Between a Cow and a Truck: Transformation in Mazzaropi’s First Films

Abstract

This chapter studies the world of Mazzaropi’s first films, in which he appears as the protagonist, but does not participate in the writing, direction, or production. What connects these films is the fact that they concentrate on the travails of a main character caught between two opposing realities, variously characterized either as the animal and mechanical worlds or as the rural and urban worlds, and, in some cases, even the male and female worlds. Each one of these realities demands different things of the protagonist, who is usually uneducated and unprepared. I will consider, for the purposes of this study, that the films that constitute Mazzaropi’s first phase are those he starred in before 1958. The first three, Sai da frente (Get Out of the Way, 1952), Nadando em dinheiro (Swimming in Money, 1952), and Candinho (Little Candide, 1953), were produced by the Companhia Cinematogrãfica Vera Cruz.’ In 1945 he appeared both in O gato de madame, produced and distributed by the Companhia Cinematogrãfica Brasil Filmes Ltda,² and in A carrocinha, produced and distributed by Fama Filmes. The next three films, Fuzileiro do amor (1956), O noivo dagirafa (1957), and Chico fumafa (1958), were produced and distributed by Cinedistri. Even though all these films have different scriptwriters, directors, and producers, they are an important source for the understanding of Mazzaropi’s later work: they provided the opportunity for Mazzaropi both to learn the art of filmmaking and to experiment with the types and language he used later in the films he wrote, directed, and produced.

The movies are a world, a country of familiar faces, a mythology made up of a limited number of stories.

—Michael Wood, America in the Movies

Antes de mais nada, o cinema é uma atividade cultural, que no mundo contemporãneo tornou-se importantissima para a própria identidade de uma nação.

(Before anything else, cinema is a cultural activity that, in the contemporary world, has become extremely important for the identity of a nation.)

—Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Cinema Brasileiro