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Bel’s Gaze: Memory Without Past and Utopia Without Future in Laiz Bodansky's Chega de Saudade (2007)

Sat, May 30, 2:00 to 3:45pm, TBA

Abstract

In a hot evening at the Gafieira, an old-time dance hall in Sao Paulo, a series of characters remember the past, wonder about the future and dance in an ever-escaping adolescent present, a seemingly choreographed Cartesian sublime. Among the characters in Chega de saudade (dir. Laíz Bodansky, 2007), there is Bel, the sound technician’s girlfriend, a teenage girl whose gaze appears to coalesce and disjoint images of memory and utopia: a nostalgic past threatened by Alzheimer’s and an idealized future shattered by old-age disease. Dubbed by film critics as a bitter tribute to old Brazilian actors and new soap characters, this film presents an opportunity to explore notions of dictatorial trauma and broken promises for democratization and global success within the ethnic mosaic of modern Brazil. Bel’s gaze is full of teenage joy: a memory without a past and a utopia without a future.

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