O Cinema Falado (1986)
By Caetano Veloso
"O Cinema Falado" (could be translated as "Talking Cinema", a VERY appropriate title) is an experimental, personal, unconventional film that belongs to the lineage of late-60s' Brazilian Underground Movement ("Cinema Marginal"). It's a collage of scenes of people talking (long -- I mean ENDLESSLY long -- dialogs and monologues), dancing, reading, singing, partying. There's no plot, continuity, fictional characters; it's not a documentary either. It's more like film clips of random personal notes. As expected, its interest varies wildly depending on each individual sequence, so it's alternately poetic, naturalistic, surrealistic, premeditated, improvised, scholarly, pop, sophisticated, boring, amateurish, accomplished, pretentious, naive, pedantic, silly – but always hugely ambitious. "O Cinema Falado" is the only feature film directed by outstanding Brazilian singer/ songwriter Caetano Veloso, who also produced and wrote some of the texts that are spoken/read in the film (along with excerpts by Thomas Mann, Gertrude Stein, Heidegger, Guimarães Rosa etc). The film is Caetano's long-nurtured dream, and he combines his cinephilia (he worked briefly as a film critic in his early twe…
Watch O Cinema Falado on Fast Ubu