Inocentes com as mãos vermelhas e a encenação da derrota de esquerda em la Chinoise (A Chinesa, 1967), de Jean-Luc Godard: um estudo de recepção e diálogos com Glauber Rocha

Abstract

In the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, Jean Luc Godard was widely known for producing films which were considered political films. The film La chinoise (The Chinese, 1967) is a movie of transition in view of the auter cinema, a cinematographic branch defended by Godard and the film-makers of the Nouvelle vague. In addition, it presents shades of a political movie. The pathway of Jean-Luc Godard towards this model of film production was not unambiguous; it followed a path through the hussar right-wing militantism. The performance as a critic and, later, as a film-maker of films inspired in the American B movies - which condensed a huge number of events and a frenetic rhythm in the characters’ actions, with some thematic and style aspects related to the film noir - resulted in characters that carry messages - “couriers” -, with the only purpose to intermediate the political messages elaborated by Godard. Godard’s route of politicization can also refer to the vicissitudes of the French cinephilia. Due to its supporters, it was force to engage in many manifestations and parades to exert its autonomy in the French cinema. The Brazilian cinema novo was equally responsible for the politicization of Jean-Luc Godard: although the interpretation of an apparent defeat of the left wing in La chinoise cannot be assigned to the movies and film-makers of the cinema novo, Godard’s “leftward shift” was indeed influenced by the Brazilian movement. At last, Glauber Rocha’s fascination for Godard relates to the anxiety of influence, a significant and creative ascendancy of Godard over the Brazilian cinema.