Cinemasparagus: Macunaíma

Follow the Tracks — Sic Transit

In 1969, Macunaíma initiated a new, final, "middle-to-late" period for Joaquim Pedro de Andrade — the films' political subversion stitched loud on their baba-cool sleeves and hems. In the frame posted above, Macunaíma drops from his mother's womb like a... how to put it... 'an adult foal'? Three times throughout the course of the film Macunaíma will be incarnated in different forms, the ink-ling's parallel path through a pathway of political readjustment in the modern flux of Brazilian society. As already mentioned, the picture is an entry into the "politically subversive" movie of the late-'60s —a trend grandfathered in by Godard's 1967 La chinoise and Weekend — replete with a wild beautiful color palette, a dubbed audio track, bright Klieg éclairage, 'tableaux' compositions, and the plausibility of cannibalism metaphorical and literal.

Consonant with that last aspect, Macunaíma further exemplifies the era's political strain countered by surrealism. When springtime hits 'the hero,' Macunaíma turns white and takes more immediate and tangible control of the anarcho-disruptive cell to which he belongs. This 'Brazil of the imagination,' full-flow tropicalia, remains to this day Joaquim Pedro's most popular film; its US Blu-ray release from Kino initially appeared as a standalone disc; shortly thereafter, they released a 3-Blu set that includes Macunaíma along with the rest of his entire body of work. Why buy one film, when for slightly more dollars you can have the complete works? •