Coronel Delmiro Gouveia, Brazilian (Film) Industry, and World War I in the Sertão

John Maddox

doi:10.25222/larr.251

Abstract

In the film Coronel Delmiro Gouveia (1978), Brazilian director Geraldo Sarno uses historical fiction about “the coronel of coronéis” to negotiate the limits of government censorship and discuss the domestic and international policies of the military dictatorship, including its relationship to the state cinema enterprise Embrafilme, through a portrayal of a progressive but authoritarian businessman of the sertão who died in Brazil’s first global war of the twentieth century. The film is one of the few Brazilian films about the country’s oft-overlooked role in World War I. Close analysis of the work reveals Sarno’s deft use of allegory for social commentary on class conflict and the film industry.

Highlights

Under Valenti’s non-Brazilian shoes the red carpets of hospitality will roll and no one will see the cinematic crimes in the air nor the remains of our poor dead minds, no one will see the wounds since there will be no corpse —Arnaldo Jabor, “Jack Valenti’s Brazilian Agenda” ([1977] 1988)
Jabor’s expression of disgust with US imperialism—cultural, political, and economic—illustrates the environment that helped create one of the few Brazilian films about the country’s oft-overlooked role in World War I (1914–1918), which is being commemorated on its centenary
Bahia, 1938) uses historical fiction about Gouveia to negotiate the limits of government censorship and discuss the domestic and international policies of the 1964–1985 military dictatorship, including its relationship to the state cinema enterprise Embrafilme (1969–1993), through a portrayal of a progressive but authoritarian businessman of the sertão who died in Brazil’s first global war of the twentieth century

Summary

Introduction

Under Valenti’s non-Brazilian shoes the red carpets of hospitality will roll and no one will see the cinematic crimes in the air nor the remains of our poor dead minds, no one will see the wounds since there will be no corpse —Arnaldo Jabor, “Jack Valenti’s Brazilian Agenda” ([1977] 1988). Like Gouveia, Hirszman’s film was produced and distributed by Embrafilme in 1973, though the government had censored it in 1972, representing the paradoxes of state support and

Results

Conclusion