Saw Antonio das Mortes, the sequel to Black God, White Devil. This film follows a bounty hunter, Antonio, who comes out of retirement to kill his last bandit, the legendary Lampião (a real person in Brazilian history.) In the opening text crawl we are told that Antonio is similar to St George who slew a dragon. We are told up-front that Antonio is going to kill the dragon of evil. Lampião then would seem to be this dragon, but when Antonio confronts Lampião, Lampião reminds him that he is merely the lap-dog of the landlords and the bourgeoise. It is they who are the dragon and Antonio is their servant.
The film indulges in a lot of 1960s art-house stuff. We get slow pans and grimy film-stock. Scenes of crowds chanting or men fighting seem to stretch on forever, reels of film unspooling while nothing happens. We are given plenty of time to sit and meditate over the film, but I could have done with something a little punchier (such is my weakness.)
There's an interesting use of seeming anachronism. When we first see Lampião, he seems to be surrounded by a mob of medieval peasants. We see men in button-up shirts wandering around however and realize that this is some kind of performance or festival or something. The effect is sort of like watching a parade: somehow both tawdry and grand at the same time. Our St George stand-in, Antonio, looks somewhat medieval as well, standing in his thick wool cloak, his machete sheathed by his hip. You can imagine him as a knight, conversing with the bar maid.
I remember seeing an interview with Terry Gilliam where he described how much he admired Antonio Fellini until he went to Italy himself. He had thought that Fellini had such a wonderful imagination until he discovered that no, Italy is just like that. This film reminds me of the work of Jodorowsky: strange and obscure, but I also got the feeling that, like Italy, Brazil is just like that in some way. A strange film.
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