{"id":84,"date":"2020-05-14T13:55:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T16:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/?page_id=84"},"modified":"2022-08-31T10:40:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T13:40:22","slug":"limite-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/en\/limite-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Limite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last decades,\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0has left its mark on the cultural history, not only of Brazil. One may think of the now somewhat overcome polemics by filmmaker Glauber Rocha in the 1960s, rejecting\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0and favoring\u00a0Ganga Bruta\u00a0<\/strong>(1933) by Humberto Mauro (see article below). More recently we find a sequence of Peixoto in\u00a0O cinema falado<\/strong>\u00a0(1986), the only film by Caetano Veloso. Singer\/songwriter Adriana Calcanhoto projects scenes from\u00a0Limite\u00a0<\/strong>during the song\u00a0O Mocho e a Gatinha<\/em>\u00a0on her DVD\u00a0Adriana Partimpim<\/em>\u00a0(2004). David Bowie chooses\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0as the only Brazilian film among his ten favorites from Latin America for the\u00a0HIGH LINE FESTIVAL<\/strong>\u00a0in 2007. In May 2007 a new restored version of\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0is screened at the\u00a0Cannes Film Festival\u00a0<\/strong>and was one of the\u00a0<\/strong>selected films from the\u00a0World Cinema Foundation<\/strong>. An idea of Martin Scorsese, some film-makers have decided to put together, within the\u00a0World Cinema Foundation<\/strong>,<\/em>\u00a0a non-profit organisation whose aim is to provide financial assistance for the preservation, restoration and broadcasting of films from all over the world, in particular the cinema of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Central Europe.\u00a0Here<\/a><\/strong><\/u>\u00a0a dossier on\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0elaborated by\u00a0ZZ Productions<\/strong>, Paris for this event. For an article on\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0in the context of Brazilian cinema, please use\u00a0this<\/a><\/u>\u00a0<\/strong>link.<\/p>\n

Recently, the film has been restored by the\u00a0Cinemateca Brasileira<\/i>\u00a0and the new version was presented in November 2011 at the Auditorium Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, at the ocasion\u00a0with a new soundtrack, composed by the Norwegian musician Bugge Wesseltoft. The musician came to Brazil to perform a live session accompanying the screening with fellow Norwegian Hello Kvernberg (violin) and\u00a0Rodolfo Stroeter (bass), Nana Vasconcelos (percussion) and Miranda Marlui (flute and vocal) from Brazil. An excerpt can be seen on\u00a0youtube<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the end of 2013 the\u00a0Cinemateca<\/i><\/b>\u00a0released a DVD\u00a0edition of\u00a0Limite<\/i><\/b>\u00a0as part of the second volume\u00a0of its jornal\u00a0Revista da Cinemateca Brasileira. <\/b>Also the Criterion Collection\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>launched a DVD\/Blue-Ray\u00a0version of the film.<\/p>\n

For movie orders and legal issues, please contact the\u00a0Centro T\u00e9cnico Audiovisual \u2013 CTAv\/SAV\/MinC<\/strong><\/a><\/i><\/b>.<\/p>\n

Exerpts of the\u00a0(so far) unreleased documentary film on Peixoto called\u00a0O mar de M\u00e1rio<\/i>\u00a0by Reginado Gontijo\u00a0and Luiz Fernando Suffiati\u00a0 can be found\u00a0here<\/i><\/b><\/a>. I would also like to mention the academic and artistic wok of Lola Mart\u00ednez who showed in her doctoral thesis\u00a0<\/b>interfaces between her artistic work and Limite<\/strong>, published the\u00a0article<\/strong><\/a> Una estrategia visual\u00a0<\/em>de resistencia frente al\u00a0paradigma contempor\u00e1neo\u00a0de la ilimitaci\u00f3n <\/em>and whose photographs<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0clearly show an aesthetic that meets that of Limite<\/strong>, even if not knowing the film at the time.<\/p>\n

Next a short historical look at the unique film of M\u00e1rio Peixoto.<\/p>\n

1<\/strong>.
\nSpeaking of more experimental movies in Brazil or such films made by Brazilian directors in the 20s and 30s, one can name basically three productions: first,\u00a0Rien\u00a0<\/strong>Que<\/strong>\u00a0Les Heures<\/strong> (1926), filmed in Paris by Alberto Cavalcanti (1897\u20131982), who would later work for the Paramount Studios and with John Griersonus in Great-Britain before going back to Brazil; and second:\u00a0<\/strong>S\u00e3o<\/strong>\u00a0Paulo-\u00a0<\/strong>Sinfonia<\/strong>\u00a0da\u00a0<\/strong>metr\u00f3pole<\/strong>\u00a0(1929),<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Movie poster, 1929<\/strong><\/p>\n

directed by Rodolfo Lustig and Adalberto Kemeny, a film obviously inspired by Ruttmann\u2019s\u00a0Berlin Symphony<\/strong>\u00a0of 1927. And finally we have\u00a0Limite<\/strong>, filmed in 1930 and first exhibited in 1931, directed and written by M\u00e1rio Peixoto which has over the years become a quite legendary cult movie and has been voted several times as one of the best Brazilian movies ever made.<\/p>\n

Even though English-speaking critics have frequently translated the title as \u201cboundary\u201d, I would like to keep the term Limite<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0Limit<\/strong> since, in my view, it does have a certain programmatic quality. First, I would like to point out the iconic quality of the \u201cI\u201d as a structural conception that characterizes the permanent visual lines throughout the film, as in wires, roads, bare trees, branches and plants, stakes and posts, roofs, walls, grades, bars, fences, legs or even stockings-ladders. And it is not by chance that after the opening sequence \u2013 exploring a more fluid, amorphous state \u2013 the camera focuses on the boat plank as the initial line which will then lead us down the first memory lane. These visual lines, at times running out into the open and at others forming limited spaces such as triangles or crosses, therefore serve as a band, a connecting string for the different flashes of the past as well as indicating their limitations, giving the whole movie a very geometrical structure, counterbalanced by moving details such as wheels, handles and of course the movements of the camera itself. Secondly,\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0may be seen as on the historical limit between silent movies and talkies, a movie with a certain ambition to summon up many of the esthetic and technical possibilities developed in the 10s and 20s. From a retrospective point of view, one may link the repetition of camera shots or the close-up of details to Man Ray, find the same music score by Satie in\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0as in Man Rays\u00a0Les Myst\u00e8res du Ch\u00e2teau des D\u00e9s<\/strong>\u00a0(1928), a very rhythm oriented structure as for instance in Vertov\u2018s\u00a0Man with a movie camera<\/strong>\u00a0(1929) or in the\u00a0Berlin Symphony<\/strong>\u00a0(1927) even though of a different quality and speed, as well as the very spare use of intertitles as in Murnau\u2019s\u00a0The Last Laugh<\/strong>\u00a0(1924). The boat scenes in\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0might evoke parallels to Murnau\u2019s\u00a0Sunrise<\/strong>\u00a0(1927) and the shouting scenes in both also bare some similarities. The moving fields and plants we may find on\u00a0Earth<\/strong>\u00a0(1930) by Alexander Dovzhenko and of course one should mention an enormous variation of camera movements and angles as an exploration of the\u00a0medium<\/em>\u00a0film itself.<\/p>\n

Limite<\/strong>\u00a0can therefore be seen as an effort to explore the visual possibilities, the experimental techniques and the rhythmic variations of the filmic\u00a0medium<\/em>\u00a0in the context of a sometimes melancholic and sometimes somewhat aggressive statement about the limitation and the futility of human existence. And finally we have to mention the technical limitations of a film made without a professional backup structure, a one-man enterprise financed by the director\/writer himself. It was above all cameraman Edgar Brazil\u2019s brilliance that enabled the director to realize the effects he envisioned.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Edgar Brazil was born in Hamburg\/Germany as Edgar Hauschild and of similar importance in Brazil as Karl Freund was, for instance, in Germany. He also worked with Humberto Mauro and Adhemar Gonzaga, two other important directors of that time and built the special equipment Peixoto required for his elaborate movements of the camera, such as a wooden crane activated by ropes enabling a vertical camera shift or a litter carried by four porters used to follow the steps of a couple on the beach.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Shooting of Limite: 1930<\/strong><\/p>\n

2<\/strong>.
\nWhen M\u00e1rio Peixoto returned from Europe in October 1929, he offered his hand-written scenario to director friends Gonzaga and Mauro. But both declined. They advised him to make the film himself and to hire cameraman Edgar Brazil who would have the necessary experience to guarantee the realization of the project. Shooting began in mid 1930, in the city of Mangaratiba, Rio de Janeiro, where today the\u00a0Funda\u00e7\u00e3o M\u00e1rio Peixoto<\/b>\u00a0mantains a museum dedicated to the director. Peixoto used\u00a0– for the first time in Brazil – panchromatic film material with a high sensitivity for grey scales. Stills from\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0were soon distributed and, in an effort to raise the public expectation, they were occasionally presented as photos from a new Pudovkin movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Still from Limite: 1930<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first screening took place on May 17th 1931 in the\u00a0Cinema<\/strong>\u00a0Capit\u00f3lio<\/strong>\u00a0in Rio de Janeiro,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

a session organized by the\u00a0Chaplin Club<\/strong>, which announced\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0as the first Brazilian film of pure cinema. It received favorable reviews from the critics who saw the film as an original Brazilian avant-garde production, but never made it into commercial circuits and over the years was screened only sporadically, as in 1942 when a special session was arranged for Orson Welles who was in South America for the shooting of his unfinished\u00a0It\u2019 s all true<\/strong>\u00a0and for Maria Falconetti, lead actress of Dreyer\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of Joan of Arc<\/strong>\u00a0(1928). Due to various facts,\u00a0Limite<\/strong>, sometimes referred to as the \u201cunknown masterpiece\u201d – an expression derived from Georges Sadoul who in 1960 had made an unsuccessful trip to Rio de Janeiro just to see the film – along with M\u00e1rio Peixoto, became quite legendary subjects.<\/p>\n

Soon after the first screening in Rio,\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0was shown on several occasions in Europe, in Paris as well as at the\u00a0Marble Arch<\/strong>\u00a0cinema in London where it is said to have attracted Sergei Eisenstein\u2019s interest and an article written by him entitled\u00a0A movie from\u00a0<\/strong>South America<\/strong>, supposedly published in 1931 in the\u00a0The Tatler\u00a0<\/strong>Magazine<\/strong>. This article has frequently been quoted as proof for the international recognition and reputation of\u00a0Limite<\/strong>, as in the program of the\u00a0Berliner Filmfestspiele<\/strong>\u00a0in 1981 or as recently as in 2004 when\u00a0At the edge of the earth<\/strong>, the documentary about M\u00e1rio Peixoto, was presented in several European movie theaters. In the 40s and 50s, M\u00e1rio himself had often mentioned the Eisenstein text but never came up with the article itself. When trying to get financing for one of his projects \u2013 a movie called\u00a0The soul according to Salustre<\/strong>, in 1964 -, he was told by Plinio S\u00fcssekind, a friend, that the article would be very helpful to raise funds. Two weeks later M\u00e1rio presented a hand written text in Portuguese, which was actually published in 1965 by filmmaker Carlos Diegues in his cinema-column of the Brazilian magazine\u00a0Arquitectura<\/strong>, vol. 38. Peixoto himself first said he had translated this text from a French version of the original English article and later on claimed that cameraman Edgar Brazil had translated it from German into Portuguese, but, according to Saulo Pereira de Mello, finally admitted to having written it himself. The article was then republished by Mello (2000) as a text written by M\u00e1rio Peixoto.<\/p>\n

A second item to mention is the vanishing of\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0in the 60s and 70s. In 1959, the nitrate film began to deteriorate and Plinio S\u00fcssekind and Saulo Pereira de Mello started a frame-by-frame restoration. Without previous technical experience, they used procedures from specialized books.\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0only returned to festivals and screenings in 1978. Even though nobody could see the movie between 1959 and 1978 \u2013 as in the case of Georges Sadoul and his unsuccessful trip to Rio de Janeiro in 1960 – it still served as a reference for controversial discussions and statements while others even doubted that the film really existed. Glauber Rocha, leading figure of the new cinema, the\u00a0cinema novo<\/em>, classified in 1963 the director as \u201cfar from reality and history\u201d (59) and the unseen movie as \u201cunable to comprehend the contradictions of bourgeois society\u201d (66), a \u201ccontradiction historically overcome\u201d (67) and confirmed his judgment of\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0as a product of the intellectual decadent bourgeoisie again in 1978 after finally having seen it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/strong>.
\nFor a theoretical approach on\u00a0Limite<\/strong>, one may think of\u00a0fluidity<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0continuity<\/em>\u00a0as two central terms, not so much in regard to the structural concept which is based on visual and rhythmic variations and not continuation as the main filmic principle, but in regard to the underlying philosophical ambition: the oscillation between a fluid memory stream and solid, concrete objects and episodes, which emerge as fixed points in the continuity of time. This proposal is quite clearly formulated in the article by Peixoto\u00a0A movie from\u00a0<\/strong>South America<\/strong>\u00a0– formerly attributed to Eisenstein – which I understand as one of his few theoretical statements. Here, Peixoto first emphasizes the role of the \u201ccamera-brain\u201d and the \u201cinstinctive rhythmic film-structure\u201d of\u00a0Limite<\/strong>, and then defines the film as somewhere between a singular, outstanding work of art and a completely anonymous item, \u201cunidentifiable in the inexpressive crowds\u201d and which\u2019s \u201cpoetic evasion is built on a vigorous plan of adaptation to the real\u201d (Mello 2000: 85).
\nFor Peixoto, the experience offered by\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0cannot be adequately captured by language, but was made to be felt. Therefore, the spectator should subjugate himself to the images as to \u201canguished cords of a synthetic and pure language of cinema\u201d (88). According to the director, his film is \u201cmeticulously precise as invisible wheels of a clock\u201d, where long shots are surrounded and linked by shorter ones as in a \u201cplanetary system\u201d (88). Peixoto characterizes\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0as a \u201cdesperate scream\u201d aiming for resonance instead of comprehension. \u201cThe movie does not want to analyze. It shows. It projects itself as a tuning fork, a pitch, a resonance of time itself\u201d (88), capturing the flow between past and present, object details and contingence as if it had always \u201cexisted in the living and in the inanimate\u201d, or detaching itself tacitly from them. Since\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0is more of a state than an analysis, characters and narrative lines emerge, followed by a probing camera exploring angels, details, possibilities of access and fixation, only then to fade out back into the unknown, a visual stream with certain densifications or illustrations within the continues flow of time. According to Peixoto, all these poetic transpositions find \u201cdespair and impossibilities\u201d; a \u201cluminous pain\u201d which unfolds in rhythm and coordinates the \u201cimages of rare precision and structure\u201d (91). The oscillation between the fluid and the solid, the outstanding and the unidentifiable, the concrete object and the abstraction is a basic principle not only for this film but also for his literary work.
\nIf we follow these outlines, we may see Limite as a film with a clear, elaborate and recognizable concept, maybe difficult to identify at first sight but emerging fuller at each screening one assists. This may explain Peixoto\u2019s dislike for surrealistic movies, specifically those of Bu\u00f1uel and the rejection of chance as an artistic principle as we find in Man Ray or Dada.<\/p>\n

Limite<\/strong>\u00a0starts off with the image of a woman embraced by a man in handcuffs, a prototype image<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

to be varied and diversified throughout the film. The proto-image in the beginning, based on the photography he saw in Paris in 1929, introducing the\u00a0leitmotiv<\/em>\u00a0of imprisonment, of being trapped, gives way to a long, almost hypnotic boat scene that is to transport us into the\u00a0continuum<\/em>\u00a0of time, a rather fluid amorphous state where the camera-brain then moves into the past, tracing certain memory lines, episodes and associated details, objects, movements and images, visual flashes of limitation, that reflect themselves in other images and thus escape a fixed, limited and solid status, only to disappear or fade out without further explanation. The wrecking in the storm then leads us back to the original proto-image, the initial theme, now extended and enriched by the visual and rhythmic variations we experienced.<\/p>\n

Let me finish this short introduction with a comment on the soundtrack: Peixoto\u2019s original plan to underline his film with natural noise as wind, rustling leaves or breaking waves was abandoned due to technical difficulties and substituted by a record-soundtrack chosen by Brutus Pedreira, who played the pianist in\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0and had actually been a musician in real life. The chosen musical themes \u2013among others, from Satie, Debussy, Borodin, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Cesar Franck – were then played on two alternating record players during the screening, frequently operated by Peixoto and Pedreira themselves. Due to this procedure, in later exhibitions, the film had been frequently shown without any musical accompany and only with the editing of the video, images and music have been definitely integrated. Knowing Peixoto\u2019s obsession with details concerning his film, arranging even the plants to bow in a certain angle, one may look at the relation between sound and picture of\u00a0Limite<\/strong>\u00a0as a elaborated, frequently contrapuntal conception, an intentional rhythmic discrepancy where sound and image often diverge, opening a third temporal and resonant dimension between the actual scene and a potential, wider space beyond the limitations imposed by the \u201cframed\u201d vision and the sequentially of film itself.<\/p>\n

Limite<\/strong>
\nA film by M\u00e1rio Peixoto<\/p>\n

Brazil, 1931. 115 min. Music from Satie, Debussy, Borodin, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Cesar Franck.
\nScenario and direction: M\u00e1rio Peixoto. Director of photography: Edgar Brazil. Cast : Taciana Rei , Olga Breno, Raul Schnoor, Brutus Pedreira , Carmen Santos , M\u00e1rio Peixoto.<\/p>\n

A translation of the intertitles<\/strong>\u00a0:<\/p>\n

1. Journal headlines<\/strong>:
\nEscape from prison. The prison guard\u2019s complicity.<\/p>\n

2. Comment<\/strong>:
\nThis intertitle corresponds to a lost part of the film where man number 1 helps woman number 2.<\/p>\n

3. Graveyard: Man on the left<\/strong>\u00a0(M\u00e1rio Peixoto):
\nYou come from the house of a woman, who is not yours,
\nsupposing she is mine, just like this one here was yours.
\nAnd if I told you that she is leprous?<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n

Farias, Otavio<\/strong>
\n1929\u00a0Eu creio na imagem<\/strong>. In: O fan, vol. 6. Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

Mello, Saulo Pereira de<\/strong>
\n2000\u00a0M\u00e1rio Peixoto – Escritos sobre cinema<\/strong>. Rio de Janeiro: aeroplano.<\/p>\n

Peixoto, M\u00e1rio<\/strong>
\n1984\u00a0O in\u00fatil de cada um<\/strong>. Rio de Janeiro: Record.<\/p>\n

Peixoto, M\u00e1rio<\/strong>
\n1996\u00a0Limite. “scenario” original<\/strong>. Rio de Janeiro: Sette Letras.<\/p>\n

Rocha, Glauber<\/strong>
\n2001\u00a0Revis\u00e3o Cr\u00edtica do Cinema Brasileiro.<\/strong>\u00a0S\u00e3o Paulo: Cosac & Naify.<\/p>\n

Schobert, Walter<\/strong>
\n1989\u00a0Der Avant-Garde Film der 20er Jahre<\/strong>. M\u00fcnchen: Goethe-Institut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last decades,\u00a0Limite\u00a0has left its mark on the cultural history, not only of Brazil. One may think of the now somewhat overcome polemics by filmmaker Glauber Rocha in the 1960s, rejecting\u00a0Limite\u00a0and favoring\u00a0Ganga Bruta\u00a0(1933) by Humberto Mauro (see article below). More recently we find a sequence of Peixoto in\u00a0O cinema falado\u00a0(1986), the only film by … Continue reading Limite<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/84\/revisions\/423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/mariopeixoto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}