O ator-em-ato: a dialética ator/personagem em Copacabana mon amour

Abstract

This work is a case study that aims to investigate the process of construction of the characters in the film Copacabana mon amour (Rogério Sganzerla, 1970), using three methodological axes as tools:1) Film analysis; 2) Investigation of the visible marks of the filming process in the context of the independent production of the short-lived Belair production company; 3) An initial mapping of some theoretical, thematic and aesthetic influences that shaped the composition of the characters. Among these influences, the thinking of Frantz Fanon, the “notions of modern cinema”, systematized by the critic, researcher and filmmaker Rogério Sganzerla, in particular the concepts “passage to the relative”, “cynical camera” and “actor/character dialectic”. The construction of the characters in Copacabana mon amour can be understood as a hybrid result of Rogério Sganzerla's directing style, the filming process, and the actors' acting style. This style of acting by actors is marked by the actor/character dialectic, which suggests in the process of constructing the character a work of dramaturgy by the actor himself. This investigation into the actor's dramaturgy leads to the proposition of the actor-in-act concept, to translate a certain style of acting in which the film actor has creative autonomy to construct the character during filming, despite any limitations that the filmmaking process may impose. Furthermore, in the use of the “cynical camera”, we can observe a denial of the unveiling of the characters’ interior and the choice to investigate the visual and apparent aspects recorded by the cinematographic camera, which makes the “psychology of the characters” closer to the “psychology of the actor”. To understand the type of interaction between dramatic actors, crew and technological objects necessary for making films, this dissertation uses the contribution of Actor-Network Theory or Sociology of Translation.