sept. 2, 1959]. Bandeira further asserts that "very little of Vinícius was left in the manipulation of Camus." Among others, Haroldo Costa (interview) cites Camus's "very French vision" and confirms that Viníius disliked the film because it "had nothing to do with his poetry."
36. In coverage of the exhibition of Orfeu Negro in a series in Brasilía on Cannes winners, Correio Brasiliense, May 19, 1990. In July 1996 the Cinemateca of the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro ran a special series, Rio Cinética, featuring films about Rio or using Rio as their setting. Camus's film was not included.
37. Domício Proença Filho, interview July 8, 1996. Coincidentally, Domício had been asked to do a screen test for the film, which he declined. The phrase macumba para turistas was put into circulation by iconoclast Modernist Oswald de Andrade in the 1920s.
38. Jorge Amado, preface to Walter da Silveira, Fronteiras do Cinema (Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro, 1966), 13.
39. Silveira, 106. The symptomatic title of the article is "Orfeu do Carnaval, um Filme Estrangeiro."
40. Roberto Farias, "Toward a Common Market of Portuguese- and Spanish-Speaking Countries," in Randal Johnson and Robert Stam, eds., expanded ed. Brazilian Cinema (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995) [1982], 95. In a July 6, 1996 interview, Farias indicated that Europeans have always asked that same question and still do, over 35 years later. He further notes that although Black Orpheus "attended to a not very Brazilian vision . . . no one repudiates the film in a radical way."
41. Paulo César Saraceni, Por Dentro do Cinema Novo: Minha Viagem (Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1993), 45.
42. Glauber Rocha, "Orfeu: Metafísica na Favela," In Jornal do Brasil October 24, 1959, Suplemento Dominical. On Brazilian filmmakers and the movement that emerged in the years immediately following the success of Orfeu Negro, see Randal Johnson, Cinema Novo x5: Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984).
43. Glauber Rocha, "Orfeu: Metafísica na Favela," In Jornal do Brasil October 24, 1959, Suplemento Dominical. On Brazilian filmmakers and the movement that emerged in the years immediately following the success of Orfeu Negro, see Randal Johnson, Cinema Novo x5: Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984).
44. Robert Stam, Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism, and Film (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 138.
45. Caetano Veloso, "Caricature and Conqueror, Pride and Shame," New York Times, October 20, 1991, 34, 41.
46. Peter Rist and Timothy Barnard, South American Cinema: A Critical Filmography 1915-1994 (New York and London: Garland, 1996), 123.
47. "Como nasceu a super-produção Orfeu do carnaval." França Filmes, Departamento de Publicidade, no. 1. (1959), 2.
48. José Jorge de Carvalho, in a rare academic approach to the film, discussed it in 1988 at the University of Brasilia as part of activities surrounding the centenary of abolition. As a visiting Rockefeller scholar, he also introduced a screening of the film at the University of Florida, Feb. 20, 1996, with the title "Trance and Melancholy: The Afro-Brazilian Myth of Orpheus."
49. Robert Stam, Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997).
50. "Orfeo Negro (Orfeu Negro)" Review. Cine Club Fax. Archive of Cinemateca Museu de Arte Moderna, n/d [c. 1959]. 2.
51. Stam, Tropical Multiculturalism.
52. Viany, Introdução, 126.
53. F. Silva Nobre, "Concorrência do filme estrangeiro," in À Margem do Cinema Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro: Pongetti, 1963) 92-94.
54. Silveira, 107-108.
55. Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (New York: Routledge, 1994), 187.
56. Shoat and Stam cite (n. 218) Castro on this well-documented situation; see also Mello, 86.
57. Shoat and Stam cite (n. 218) Castro on this well-documented situation; see also Mello, 86.
58. Orlando Miranda, História da Música Popular Brasileira No. 24 (Vinícius de Moraes) (São Paulo: Abril Cultural, 1971), 8. For all his songs lyrics from the play and the film, see: Vinícius de Moraes, Livro de Letras (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1991). According to biographers and friends, Vinĩcius ended up considering Gordine to be dangerous and a thief. He lost faith in Camus and the film, but never campaigned against it in Brazil.
59. Thomas Cripps, Black Film as Genre (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), 48.
60. Richard Marek, "Sight and Sound" column in McCall's, vol. 87, Feb. 1960, 8.
61. Bosley Crowther, "Black Orpheus." vol. 5, The New York Times Film Reviews (New York: Arn Press, 1970), 3163-3164. (NYT Dec. 22 1959, 41:1).
62. Bosley Crowther, "Black Orpheus." vol. 5, The New York Times Film Reviews (New York: Arn Press, 1970), 3163-3164. (NYT Dec. 22 1959, 41:1).
63. The Nation, vol. 190, Jan. 16, 1960, 59-60.
64. Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha, 2nd ed. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, in press [1998]). For accounts in English of the emergence of the Bossa Nova style see Gerard Béhague, "Bossa and Bossas: Recent Changes in Brazilian Urban Popular Music," Ethnomusicology 17:2 (1973), 209-233, and Charles A. Perrone, Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song: MPB 1965-1985 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), esp. xx-xxx. Given the many questions of documentation, mythification, and function of music in the film, I have made its musical repertory the subject of a separate study.
65. Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha, 2nd ed. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, in press [1998]). For accounts in English of the emergence of the Bossa Nova style see Gerard Béhague, "Bossa and Bossas: Recent Changes in Brazilian Urban Popular Music," Ethnomusicology 17:2 (1973), 209-233, and Charles A. Perrone, Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song: MPB 1965-1985 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), esp. xx-xxx. Given the many questions of documentation, mythification, and function of music in the film, I have made its musical repertory the subject of a separate study.
66. Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha, 2nd ed. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, in press [1998]). For accounts in English of the emergence of the Bossa Nova style see Gerard Béhague, "Bossa and Bossas: Recent Changes in Brazilian Urban Popular Music," Ethnomusicology 17:2 (1973), 209-233, and Charles A. Perrone, Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song: MPB 1965-1985 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), esp. xx-xxx. Given the many questions of documentation, mythification, and function of music in the film, I have made its musical repertory the subject of a separate study.
67. Music by Luiz Bonfá. Words written by Antônio Maria were not used in the film. While a samba, the harmony and performance of the tune place it in the domain of incipient Bossa Nova as well.
68. Reasons for the lasting interest in the film are suggested in one British view: despite a lack of "intellect and aesthete" and numerous other problems, its "faults are unimportant" and "there are few films from the past as worth reviving as Black Orpheus." David Shipman, "Black Orpheus." Films and Filming No. 349 (Oct. 1983), 31-32.