A most curious gathering of images and two different speech moments from different artists at different periods yet reflecting the exact same
angry and outcry over the decadent state of Brazilian art. Two iconic figures (one from cinema, other from music), both with enraging words to say and both
being born on Bahia. Coincidence or just the illusion of it? You be the judge!
Filmmaker Glauber Rocha's voice comes from the opening of a TV show he had in 1978, and in it
he complains about the quality of Brazilian cinema at the time and also gives a warning to parents to keep an eye on their children and beware of Superman.
With that, he's complaining about the first film released at the time and how dominant Hollywood cinema was a powerful monstrous force that affected the
internal cinema and didn't allow much space for them - but Glauber also goes to show that this same national cinema was in a dire state, way different than
the period he released his masterpieces.
As for the great musician Caetano Veloso comes his 1968 rant during a music festival, during his performance of "É Proibido Proibir" where the boos and
yells at his act prompted to complain about the youth's hypocrisy about what they consider as a good music or not. The entire speech isn't presented in the
movie but it can be easily found at an audio track of the song - it's a quite long rant.
While we don't see both artists, director Jomard Muniz de Britto gives us the repetitive images of gigantic eyes looking at the audience, some walls
with the film title being shown with some drawings of the Communist Party or other random drawings; and 1-second blinkings of a pornographic movie involving
two guys and a girl (there are like 4 or 5 shots of that, it's definitely blink and miss).
The ultimate idea, I think, it's to show that despite the difference in the decades the state of the arts in Brazil went through a processed state
where the genuine quality art was dimissed in favor of another, with the heavy influence of American music and American cinema, and the little of what was
done in here wasn't considered good enough for audiences, it was considered pretentious, lacking in substance or not appealing. The outcry of seeing "Eyes
on Them" is to beware of what international cultures were doing with their influence which could affect the artistic movements present in the nation, and
then we wouldn't recognise ourselves as a place with a culture of its own, and what would be left was spewing out the garbage that comes from outside (and
there is plenty of garbage coming from all sources).
And it's not just a case that Brazilian artists were only developing bad art. The problem was that the
artistic movements that survived at that time (early 1980's) and were getting some form of recognition and generating money/business were the ones lacking in
quality, lacking on a higher purpose. True then, true now - specially the music business. But it's up to us in the audience to look out for the best available
within our own realm, it exists and can be found. That's the big alert coming from this random yet valuable piece. 8/10.