Cat Skin

Mystery and Hell and Reality 

"Gummo brasileiro antes de Gummo." writes Letterboxd commenter Matheus Massias in a remark on Joaquim Pedro's third film, Cat Skin [Couro de gato – (La peau du chat), 1960] a 15-minute docufiction short. Cat Skin might find its present-day equivalent in India's "untouchable" caste, such as it ever were — slum denizens living in (not among) garbage mounds. Never mind Gummo —one can find a film precedent in Louis Malle's harrowing 1969 documentary Calcutta. Cat Skin doesn't focus on trash-eating as the scavenge; rather, it shows the gathering and killing of cats so that their skin can be leathered for use as a particular samba drum-skin in anticipation of the forthcoming Carnivale. A movie that expands mental space once it's viewed and viewed again; a movie evincing the film playing beyond the film; in other words, the entering into acute reality. •

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My Writings on the Complete Joaquim Pedro de Andrade

(This 3-disc Blu-ray set was issued by Kino in 2018.)

O poeta do Castelo [The Poet of Castelo, 1959]

O mestre de Apipucos [The Master of Apipucos, 1959]

Couro de gato – (La peau du chat) [Cat Skin, 1960]

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The Master of Apipucos

Rio, Late Nineteen Fifties

The second-half of Andrade's 22-minute diptych (previously attached to the short The Poet of Castelo by the filmmaker), focuses on the esteemed Brazilian poet Manuel Bandeira; in The Master of Apipucos [O mestre de Apipucos, 1959], on Alberto Freyre, sociologist, the other half of Andrade's work comes to our attention. The episode on Alberto Freyre follows the same structure, the subject walking, talking, rumination, a small examination of the evidence for Rio de Janeiro's rich cultural life. •

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My Writings on the Complete Joaquim Pedro de Andrade

(This 3-disc Blu-ray set was issued by Kino in 2018.)

O poeta do Castelo [The Poet of Castelo, 1959]

O mestre de Apipucos [The Master of Apipucos, 1959]

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The Poet of Castelo

Andrade's First Film

The very nice first film by the Brazilian pioneer Jorge Pedro de Andrade, the 10-minute short O poeta do Castelo [1959] is practically unknown in the US. In fact, it and the following film in his body of work were part of the same project for some time, before he decided to split the diptych into two separate films, one devoted to both of the episodes.

The Poet of Castelo, a short documentary, focuses on the poet Manuel Bandeira as he strolls from his apartment to the streets of Rio below, with a voice-over in Bandeira's words which oscillates between his observations of the city life and his internal composition of a new work. •

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My Complete Writings at Cinemasparagus on the films of Jorge Pedro de Andrade:

O poeta do Castelo [The Poet of Castelo, 1959]

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Mank

 Lank

David Fincher's 2020 film Mank. 

"Thalberg! The boy genius!” // “Your Flatbush was showing.” // “Life’s never a disaster, except when the movie is.” // “Here’s to banks reopening!” // "‘Forty million Nazis can’t be wrong!’" // “What are you doing this for?” “Posterity.” “Posterity my ass.” // “And that, my friend, is the magic of the movies.” // Bad dialogue courses throughout, only to be outdone, and most embarrassingly, within the fanboy inclusion for “buffs” of the introduction of the members of the Paramount writing department. // A pastiche: the black-and-white digital, non-chemical cinematography, the faux reel-change markers (which feel like an affront) // In lieu of much mise-en-scène, Mank dunks the viewer in Old Hollywood atmosphere — comfort images. The good actors in it (Bill Nye plays Upton Sinclair) consist of Gary Oldman (Mank), Amanda Seyfried (Marion Davies), and Tom Burke (Orson Welles). The rest of the cast either can’t act, or were hardly directed. // David Fincher’s screenwriter on this film is his father Jack Fincher. The script’s the thing! It’s the fraternal-paternal connection that runs throughout the Mankiewicz dynasty; maybe their Rosebud is Welles's Citizen Kane itself. Mank ends with a News on the March-style set of newsreels that put a tidy bow on this Biopic. •