15: Earth Entranced (a.k.a. Entranced Earth, a.k.a. Terra em Transe – Original Portuguese title)

            I’m really not sure where to begin with Glauber Rocha’s Earth Entranced (1967).  I know that it is the first film that I’ve viewed without subtitles which I feel suffered in my estimation because of that disadvantage.  But I believe that more than this reason alone compels me to see the film again.  I can say with certainty that it is in need of a U.S. DVD release, and that it might even drum up a modest profit, even outside the university library sales that it would likely garner.  A political thriller that seems to asks some deep questions (but in Portuguese), I can best describe it through another of my retrospective pitches.  “It’s All the Presidents Men (1976) meets La Dolce Vita (1960), with some Zabriskie Point (1970) thrown in.”

            The narrative centers on Paulo (Jardel Filho), a filmmaker and journalist whose coverage has supported the conservative president, Porfirio Diaz, of his native Eldorado (a fictional stand in for any number of Latin American nations).  Now Paulo has begun to cover Felipe Vieira, a populist governor whose own supporters would like to see him rise to national power.  When Vieira wins election to the presidency, his administration quickly establishes its willingness to employ violence against any potential upheaval.  Tired of covering politics, Paulo reverts back to a lifestyle of socialite journalism, but finds that he cannot escape the greater political realities that surround him.  Convinced by a former lover that he must use his influence to destroy the politically resurgent Diaz, he’s no longer certain of any concrete ideologies.  Feeling betrayed and disgusted with the entire state of conventional politics, he opts to join an armed resistance group after Vieira declares martial law.

            While the structure of the story, told through flashback, isn’t particularly difficult to summarize, the film is often disorienting.  Quick cut editing is juxtaposed with lengthy hand-held camerawork creating a distinctive feeling of uncertainty.  Equally odd, but also disarming, is the director’s frequent use of unsynchronized sound, which often dubs what we might expect to hear in one scene into the background of the next.   However, Rocha’s cinematic literacy allows him to use sets and framing in repetitive patterns to establish continuity with each character, making their political distinctions as well as their narrative function less murky, even for the viewer who doesn’t speak Portuguese. 

            What I’m not so sure of is what it all adds up to.  I’m no expert in South American history, but I do know that a relatively bloodless overthrow of the peoples’ government by a military dictator in 1964 led to almost a quarter century of a restricted press and terrible economic discrepancies in Rocha’s native Brazil.  Like his Black God, White Devil (1964; #23), this film seems to role elements of violence, sexuality, religious imagery, and politics together into a ball of confusion, asking the audience to make their own decisions about what is presented to them.  I believe Earth Entranced is a better picture than Rocha’s earlier work, and that while his statements might not be plain here, that they are at least more focused than in that previous film.  The limited subtitled clips of the film that are available on YouTube are telling, noting the overall cynicism that Rocha has toward those who would seek out political power.

Language: Portuguese

Runtime: 106 Minutes

Available @YouTube.com (Limited Subtitles)

Grade: 2 Hats Off