The moment in Brazilian cinema is impressive.
Last year, the film “I’m Still Here”, directed by Walter Salles, won the Oscar for best international film, an unprecedented feat for the country, and Fernanda Torres won the Golden Globe for best actress in a dramatic film.
This year, eyes are on “The Secret Agent”. Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, at the Golden Globes the film was chosen as best foreign film, and Wagner Moura received the statuette in the “best actor in a dramatic film” category.
It should be noted that, in common, the two works are set during the period of the dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985), with the military regime as a backdrop.
Somehow, the theme (which is of extreme historical importance) became attractive to film academics, especially to those who nominate major awards in the industry and to those who vote and define the winners.
Add a quality plot and consistent performances, especially from the protagonist, combined with effective marketing and publicity, and you arrive at a successful formula.
In this context of celebrating our cinema, I asked myself about films that have football, the “national passion”, as a theme. Has anyone won any first class honors?
No. Never. He didn’t even compete.
Perhaps the highest point reached by a Brazilian football film in terms of international recognition was the screening of “Garrincha, Alegria do Povo” (1962), at the Berlin Festival (Berlinare), in 1963, one of the main ones in the world and which won the Golden Bear and the Silver Bear.
In text in this Sheet 15 years ago, critic Inácio Araujo wrote that filmmaker Joaquim Pedro de Andrade’s film “is the best documentary (perhaps the best film) about football made in Brazil (perhaps in the world)”.
“Alegria do Povo”, stereotyped abroad, translated as “Hero of the Jungle”, is considered a landmark of Cinema Novo and a masterpiece of national cinema – not by me, as I wasn’t satisfied, which shows how little I understand about what is written.
Brazil has produced other notable films about/with football, documentaries or fiction, among which can be listed “Asa Branca” (1981), “Boleiros” (1998), which I saw and recommend, “Pelé Eterno” (2004), “Ginga” (2005) and “Campo de Jogo” (2015), filled with popular passion, elevated aesthetics and football culture, but without the demands that the academy preaches for football players. super prizes.
They lack one or more ingredients among those considered essential: strong dramatic arc (physical and emotional trajectory of a character), conflict, transformation (growth or decay), climax and outcome.
So rooted in Brazilian daily life, football becomes a challenge for filmmakers of the old and new generations.
Will someone one day be able to conceive an ingenious narrative that will reach international critics to the point of winning a statuette from the ludopedia?
Extremely difficult and unlikely, especially because it is not only in Brazil that football films do not reach undisputed glory in the film industry.
At the top of the list, Oscar winners for best film, with a link to sport, are only the legendary “Rocky” (1977, boxing) and “Chariots of Fire” (1982, Olympic Games/athletics), plus “Golden Girl” (2005, boxing).
All human dramas, two fictional, one based on real events (“Chariots of Fire”). All footage. All without a single football.
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