A recente história política brasileira entre a comédia e a tragédia nos filmes Jânio a 24 Quadros (1981, de Luís Alberto Pereira) e Jango (1984, de Sílvio Tendler)

Abstract

The present work deals with the relationship between Documentary Cinema and the History of Brazil, based on the analysis of the motion pictures Jânio a 24 Quadros (Luís Alberto Pereira, 1981) and Jango (Sílvio Tendler, 1984). Both documentaries deal with recent Brazilian Political History, whose main themes are the brief democratic experience of the 1950s, the trajectories of such figures as Jânio Quadros and João Goulart, the context of political and economic crisis that culminated in the 1964 coup d’état and the military dictatorship in Brazil. This study is not only concerned with the content present in the two cinematographic works, but it also seeks to contemplate on the formal/aesthetic aspects of both films. In addition to understanding how Jânio a 24 Quadros and Jango relate to the historical context in which they were produced, that is, the question about the historicity of the works, this work seeks to analyze how Luís Alberto Pereira’s documentary and Silvio Tendler’s interpret the facts and the actions of the historical characters that marked the recent Political History of the country. An examination of the aesthetic options made by the filmmakers in each of the films reveals that if in Jânio a 24 Quadros the story takes an ironic and comical approach, in Jango the story is told in a more serious and tragic way. The presence of comedy and tragedy in the films is not careless but an indication of how varied the ways of writing History and portraying historical characters may be, depending on the context of narrative production and the storyteller's political-ideological positions. In analyzing how the recent Political History of Brazil and some of its main characters appear on the movie screen, this study seeks to understand how certain versions of History can be told and spread socially. This work, therefore, intends to contribute to the whole discussion around not only the “writing of History” in a broader sense, but also the “film writing of History” in particular.