Pictures of Ghosts (2023) Movie Script
1
PICTURES OF GHOSTS
This photograph by Alcir Lacerda
is from the late '60s.
It shows the Boa Viagem Church square,
South side of Recife.
This is the Boa Viagem Hotel,
a landmark
until it was torn down in the 2000s.
The Boa Viagem Hotel can be seen
in these images...
With Janet Leigh
and her daughters
on a trip to Recife
in the early '60s.
The square has changed a lot.
In the '70s, my small family came
to live in this seaside area.
About 250 meters from the beach.
Right here.
On what used to be mangrove.
PART ONE
THE SETBAL APARTMENApartment 102.
The Pioneiro building,
Number 207
on Jos Moreira Leal Street
in the neighborhood of Setbal,
in Recife.
The 1972 building
has only one floor.
No stilts.
The building is both solid and discreet.
The apartment's on the top floor,
to the back, away from the street,
where it's quieter.
The apartment
has three bedrooms,
one en suite,
a living room,
a guest bathroom,
and a kitchen/dining area.
The apartment used to
have a maid's room
which my mother, Joselice,
turned into a study
by knocking down a wall.
Later, it became a room
for watching films.
I was ten when we came
to live in this place,
which my mother financed
through a public bank in 1979.
This new house meant
a new beginning for my mother
after her separation
from my father, Kleber.
Joselice, my mother,
was a historian.
She studied the abolitionists
Joaquim Nabuco and Andr Rebouas
in 19th century Brazil.
At the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation
where she worked,
friends joked that she cheated
on Nabuco with Rebouas,
whose framed portrait
she had on a wall at home.
Joselice used to say that joke
packed a lot of Brazil in it.
Years after her death,
I got this tape
from a colleague of hers at the
Joaquim Nabuco Foundation.
One hell of a gift.
It's an interview
aired on Globo TV in 1981
in which she talks about
oral history.
Joselice, tell us about how oral history
will shape your new research.
Through oral history, we collect information
thats been left out of history.
We seek to evaluate the subject's life--
a part, shall we say,
somewhat autobiographical,
then we move on to verify
and collect the data
from that person.
It may seem like
I'm discussing methodology,
but I'm talking about love.
Today, when I remember my mother
and this apartment,
I understand this place
was radically altered by her.
Twice.
The first time was
at the end of the '80s
and I think there was a sense
of euphoria and uncertainty.
That's me with my mother,
near our home,
during the 1989 elections.
We voted together
once more in 1994,
one year before she died,
aged 54.
When Joselice fell ill in 1992,
I saw she had in this apartment
an extension of her own strength.
And that's when Joselice
renovated this place a second time.
It's as if the apartment
had turned into a house,
as if it had undergone surgery--
an aggressive but healing surgery.
Joselice assigned to
my brother Mcio,
at the time a 20-year-old
architecture student,
the mission of changing our house.
This was the first project
he ever designed.
A fine piece of work, with at least
one youthful reference to Oscar Niemeyer.
In the 2000s,
this place changed once more.
Over all these years,
I learned how time changes places.
What a great picture!
Martin and Toms,
right here.
Here, Toms!
Wow, that's a good picture!
Look.
Lemme see.
One way or another,
I lived in this place for 40 years.
OK?
Rolling.
Cut!
This apartment is also where
I began making films.
I thought that was good!
- Little less jumpy, huh?
- Yeah.
Im ready, Kleber.
I must have made
between 10 and 13 films.
The beach symbolizes paradise,
I think.
The focus on this camera is
nonexistent, Kleber.
Whenever youre ready.
That's good.
The rug's gone...
It's been shot from every angle...
In every room...
Over...
20 years, I'd say.
Some people would watch
these films and ask:
"Whats with that street,
in Setbal, in that apartment?"
Sidclay, wake up!
Its where I lived.
Thats the answer.
Joselice encouraged me
to make my own films
whichever way I could.
It was our house--
it was right there.
For posterity...
Neighbors acted as extras.
They seemed to enjoy it, I think.
Cut!
We also shot in our
next door neighbor's apartment,
It was good to turn the house
into a crowded, workshop
or studio.
I had told Pedro Sotero
and Fabrcio Tadeu,
the cinematographers for
Neighboring Sounds,
that I wanted to shoot the street
at night without any special lighting,
which is a silly idea,
truth be told.
They showed me it was doable,
but when I saw the images,
I thought it best to light up the whole street.
It's when you bring together the mundane
and some cinema look.
Then it feels like a movie.
Mari, this is Sofia.
- Sofia, Mari.
- How are you, Sofia?
Fine, thanks.
Is there coffee, Mari?
- Yeah, I'm just finishing making some.
- I need some.
Maeve came over for dinner once.
You're so stuck up
with those glasses.
Tryin' to act smarter.
I thought it was funny
that she was sitting
in the same spot as in
the Neighboring Sounds scene.
What's that noise?
Oh, it's the cats.
A guy had broken into the house next door
to steal the gas container.
Later, of course,
we re-enacted the whole thing...
...with my telephone.
For many years, I photographed
the apartment and the neighborhood.
And this one time,
I took the picture of a ghost.
A presence.
The picture is right in the living room
of our apartment...
but there's a figure in it,
and I have no idea who it is.
To this day, I dont know
how this figure ended up
on my camera,
and on my film.
All I know is that
the photograph got around
and friends wanted to take me
to a Spiritist center.
They thought I was a medium.
Years ago, I got home from the cinema
with Emilie on a Sunday night.
Sat down at the kitchen table
to smoke a cigarette.
Then I heard barking
I hadn't heard in years.
It was Nico barking,
the neighbors dog.
There was just a problem:
Nico was dead.
He died two years after
Neighboring Sounds was released.
Can't get to sleep, Mom?
No.
He will keep on barking...
I got up, hearing Nico's howls and barks,
and suddenly
I understood the film was on Globo,
on national TV.
And our neighbors were
all watching the film.
Nico had become a ghost.
Nico had a bit part
in another of my films.
Spontaneously.
I must have recorded the sound
of Nico barking and howling
over a few years.
It was hard to believe
a dog could bark that much.
He'd bark because
he spent the weekend alone.
Meaning, he'd spend
all the weekend barking.
I tried talking to the neighbors,
to no avail.
They always found a way
to say Nico was not a problem.
He was actually advantageous.
They argued that,
if Nico's barking,
it means thieves will stay away.
This shot of Nico lying down
was seen just now.
Take a look.
The neighbors' house was
overtaken by termites,
which contaminated our building
and our apartment as well.
Bastards.
The termites ended up in another
film of mine Aquarius.
As it happens,
the neighbors' house, with its pool,
built in the 70s,
was overtaken by termites...
Which brought down
the roof over their kitchen.
After all those years,
the house went bald,
right in front of our living room.
The house fell into disrepair
and nature takes notice.
It occupies the empty spaces.
I love animals--
I love dogs, cats--
but these cats took over
and got on my nerves.
So fucking annoying.
The netting over the window
is a cat deterrent.
And finally, this.
The house turned into
a bunker.
The house was never the
same again after Nico died.
The films photographed
the neighborhood's demeanor.
No, that building's fine,
it's the next one over.
There, that one there...
Too much.
Turn the big one a bit.
There you go,
turn it all the way up.
Where there were no bars,
bars went up.
You'd walk into the building
from the street-- there was no gate.
- Clodoaldo.
- Hey, thank you, Bia.
Should the receipt be
in your name or in Ricardo's?
I won't need one.
- Thanks for the coffee.
- Don't mention it.
Need anything,
let me know.
I always found it strange
because this neighborhood
never felt
especially dangerous.
SECURITY AND STYLE FOR
YOUR PROPERTY
Camera!
This was always
my favorite house on the street.
The only one with a short,
meter-high fence;
the large windows have no bars--
A phenomenon.
When we shot Neighboring Sounds
the owner told me that,
due to the short fence
and the unprotected windows
in the front yard,
no one had ever tried
to break into her house.
My name is
Clodoaldo Pereira dos Anjos.
Nice to meet you.
Your name?
Sometimes people ask if what
they see in the films
is production design.
No, it's no production design.
Or, sometimes I'd lie.
Of course it's production design...
And people would be impressed.
This other house behind the wall.
A friend lived here in the '80s.
When I looked at footage of our home
to work on this montage,
I saw there's the
apartment of our normal life
and theres the cinema apartment.
PART TWO
THE CINEMAS OF DOWNTOWN RECIFE
I love downtown Recife.
I love downtown Recife.
Twice, I cut that line,
then put it back in,
thinking it was redundant to say.
Then I thought you should say it
when you like someone.
A citys central area may remind you
of many other cities.
Katia Mesel.
THE IDEAL MARRIAGE
WHO HAD MARIELLE KILLED?
My relationship with downtown Recife
was forged through its cinemas.
Between the ages of 13 and 25,
more or less,
I'd go downtown several times a week
to watch movies.
Deep Throat II...
Downtown is a place part of the city
seems to have forgotten.
Like someone who was left
with no further explanation.
Many of the young
have never been downtown,
not even during Carnaval.
What can't be denied is that
the money has gone elsewhere.
I once heard someone say
the problem with downtown...
Is there's no air conditioning.
I have a sentimental map
of downtown Recife,
split by the filthy Capibaribe river
with streets and cinemas as landmarks.
The Art Palcio and the Trianon
were on Sun Street
right in front of their main rival
across the river--
the So Luiz,
on Dawn Street.
Facing each other,
all three of them staring,
in a stand-off
in the sun
and at dawn.
A STAR IS BORN
Most of these cinemas
are now gone, of course.
This is Joaquim Nabuco,
the abolitionist.
This little map covers an area
with street names such as Longing,
Hospice and Nymphs.
Hunger Alley,
and Photographers' Alley
Livro 7, a great bookstore,
no longer exists either.
"Freedom for the customer to choose a book."
It is now a church.
But downtown does
its own thing as well.
It's like...
"If you don't like me, Fuck You.
There are those who believe that
downtown Recife is dead.
Recifians say they're the 2nd best
Carnival in Brazil, 3rd in the world.
According to Dr. H. Martins,
the order is: Nice, Rio, Recife.
Is it? See for yourselves...
On the Boa Vista bridge we can see
the impressive, excited crowd.
A friend once wrote that
downtown Recife smells like tide,
fruits,
and piss.
Jomard Muniz de Britto
& Antnio Cadengue.
Downtown probably smelled like that
even when money was here.
Cludio Assis
& Matheus Nachtergaele.
Janet Leigh
& Tony Curtis.
I found these images
of myself in the lobby of the
Art Palcio cinema on the week it closed.
July 1992.
Almost 30 years later, I was sent
these photographs of the same place...
But taken a few days before
the cinema opened its doors in 1940.
At least 30 million people came
through this place in over 50 years.
I followed the last two years
of the Art Palcio
shooting photos and video
with a VHS camera.
I was a student at the time.
- Got two cruzeiros?
- No.
Got a thousand cruzeiros?
It was like being on a ship
as it's being prepped to be sunk.
Sometimes, it seemed like a factory
full of old machines.
It was at the Art Palcio
where I met Alexandre Moura.
Mr. Alexandre.
The projection room was hot
and had no air conditioning.
Alexandre would take his
shirt off to work and sit or lie on the floor,
where it was cooler
than sitting in the chair.
CinemaScope.
Let some air in.
Or else well die.
I showed The Godfather here.
I worked with this Godfather...
It showed here for four months.
Wasn't it on TV the other day?
The Godfather?
But my kids...
I got so fed up with that music
that I couldn't stand it any more.
On the last day we showed
The Godfather, I couldn't take it,
I was so anxious
to stop showing that film.
So I went over to the Trianon.
And I was a young man back then!
I went over to the Trianon
and the guy from the Trianon came over
here to finish the film
'cause I just couldn't do it.
You spend four months
watching the same film...
Mr. Alexandre told me how he dealt
with censorship under the dictatorship.
So two guys arrived.
"This film's impounded, y'hear?"
They opened up
the projection room...
- Who are you, sir?
- Federal Police!
"The film's impounded!"
Fine with me.
Ill leave early!
I once had a dream
in which Mr. Alexandre opened
the hatch on the projector
and the light made him disappear.
As in...
Just like in Terminator 2
which he showed
in sold out screenings.
Antnio!
No one's here.
Antnio!
Antnio!
After all these years,
I never got permission
to see the ruins of the Art Palcio.
There's a good side to that.
When I remember this cinema,
I also remember Alexandre,
who passed away in 2002.
Did I ever tell you
what that window's for?
- What it was for?
- No.
For the narrator.
When it was an art film...
Art films, there'd be a narrator
there from the radio.
You know, one of those narrators
who are good speakers?
And when would he speak?
While the film was being shown.
The film would be shown and he'd
talk during the session, right?
- What, into the cinema?
- Into the cinema.
Yeah, it wasn't for the radio,
it was into the cinema.
For the viewers.
Now those films...
Art films, right?
You'd only get people who...
- What exactly would he say?
- About...
He'd talk about the film, right?
In the film, this
and that happened, you see?
Those films about kings.
Really out there stuff.
- That's so strange, Mr. Alexandre.
- Isnt it?
When they announced the Art Palcio
and its neighbor the Trianon were closing,
I asked Mr. Alexandre if he was coming
to work on closing night.
Itll be a Tuesday, my shift.
So I'll be the one closing up.
I'll lock up the cinema
with a key of tears.
That's right.
Youre crying...
I'll lock up the cinema
with a key of tears.
Mr. Alexandre once told me about
a German manager at the Art Palcio
during the war.
Making this film,
I finally put the pieces together.
Pretty good story.
The Art Palcio was planned
to be an UFA cinema,
the major German studio run by
Goebbels and Hitler in the 30s.
The Germans saw the possibility
of expanding Nazi propaganda
in two strategic cities in Brazil:
So Paulo and Recife.
During the Getlio Vargas presidency,
who held sympathies for the Nazi regime.
Recife was visited 67 times,
between 1930 and 1937,
by the German machines
Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg.
So Paulo and Recife, each with
its own UFA Art Palcio
designed by the architect Rino Levi
who was, by the way, Jewish.
The office used to be here.
- Isn't it there?
- No, it's not...
The headquarters.
Alexandre would talk about
the German manager at the time:
Gunther, if I'm not mistaken.
The trapdoor leads to the balcony, right?
During wartime the German guy
would hide under there too.
Any trouble, he'd hide
and everything
would be quiet again.
With the war, plans for Recife's
Art Palcio at the Trianon building
being a UFA project were abandoned.
The building was taken over by
distributor and exhibitor Art Films
founded by Italian
immigrant Ugo Sorrentino,
who had been since 1931
the exclusive distributor
for UFA in Brazil.
And continued to be until 1941.
Months later, Brazil finally cut
commercial ties to Hitlers Germany.
These buildings came up in the '40s
and the money was here.
Recife's places of power
were carefully planned.
In the '70s, it started to
lose its prestige,
not unlike the cinemas.
Seems like parking space
was an issue as well.
Little by little, the money left
for the South Side of Recife.
Over there in Boa Viagem.
Same thing took place
in so many cities
around the world.
Printer cartridges and toner,
an English course,
an office,
some kind of prosthetics.
You can almost hear the intrigue:
American and Nazi spies,
Brazilians in favor and against
the country's neutrality in relation to the war.
Everyone plotting
Carnaval.
One can also imagine this building
becoming good affordable housing
for many people.
The US Consulate was here
during the war.
Another US Consulate of sorts
was in this building
not too far away.
Every Hollywood studio had offices
in this five-story building:
Metro, Universal,
Columbia Pictures, Fox,
Paramount, Warner,
United Artists, Disney.
There was even room for foreign companies
like Atlntida, Cindia, and Embrafilme.
At least that's how Brazilian
distributors in this building felt.
Scene 9, take 2!
This footage from
the short film Eisenstein
is the last surviving images
of the print distribution center
that supplied cinemas in
Brazil's North and Northeast.
Fiction films are
the best documentaries.
With the arrival of the internet,
the studio offices closed in the 2000s
and film distribution was
centralized in So Paulo,
about 2000 kilometers away.
The other day I dropped by the
Alfredo Fernandes building
and the new administrator informed me,
very authoritatively,
that there had never been any
film companies in that building.
These companies only occupied
the building for over 70 years.
Luckily I kept some
mementos from the distributors
at the Alfredo Fernandes building.
Right at the back of the building
was its trash.
Right over there
was Hollywood's trash
High quality American posters, trailers,
photographs, lobby cards, pressbooks...
Every week, hundreds of
such items were thrown out.
A well-known secret.
A lot of it was resold
by Paulo Barbosa
on the sidewalk in front of the Trianon.
These images are over 30 years old.
The cinemas went extinct, didn't they?
The poor ones with
no money sometimes buy...
sometimes I'll
give them printed materials.
If I got duplicates, I'll give it away.
Give 'em materials.
A lot of 'em don't have any money,
they just look.
Paulo Barbosa sold film memorabilia
but he also worked at the port authority.
RECIFE HERO EARNS A
LIVING AS STREET VENDOR
And he was one of the heroes
who saved Recife from a tragedy.
On May 12th 1985
he untied the mooring ropes
of a burning tanker at the port.
So many stories.
"CHRISTMAS BONUS: FIVE DEAD"
Mrs. Ricardo Pessoa de Queiroz.
Mrs. Julio.
Mrs. Antigenes.
This paper from 1977.
King Kong with Fay Wray, 1933
King Kong Escapes at the Trianon.
So Luiz had Dino de Laurentiis' King Kong.
Down there we've got
The Man from Hong Kong
and Costinha e o King Mong.
The 1977 King Kong fever.
And Sonia at the Boa Vista
in Dona Flor, third week.
Around 150 thousand people saw Sonia
in Dona Flor at the Moderno alone.
I ended up shooting a scene
with Sonia Braga
where the Moderno used to be.
For the film we made
together Aquarius.
There used to be windows with posters
on this wall of the Moderno cinema
but they've been filled in.
Each window had the poster
of a film, and two photos.
It was the first image
you ever saw of a film.
Like a gallery exhibit
but right on the street.
That's how I found out--
I was just a kid--
that they had made another
Star Wars movie
called The Empire Strikes Back.
Vadinho!
Some years ago,
I gained access to the
Moderno projection booth.
Now here is something
quite analog.
Manual.
Cinema marquees.
When digitizing these images,
something strange happened.
The image of this marquee,
archived for so long,
went through a digital mutation.
It was like the Moderno marquee
was trying to tell me something.
A tree covers part of the marquee
and it's like the film
becomes another film.
THE SILENCE...
Sometimes...
Marquees read like
secret messages to people.
Who's this Frankie?
Who's this Johnny?
My Name is Nobody.
My Name is Earthquake...
The city was marked all over
by fantasy words.
See Barbarella doing her thing.
"You'll scream in terror
and jump out of your seat
when you see Jaws!
Messages spelt carefully
and craftily.
NO ZIPPER
I like this series of photos
taken on the Duarte Coelho bridge
in different decades,
always with the So Luiz Cinema
in the background.
Johnny Guitar - this photo's from '57.
Pink Floyd: The Wall and The Entity --
March '83.
This one with O Quatrilho,
in the '90s.
Marclia Cartaxo and Suzana Amaral.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Chuck
Norris.
I shot this in Super 8
and watching these images
makes me dizzy.
How could someone go up there,
on that marquee,
no safety procedures,
10 meters up?
Crazy.
Ivan Cordeiro.
The Living Daylights.
I saw it at the So Luiz.
Fernando Spencer.
Marquees are timekeepers.
taken in Rio de Janeiro,
dates to when the military passed the
Institutional Act 5, tightening the regime.
John Boorman's Point Blank
showing at the Path
and shit going down
on Cinelndia.
Movie marquees, in a way,
commented on life in the real world.
It was a loss to cities, I think.
You say yes
That you understand me
You say no
You won't deliver, you won't sell,
You won't leave me, you won't let me go
But you leave everything (you left)
You leave hurt (you hurt)
You leave cold (you froze)
You leave me hanging (you hung)
You swear, swear (you swore)
You despise me (you spite)
You turn the corner (you cornered)
And you leave me hanging
I'm, I'm, I'm...
That's it for me
NO CENSORSHIP
There's no last kiss
And there aint no happy ending
Was it a coincidence that the Veneza's
marquee read Knock Off
the night it closed?
Was that a coincidence?
Cinemas that no longer exist
showing films about ghosts.
December, 1970.
The grand opening of
the Veneza Cinema, on Hospcio St.
The opening night film:
Universal's Airport
in 70mm.
Some days earlier,
a special screening of
Fox's Tora! Tora! Tora!
was offered to the Armed Forces.
Military band.
Military government.
The owner, Luiz Severiano Ribeiro Junior,
is seen here greeting the
governor of Pernambuco, Nilo Coelho
and Mrs. Nilo Coelho.
Her name is actually Maria Tereza
Coimbra de Almeida Brennand.
The Severiano Ribeiro company
was the largest film exhibitor in Brazil
during the 20th century.
At the Veneza,
they spared no expense.
It's kind of sad to become
attached to a product.
The problem lies in the fact
that you spent years of your life
going to this cinema,
so the relationship gets
emotional and confusing.
It was at the Veneza where I began
to pay attention to sound in films.
To these days, people talk about
the experience of image and sound
for Milos Forman's Hair
in 70mm at the Veneza.
I wasn't old enough to watch it.
The military government, on its last legs,
rated it 18 and over.
They found Hair subversive
and anti-military.
The film became a phenomenon in Recife,
more so than in any other city in Brazil.
Over 200 thousand people saw Hair
at the Veneza in almost six months.
CINEMA IS THE GREATEST ENTERTAINMENThe industry sets up the
infrastructure for distribution
then throws it all out.
They were building a mini
shopping mall inside the cinema
without exactly
tearing the whole cinema down.
This thing took root
inside the Veneza
like an alien organism
and the cinema became its host.
The city changes
every year, no doubt.
With a lot of demolition.
But I've never seen a mutation
as strange as this one inside the Veneza.
Seen from a distance,
the Veneza is this building here.
With these pillars.
Here was the Marist School,
a traditional school that closed down.
It's also turning into a shopping mall--
The Marist Shopping Mall--
Thus named in memory
of the school that closed.
A bit like the cinemas.
These images come from
Andr Antnio's The Cult,
a film that takes place
in a futuristic version of Recife.
These are the only surviving
images of that school.
Futuristic films
are also documentaries.
My my my it's so
sweet to grow old
Just like me
To be Brazilian,
born in Pernambuco
and making frevo
with God-given inspiration
This is one of my favorite ruins.
To be Brazilian,
born in Pernambuco
and making frevo
with God-given inspiration
The same beautiful mornings
at Dawn Street
My father's name,
and my son's, is Luiz
To be such a happy grandad
to Simone, Nelsinho and Moema
Three verses in the
sweetest of poems
To look at my dear Recife
the Polytheama Cinema.
With the grace that kindness
has allowed me
To live in such a world
of such sweetness and beauty
How sweet it is
to get old like me
PART THREE
CHURCHES AND HOLY GHOSTS
Just like me
To be Brazilian,
born in Pernambuco
and making frevo
with God-given inspiration
The same beautiful mornings
at Dawn Street
My father's name,
and my son's, is Luiz
To be such a happy grandad
to Simone, Nelsinho and Moema
Three verses that make up
the sweetest of poems
To look at my dear Recife
to love its people
With the grace that kindness
has allowed me
To live in such a world
of such sweetness and beauty
How sweet it is
to get old like me
Some 50 million people have been
through the So Luiz in 70 years.
I don't know anywhere in Recife
as unanimous as this.
Amin Stepple.
On the inside, the So Luiz
stimulates the imagination.
But as you leave,
it throws you back onto the street.
Cinemas can be places of kindness.
TAKE CARE
WELL BE TOGETHER SOON
I've always heard people referring to
Recife's So Luiz Cinema as a temple.
Part of local cinephilia
uses catholic imagery
when talking about the So Luiz.
Ive heard things like:
To see a Glauber or a Hitchcock
one should kneel in praise.
The cinema as a church.
Maybe its the
fleur-de-lis tainted glass.
Very famous.
It's ironic that the So Luiz and the
Duarte Coelho building above it.
were built where there
used to be a church.
The Chapel of the
Holy Trinity of the English.
British money in Recife
was no longer as important
as it had been in the 19th century,
especially after the war.
They demolished this
Anglican Church from 1838
to build a cinema in 1952.
The decoration celebrates
French king Louis IX.
It's all set up like a tent
during the Crusades,
with 16 shields on the walls.
The fleur-de-lis is everywhere.
And on the tainted glass.
Luiz Severiano Ribeiro,
the patriarch,
also spared no expense
on the So Luiz.
I witnessed two cinemas
that stopped being cinemas
and became evangelical churches
at the end of the '80s.
The Eldorado, in Afogados,
and the Albatroz, in Casa Amarela.
The transition took a few weeks,
for the cinemas remained unchanged.
Seats, dcor--
even the screens remained.
Dead cinemas
that came back as churches.
When I revisited these images,
I saw they might reveal the beginning
of profound changes in
Brazil's relationship to religion.
Catholics losing ground
and evangelicals gaining power.
I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH
HIM WHO STRENGTHENS ME
They bought cinemas.
When I was a kid, I saw,
on this exact screen at the Albatroz,
a Passion of the Christ film
starring Fernanda Montenegro.
An Easter week movie.
There are different ways now of
stepping out of the trance,
of leaving the temple,
or exiting the movie.
Miguel and Bruno.
The So Luiz is a public cinema
which no longer has the logic
of a commercial screen.
Nor should it.
A cinema like this
helps build character
Geraldo Pinho.
Gustavo Coimbra.
Films have a natural tendency
towards melodrama.
This is often in the image itself.
But also makes sense to
embrace the melodrama.
Like listening to
Nelson Ferreira's Evocao.
I found in one of the rooms
at the So Luiz,
one of the projectors
from the old Trianon Cinema,
the Art Palacios next door neighbor.
Kept as a donation.
And scrap metal.
The Trianon building.
On the other side of the river,
Where Mr. Alexandre used to work.
Good evening.
Good evening.
- How are you?
- I'm fine.
You got the address?
These three stops here--
are we picking someone up
or did you just put them
to trick the app
and drive around?
To trick the app
and drive around.
Sometimes, I like to
go home, and to unwind
and drive around in an Uber.
But if I just put the address,
it chooses a route
that's boring and dull.
So, to get around that--
I once had
an argument with a driver
who wished to follow the route
the app gave him,
and I asked him to go
another way, and, well...
Want me to turn off the music?
No, you can leave it on.
Who is that?
Herb Alpert.
This guy's helped me
get through a lot.
How is he helping you?
He's an inspiration.
I'm learning to play the trumpet.
So I listen to him a lot.
Because he's good.
- Do you play anywhere?
- I play in a frevo orchestra.
Carnaval music.
It's got that upbeat energy I like.
Cool.
And what do you work with?
I work in films.
Films?
But, do you work in a cinema
or do you make movies?
I work with a movie theater.
but I make films, I...
I write and direct films.
Thats cool!
You an actor?
I want a picture later, all right?
- Youll take my picture?
- I want a picture with you, all right?
I don't get artists
in my car everyday, do I?
I'll take one of you as well.
Have you ever done a telenovela?
No, Ive never done a novela.
I bet you know lots
of famous people, right?
I know some famous people, yeah.
Movies are great.
The other day I found out
I have a superpower.
- You have what?
- A superpower.
You have a superpower?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
The power to turn invisible.
You turn invisible?
Yeah, but not, like, disappear...
tele-transportation, jump
somewhere else, y'know?
But, like...
I turn invisible,
but in the same spot I am.
Then, when I want to,
I reappear.
Get it?
So...
So do you...
Do you turn invisible at will?
Or do you suddently turn invisible
in the middle of a conversation?
Yeah, sometimes I disappear
by accident as well.
But...
I try to plan the moments
I turn invisible
and that I reappear, got it?
You are there, arent you?
Right here, right here!
Is the music too loud?
Want me to turn it down?
PICTURES OF GHOSTS
This photograph by Alcir Lacerda
is from the late '60s.
It shows the Boa Viagem Church square,
South side of Recife.
This is the Boa Viagem Hotel,
a landmark
until it was torn down in the 2000s.
The Boa Viagem Hotel can be seen
in these images...
With Janet Leigh
and her daughters
on a trip to Recife
in the early '60s.
The square has changed a lot.
In the '70s, my small family came
to live in this seaside area.
About 250 meters from the beach.
Right here.
On what used to be mangrove.
PART ONE
THE SETBAL APARTMENApartment 102.
The Pioneiro building,
Number 207
on Jos Moreira Leal Street
in the neighborhood of Setbal,
in Recife.
The 1972 building
has only one floor.
No stilts.
The building is both solid and discreet.
The apartment's on the top floor,
to the back, away from the street,
where it's quieter.
The apartment
has three bedrooms,
one en suite,
a living room,
a guest bathroom,
and a kitchen/dining area.
The apartment used to
have a maid's room
which my mother, Joselice,
turned into a study
by knocking down a wall.
Later, it became a room
for watching films.
I was ten when we came
to live in this place,
which my mother financed
through a public bank in 1979.
This new house meant
a new beginning for my mother
after her separation
from my father, Kleber.
Joselice, my mother,
was a historian.
She studied the abolitionists
Joaquim Nabuco and Andr Rebouas
in 19th century Brazil.
At the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation
where she worked,
friends joked that she cheated
on Nabuco with Rebouas,
whose framed portrait
she had on a wall at home.
Joselice used to say that joke
packed a lot of Brazil in it.
Years after her death,
I got this tape
from a colleague of hers at the
Joaquim Nabuco Foundation.
One hell of a gift.
It's an interview
aired on Globo TV in 1981
in which she talks about
oral history.
Joselice, tell us about how oral history
will shape your new research.
Through oral history, we collect information
thats been left out of history.
We seek to evaluate the subject's life--
a part, shall we say,
somewhat autobiographical,
then we move on to verify
and collect the data
from that person.
It may seem like
I'm discussing methodology,
but I'm talking about love.
Today, when I remember my mother
and this apartment,
I understand this place
was radically altered by her.
Twice.
The first time was
at the end of the '80s
and I think there was a sense
of euphoria and uncertainty.
That's me with my mother,
near our home,
during the 1989 elections.
We voted together
once more in 1994,
one year before she died,
aged 54.
When Joselice fell ill in 1992,
I saw she had in this apartment
an extension of her own strength.
And that's when Joselice
renovated this place a second time.
It's as if the apartment
had turned into a house,
as if it had undergone surgery--
an aggressive but healing surgery.
Joselice assigned to
my brother Mcio,
at the time a 20-year-old
architecture student,
the mission of changing our house.
This was the first project
he ever designed.
A fine piece of work, with at least
one youthful reference to Oscar Niemeyer.
In the 2000s,
this place changed once more.
Over all these years,
I learned how time changes places.
What a great picture!
Martin and Toms,
right here.
Here, Toms!
Wow, that's a good picture!
Look.
Lemme see.
One way or another,
I lived in this place for 40 years.
OK?
Rolling.
Cut!
This apartment is also where
I began making films.
I thought that was good!
- Little less jumpy, huh?
- Yeah.
Im ready, Kleber.
I must have made
between 10 and 13 films.
The beach symbolizes paradise,
I think.
The focus on this camera is
nonexistent, Kleber.
Whenever youre ready.
That's good.
The rug's gone...
It's been shot from every angle...
In every room...
Over...
20 years, I'd say.
Some people would watch
these films and ask:
"Whats with that street,
in Setbal, in that apartment?"
Sidclay, wake up!
Its where I lived.
Thats the answer.
Joselice encouraged me
to make my own films
whichever way I could.
It was our house--
it was right there.
For posterity...
Neighbors acted as extras.
They seemed to enjoy it, I think.
Cut!
We also shot in our
next door neighbor's apartment,
It was good to turn the house
into a crowded, workshop
or studio.
I had told Pedro Sotero
and Fabrcio Tadeu,
the cinematographers for
Neighboring Sounds,
that I wanted to shoot the street
at night without any special lighting,
which is a silly idea,
truth be told.
They showed me it was doable,
but when I saw the images,
I thought it best to light up the whole street.
It's when you bring together the mundane
and some cinema look.
Then it feels like a movie.
Mari, this is Sofia.
- Sofia, Mari.
- How are you, Sofia?
Fine, thanks.
Is there coffee, Mari?
- Yeah, I'm just finishing making some.
- I need some.
Maeve came over for dinner once.
You're so stuck up
with those glasses.
Tryin' to act smarter.
I thought it was funny
that she was sitting
in the same spot as in
the Neighboring Sounds scene.
What's that noise?
Oh, it's the cats.
A guy had broken into the house next door
to steal the gas container.
Later, of course,
we re-enacted the whole thing...
...with my telephone.
For many years, I photographed
the apartment and the neighborhood.
And this one time,
I took the picture of a ghost.
A presence.
The picture is right in the living room
of our apartment...
but there's a figure in it,
and I have no idea who it is.
To this day, I dont know
how this figure ended up
on my camera,
and on my film.
All I know is that
the photograph got around
and friends wanted to take me
to a Spiritist center.
They thought I was a medium.
Years ago, I got home from the cinema
with Emilie on a Sunday night.
Sat down at the kitchen table
to smoke a cigarette.
Then I heard barking
I hadn't heard in years.
It was Nico barking,
the neighbors dog.
There was just a problem:
Nico was dead.
He died two years after
Neighboring Sounds was released.
Can't get to sleep, Mom?
No.
He will keep on barking...
I got up, hearing Nico's howls and barks,
and suddenly
I understood the film was on Globo,
on national TV.
And our neighbors were
all watching the film.
Nico had become a ghost.
Nico had a bit part
in another of my films.
Spontaneously.
I must have recorded the sound
of Nico barking and howling
over a few years.
It was hard to believe
a dog could bark that much.
He'd bark because
he spent the weekend alone.
Meaning, he'd spend
all the weekend barking.
I tried talking to the neighbors,
to no avail.
They always found a way
to say Nico was not a problem.
He was actually advantageous.
They argued that,
if Nico's barking,
it means thieves will stay away.
This shot of Nico lying down
was seen just now.
Take a look.
The neighbors' house was
overtaken by termites,
which contaminated our building
and our apartment as well.
Bastards.
The termites ended up in another
film of mine Aquarius.
As it happens,
the neighbors' house, with its pool,
built in the 70s,
was overtaken by termites...
Which brought down
the roof over their kitchen.
After all those years,
the house went bald,
right in front of our living room.
The house fell into disrepair
and nature takes notice.
It occupies the empty spaces.
I love animals--
I love dogs, cats--
but these cats took over
and got on my nerves.
So fucking annoying.
The netting over the window
is a cat deterrent.
And finally, this.
The house turned into
a bunker.
The house was never the
same again after Nico died.
The films photographed
the neighborhood's demeanor.
No, that building's fine,
it's the next one over.
There, that one there...
Too much.
Turn the big one a bit.
There you go,
turn it all the way up.
Where there were no bars,
bars went up.
You'd walk into the building
from the street-- there was no gate.
- Clodoaldo.
- Hey, thank you, Bia.
Should the receipt be
in your name or in Ricardo's?
I won't need one.
- Thanks for the coffee.
- Don't mention it.
Need anything,
let me know.
I always found it strange
because this neighborhood
never felt
especially dangerous.
SECURITY AND STYLE FOR
YOUR PROPERTY
Camera!
This was always
my favorite house on the street.
The only one with a short,
meter-high fence;
the large windows have no bars--
A phenomenon.
When we shot Neighboring Sounds
the owner told me that,
due to the short fence
and the unprotected windows
in the front yard,
no one had ever tried
to break into her house.
My name is
Clodoaldo Pereira dos Anjos.
Nice to meet you.
Your name?
Sometimes people ask if what
they see in the films
is production design.
No, it's no production design.
Or, sometimes I'd lie.
Of course it's production design...
And people would be impressed.
This other house behind the wall.
A friend lived here in the '80s.
When I looked at footage of our home
to work on this montage,
I saw there's the
apartment of our normal life
and theres the cinema apartment.
PART TWO
THE CINEMAS OF DOWNTOWN RECIFE
I love downtown Recife.
I love downtown Recife.
Twice, I cut that line,
then put it back in,
thinking it was redundant to say.
Then I thought you should say it
when you like someone.
A citys central area may remind you
of many other cities.
Katia Mesel.
THE IDEAL MARRIAGE
WHO HAD MARIELLE KILLED?
My relationship with downtown Recife
was forged through its cinemas.
Between the ages of 13 and 25,
more or less,
I'd go downtown several times a week
to watch movies.
Deep Throat II...
Downtown is a place part of the city
seems to have forgotten.
Like someone who was left
with no further explanation.
Many of the young
have never been downtown,
not even during Carnaval.
What can't be denied is that
the money has gone elsewhere.
I once heard someone say
the problem with downtown...
Is there's no air conditioning.
I have a sentimental map
of downtown Recife,
split by the filthy Capibaribe river
with streets and cinemas as landmarks.
The Art Palcio and the Trianon
were on Sun Street
right in front of their main rival
across the river--
the So Luiz,
on Dawn Street.
Facing each other,
all three of them staring,
in a stand-off
in the sun
and at dawn.
A STAR IS BORN
Most of these cinemas
are now gone, of course.
This is Joaquim Nabuco,
the abolitionist.
This little map covers an area
with street names such as Longing,
Hospice and Nymphs.
Hunger Alley,
and Photographers' Alley
Livro 7, a great bookstore,
no longer exists either.
"Freedom for the customer to choose a book."
It is now a church.
But downtown does
its own thing as well.
It's like...
"If you don't like me, Fuck You.
There are those who believe that
downtown Recife is dead.
Recifians say they're the 2nd best
Carnival in Brazil, 3rd in the world.
According to Dr. H. Martins,
the order is: Nice, Rio, Recife.
Is it? See for yourselves...
On the Boa Vista bridge we can see
the impressive, excited crowd.
A friend once wrote that
downtown Recife smells like tide,
fruits,
and piss.
Jomard Muniz de Britto
& Antnio Cadengue.
Downtown probably smelled like that
even when money was here.
Cludio Assis
& Matheus Nachtergaele.
Janet Leigh
& Tony Curtis.
I found these images
of myself in the lobby of the
Art Palcio cinema on the week it closed.
July 1992.
Almost 30 years later, I was sent
these photographs of the same place...
But taken a few days before
the cinema opened its doors in 1940.
At least 30 million people came
through this place in over 50 years.
I followed the last two years
of the Art Palcio
shooting photos and video
with a VHS camera.
I was a student at the time.
- Got two cruzeiros?
- No.
Got a thousand cruzeiros?
It was like being on a ship
as it's being prepped to be sunk.
Sometimes, it seemed like a factory
full of old machines.
It was at the Art Palcio
where I met Alexandre Moura.
Mr. Alexandre.
The projection room was hot
and had no air conditioning.
Alexandre would take his
shirt off to work and sit or lie on the floor,
where it was cooler
than sitting in the chair.
CinemaScope.
Let some air in.
Or else well die.
I showed The Godfather here.
I worked with this Godfather...
It showed here for four months.
Wasn't it on TV the other day?
The Godfather?
But my kids...
I got so fed up with that music
that I couldn't stand it any more.
On the last day we showed
The Godfather, I couldn't take it,
I was so anxious
to stop showing that film.
So I went over to the Trianon.
And I was a young man back then!
I went over to the Trianon
and the guy from the Trianon came over
here to finish the film
'cause I just couldn't do it.
You spend four months
watching the same film...
Mr. Alexandre told me how he dealt
with censorship under the dictatorship.
So two guys arrived.
"This film's impounded, y'hear?"
They opened up
the projection room...
- Who are you, sir?
- Federal Police!
"The film's impounded!"
Fine with me.
Ill leave early!
I once had a dream
in which Mr. Alexandre opened
the hatch on the projector
and the light made him disappear.
As in...
Just like in Terminator 2
which he showed
in sold out screenings.
Antnio!
No one's here.
Antnio!
Antnio!
After all these years,
I never got permission
to see the ruins of the Art Palcio.
There's a good side to that.
When I remember this cinema,
I also remember Alexandre,
who passed away in 2002.
Did I ever tell you
what that window's for?
- What it was for?
- No.
For the narrator.
When it was an art film...
Art films, there'd be a narrator
there from the radio.
You know, one of those narrators
who are good speakers?
And when would he speak?
While the film was being shown.
The film would be shown and he'd
talk during the session, right?
- What, into the cinema?
- Into the cinema.
Yeah, it wasn't for the radio,
it was into the cinema.
For the viewers.
Now those films...
Art films, right?
You'd only get people who...
- What exactly would he say?
- About...
He'd talk about the film, right?
In the film, this
and that happened, you see?
Those films about kings.
Really out there stuff.
- That's so strange, Mr. Alexandre.
- Isnt it?
When they announced the Art Palcio
and its neighbor the Trianon were closing,
I asked Mr. Alexandre if he was coming
to work on closing night.
Itll be a Tuesday, my shift.
So I'll be the one closing up.
I'll lock up the cinema
with a key of tears.
That's right.
Youre crying...
I'll lock up the cinema
with a key of tears.
Mr. Alexandre once told me about
a German manager at the Art Palcio
during the war.
Making this film,
I finally put the pieces together.
Pretty good story.
The Art Palcio was planned
to be an UFA cinema,
the major German studio run by
Goebbels and Hitler in the 30s.
The Germans saw the possibility
of expanding Nazi propaganda
in two strategic cities in Brazil:
So Paulo and Recife.
During the Getlio Vargas presidency,
who held sympathies for the Nazi regime.
Recife was visited 67 times,
between 1930 and 1937,
by the German machines
Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg.
So Paulo and Recife, each with
its own UFA Art Palcio
designed by the architect Rino Levi
who was, by the way, Jewish.
The office used to be here.
- Isn't it there?
- No, it's not...
The headquarters.
Alexandre would talk about
the German manager at the time:
Gunther, if I'm not mistaken.
The trapdoor leads to the balcony, right?
During wartime the German guy
would hide under there too.
Any trouble, he'd hide
and everything
would be quiet again.
With the war, plans for Recife's
Art Palcio at the Trianon building
being a UFA project were abandoned.
The building was taken over by
distributor and exhibitor Art Films
founded by Italian
immigrant Ugo Sorrentino,
who had been since 1931
the exclusive distributor
for UFA in Brazil.
And continued to be until 1941.
Months later, Brazil finally cut
commercial ties to Hitlers Germany.
These buildings came up in the '40s
and the money was here.
Recife's places of power
were carefully planned.
In the '70s, it started to
lose its prestige,
not unlike the cinemas.
Seems like parking space
was an issue as well.
Little by little, the money left
for the South Side of Recife.
Over there in Boa Viagem.
Same thing took place
in so many cities
around the world.
Printer cartridges and toner,
an English course,
an office,
some kind of prosthetics.
You can almost hear the intrigue:
American and Nazi spies,
Brazilians in favor and against
the country's neutrality in relation to the war.
Everyone plotting
Carnaval.
One can also imagine this building
becoming good affordable housing
for many people.
The US Consulate was here
during the war.
Another US Consulate of sorts
was in this building
not too far away.
Every Hollywood studio had offices
in this five-story building:
Metro, Universal,
Columbia Pictures, Fox,
Paramount, Warner,
United Artists, Disney.
There was even room for foreign companies
like Atlntida, Cindia, and Embrafilme.
At least that's how Brazilian
distributors in this building felt.
Scene 9, take 2!
This footage from
the short film Eisenstein
is the last surviving images
of the print distribution center
that supplied cinemas in
Brazil's North and Northeast.
Fiction films are
the best documentaries.
With the arrival of the internet,
the studio offices closed in the 2000s
and film distribution was
centralized in So Paulo,
about 2000 kilometers away.
The other day I dropped by the
Alfredo Fernandes building
and the new administrator informed me,
very authoritatively,
that there had never been any
film companies in that building.
These companies only occupied
the building for over 70 years.
Luckily I kept some
mementos from the distributors
at the Alfredo Fernandes building.
Right at the back of the building
was its trash.
Right over there
was Hollywood's trash
High quality American posters, trailers,
photographs, lobby cards, pressbooks...
Every week, hundreds of
such items were thrown out.
A well-known secret.
A lot of it was resold
by Paulo Barbosa
on the sidewalk in front of the Trianon.
These images are over 30 years old.
The cinemas went extinct, didn't they?
The poor ones with
no money sometimes buy...
sometimes I'll
give them printed materials.
If I got duplicates, I'll give it away.
Give 'em materials.
A lot of 'em don't have any money,
they just look.
Paulo Barbosa sold film memorabilia
but he also worked at the port authority.
RECIFE HERO EARNS A
LIVING AS STREET VENDOR
And he was one of the heroes
who saved Recife from a tragedy.
On May 12th 1985
he untied the mooring ropes
of a burning tanker at the port.
So many stories.
"CHRISTMAS BONUS: FIVE DEAD"
Mrs. Ricardo Pessoa de Queiroz.
Mrs. Julio.
Mrs. Antigenes.
This paper from 1977.
King Kong with Fay Wray, 1933
King Kong Escapes at the Trianon.
So Luiz had Dino de Laurentiis' King Kong.
Down there we've got
The Man from Hong Kong
and Costinha e o King Mong.
The 1977 King Kong fever.
And Sonia at the Boa Vista
in Dona Flor, third week.
Around 150 thousand people saw Sonia
in Dona Flor at the Moderno alone.
I ended up shooting a scene
with Sonia Braga
where the Moderno used to be.
For the film we made
together Aquarius.
There used to be windows with posters
on this wall of the Moderno cinema
but they've been filled in.
Each window had the poster
of a film, and two photos.
It was the first image
you ever saw of a film.
Like a gallery exhibit
but right on the street.
That's how I found out--
I was just a kid--
that they had made another
Star Wars movie
called The Empire Strikes Back.
Vadinho!
Some years ago,
I gained access to the
Moderno projection booth.
Now here is something
quite analog.
Manual.
Cinema marquees.
When digitizing these images,
something strange happened.
The image of this marquee,
archived for so long,
went through a digital mutation.
It was like the Moderno marquee
was trying to tell me something.
A tree covers part of the marquee
and it's like the film
becomes another film.
THE SILENCE...
Sometimes...
Marquees read like
secret messages to people.
Who's this Frankie?
Who's this Johnny?
My Name is Nobody.
My Name is Earthquake...
The city was marked all over
by fantasy words.
See Barbarella doing her thing.
"You'll scream in terror
and jump out of your seat
when you see Jaws!
Messages spelt carefully
and craftily.
NO ZIPPER
I like this series of photos
taken on the Duarte Coelho bridge
in different decades,
always with the So Luiz Cinema
in the background.
Johnny Guitar - this photo's from '57.
Pink Floyd: The Wall and The Entity --
March '83.
This one with O Quatrilho,
in the '90s.
Marclia Cartaxo and Suzana Amaral.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Chuck
Norris.
I shot this in Super 8
and watching these images
makes me dizzy.
How could someone go up there,
on that marquee,
no safety procedures,
10 meters up?
Crazy.
Ivan Cordeiro.
The Living Daylights.
I saw it at the So Luiz.
Fernando Spencer.
Marquees are timekeepers.
taken in Rio de Janeiro,
dates to when the military passed the
Institutional Act 5, tightening the regime.
John Boorman's Point Blank
showing at the Path
and shit going down
on Cinelndia.
Movie marquees, in a way,
commented on life in the real world.
It was a loss to cities, I think.
You say yes
That you understand me
You say no
You won't deliver, you won't sell,
You won't leave me, you won't let me go
But you leave everything (you left)
You leave hurt (you hurt)
You leave cold (you froze)
You leave me hanging (you hung)
You swear, swear (you swore)
You despise me (you spite)
You turn the corner (you cornered)
And you leave me hanging
I'm, I'm, I'm...
That's it for me
NO CENSORSHIP
There's no last kiss
And there aint no happy ending
Was it a coincidence that the Veneza's
marquee read Knock Off
the night it closed?
Was that a coincidence?
Cinemas that no longer exist
showing films about ghosts.
December, 1970.
The grand opening of
the Veneza Cinema, on Hospcio St.
The opening night film:
Universal's Airport
in 70mm.
Some days earlier,
a special screening of
Fox's Tora! Tora! Tora!
was offered to the Armed Forces.
Military band.
Military government.
The owner, Luiz Severiano Ribeiro Junior,
is seen here greeting the
governor of Pernambuco, Nilo Coelho
and Mrs. Nilo Coelho.
Her name is actually Maria Tereza
Coimbra de Almeida Brennand.
The Severiano Ribeiro company
was the largest film exhibitor in Brazil
during the 20th century.
At the Veneza,
they spared no expense.
It's kind of sad to become
attached to a product.
The problem lies in the fact
that you spent years of your life
going to this cinema,
so the relationship gets
emotional and confusing.
It was at the Veneza where I began
to pay attention to sound in films.
To these days, people talk about
the experience of image and sound
for Milos Forman's Hair
in 70mm at the Veneza.
I wasn't old enough to watch it.
The military government, on its last legs,
rated it 18 and over.
They found Hair subversive
and anti-military.
The film became a phenomenon in Recife,
more so than in any other city in Brazil.
Over 200 thousand people saw Hair
at the Veneza in almost six months.
CINEMA IS THE GREATEST ENTERTAINMENThe industry sets up the
infrastructure for distribution
then throws it all out.
They were building a mini
shopping mall inside the cinema
without exactly
tearing the whole cinema down.
This thing took root
inside the Veneza
like an alien organism
and the cinema became its host.
The city changes
every year, no doubt.
With a lot of demolition.
But I've never seen a mutation
as strange as this one inside the Veneza.
Seen from a distance,
the Veneza is this building here.
With these pillars.
Here was the Marist School,
a traditional school that closed down.
It's also turning into a shopping mall--
The Marist Shopping Mall--
Thus named in memory
of the school that closed.
A bit like the cinemas.
These images come from
Andr Antnio's The Cult,
a film that takes place
in a futuristic version of Recife.
These are the only surviving
images of that school.
Futuristic films
are also documentaries.
My my my it's so
sweet to grow old
Just like me
To be Brazilian,
born in Pernambuco
and making frevo
with God-given inspiration
This is one of my favorite ruins.
To be Brazilian,
born in Pernambuco
and making frevo
with God-given inspiration
The same beautiful mornings
at Dawn Street
My father's name,
and my son's, is Luiz
To be such a happy grandad
to Simone, Nelsinho and Moema
Three verses in the
sweetest of poems
To look at my dear Recife
the Polytheama Cinema.
With the grace that kindness
has allowed me
To live in such a world
of such sweetness and beauty
How sweet it is
to get old like me
PART THREE
CHURCHES AND HOLY GHOSTS
Just like me
To be Brazilian,
born in Pernambuco
and making frevo
with God-given inspiration
The same beautiful mornings
at Dawn Street
My father's name,
and my son's, is Luiz
To be such a happy grandad
to Simone, Nelsinho and Moema
Three verses that make up
the sweetest of poems
To look at my dear Recife
to love its people
With the grace that kindness
has allowed me
To live in such a world
of such sweetness and beauty
How sweet it is
to get old like me
Some 50 million people have been
through the So Luiz in 70 years.
I don't know anywhere in Recife
as unanimous as this.
Amin Stepple.
On the inside, the So Luiz
stimulates the imagination.
But as you leave,
it throws you back onto the street.
Cinemas can be places of kindness.
TAKE CARE
WELL BE TOGETHER SOON
I've always heard people referring to
Recife's So Luiz Cinema as a temple.
Part of local cinephilia
uses catholic imagery
when talking about the So Luiz.
Ive heard things like:
To see a Glauber or a Hitchcock
one should kneel in praise.
The cinema as a church.
Maybe its the
fleur-de-lis tainted glass.
Very famous.
It's ironic that the So Luiz and the
Duarte Coelho building above it.
were built where there
used to be a church.
The Chapel of the
Holy Trinity of the English.
British money in Recife
was no longer as important
as it had been in the 19th century,
especially after the war.
They demolished this
Anglican Church from 1838
to build a cinema in 1952.
The decoration celebrates
French king Louis IX.
It's all set up like a tent
during the Crusades,
with 16 shields on the walls.
The fleur-de-lis is everywhere.
And on the tainted glass.
Luiz Severiano Ribeiro,
the patriarch,
also spared no expense
on the So Luiz.
I witnessed two cinemas
that stopped being cinemas
and became evangelical churches
at the end of the '80s.
The Eldorado, in Afogados,
and the Albatroz, in Casa Amarela.
The transition took a few weeks,
for the cinemas remained unchanged.
Seats, dcor--
even the screens remained.
Dead cinemas
that came back as churches.
When I revisited these images,
I saw they might reveal the beginning
of profound changes in
Brazil's relationship to religion.
Catholics losing ground
and evangelicals gaining power.
I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH
HIM WHO STRENGTHENS ME
They bought cinemas.
When I was a kid, I saw,
on this exact screen at the Albatroz,
a Passion of the Christ film
starring Fernanda Montenegro.
An Easter week movie.
There are different ways now of
stepping out of the trance,
of leaving the temple,
or exiting the movie.
Miguel and Bruno.
The So Luiz is a public cinema
which no longer has the logic
of a commercial screen.
Nor should it.
A cinema like this
helps build character
Geraldo Pinho.
Gustavo Coimbra.
Films have a natural tendency
towards melodrama.
This is often in the image itself.
But also makes sense to
embrace the melodrama.
Like listening to
Nelson Ferreira's Evocao.
I found in one of the rooms
at the So Luiz,
one of the projectors
from the old Trianon Cinema,
the Art Palacios next door neighbor.
Kept as a donation.
And scrap metal.
The Trianon building.
On the other side of the river,
Where Mr. Alexandre used to work.
Good evening.
Good evening.
- How are you?
- I'm fine.
You got the address?
These three stops here--
are we picking someone up
or did you just put them
to trick the app
and drive around?
To trick the app
and drive around.
Sometimes, I like to
go home, and to unwind
and drive around in an Uber.
But if I just put the address,
it chooses a route
that's boring and dull.
So, to get around that--
I once had
an argument with a driver
who wished to follow the route
the app gave him,
and I asked him to go
another way, and, well...
Want me to turn off the music?
No, you can leave it on.
Who is that?
Herb Alpert.
This guy's helped me
get through a lot.
How is he helping you?
He's an inspiration.
I'm learning to play the trumpet.
So I listen to him a lot.
Because he's good.
- Do you play anywhere?
- I play in a frevo orchestra.
Carnaval music.
It's got that upbeat energy I like.
Cool.
And what do you work with?
I work in films.
Films?
But, do you work in a cinema
or do you make movies?
I work with a movie theater.
but I make films, I...
I write and direct films.
Thats cool!
You an actor?
I want a picture later, all right?
- Youll take my picture?
- I want a picture with you, all right?
I don't get artists
in my car everyday, do I?
I'll take one of you as well.
Have you ever done a telenovela?
No, Ive never done a novela.
I bet you know lots
of famous people, right?
I know some famous people, yeah.
Movies are great.
The other day I found out
I have a superpower.
- You have what?
- A superpower.
You have a superpower?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
The power to turn invisible.
You turn invisible?
Yeah, but not, like, disappear...
tele-transportation, jump
somewhere else, y'know?
But, like...
I turn invisible,
but in the same spot I am.
Then, when I want to,
I reappear.
Get it?
So...
So do you...
Do you turn invisible at will?
Or do you suddently turn invisible
in the middle of a conversation?
Yeah, sometimes I disappear
by accident as well.
But...
I try to plan the moments
I turn invisible
and that I reappear, got it?
You are there, arent you?
Right here, right here!
Is the music too loud?
Want me to turn it down?