Description
BANG BANG, 1971
85 minutes
This endearingly crazy 1971 Brazilian film defies classification: its Portuguese title (Bangue bangue) refers to films we’d probably call “shoot-’em-ups,” director Andrea Tonacci called it a “Maoist detective comedy,” yet American audiences would probably consider it an experimental film. The anonymous urban protagonist experiences a series of absurd situations–including a crazy cab ride, an encounter with a wacky criminal gang, and lots of gunplay–but they’re stripped of any story that might explain them and infused with a unique anarchic energy, eventually suggesting our true animal nature. As with Godard, it’s partly an homage to genre filmmaking (there’s singing and dancing, a little sex, and lots of violence), but what really powers the film is Tonacci’s inventive camera.
Synopsis
The actor of a film being made lives without distinction his own personal reality and his character’s fiction. As the involuntary object of chance and circumstance, he looks for a meaning and way out, while being pursued by outlaws, a magician, a romantic fantasy, a drunk and his own self-image. The humour, the reason of the persecution, situations, personages, set decoration, dialogs and soundtrack (which uses themes from other films) lead us to symbols, metaphors and the refusal of a possible logical narrative, in a way to allow the viewer to experiment a sensation analogous to the one of the main character, inducing in him the need of thinking a meaning while lost and led by the sustained expectation, and by the intentionally recurrent anti-climax.
Trailer BANG BANG
About Tonacci
Tonacci joined the history of Brazilian cinema, when he, at the age of 27 in 1971, launched the cult film Bang Bang at the height of the bloodiest period of the military dictatorship in Brazil. “Aesthetically and politically subversive absolutely in harmony with the debauched and incredible responsiveness of Brazilian cinema of that moment,” said Cleber Eduardo, curator of the exhibition in honor of Tonacci during the Tiradentes Film Festival (BR) in January 2016.
Andrea Tonacci was born in Rome (Italy) and emigrated with his family to Brazil in 1944 when he was 11 years old. He was an important figure of the flow Marginal Cinema, from the late 60s and 70s when he made two short films (Eye for an eye and Bla Bla Bla) and his first feature film Bang Bang, is considered a landmark of the Marginal Cinema. Between 1975 and 2006, Tonacci produced a variety of video material, and usually with and about several Brazilian tribes (Talks in Maranhão, 1977 and Araras, 1980). In 2006, Tonacci made his second feature film: Serras da Desordem (The hills of Disorder). In 2013, his last work: Já visto, visto Jamais (Seen, ever seen) is a visual dialogue between memories of the author on the basis of personal and emotional images.
Andrea Tonacci
Tonacci is tot de geschiedenis van de Braziliaanse cinema toegetreden, toen hij, op de leeftijd van 27, in 1971, de cultfilm Bang Bang op het hoogtepunt van de bloedigste periode van de militaire dictatuur in Brazilië lanceerde. “Esthetisch subversief en politiek absoluut in harmonie met de liederlijke e
n ongelooflijke reactiviteit van de Braziliaanse cinema van het moment”, aldus Cleber Eduardo, curator van de tentoonstelling ter ere van Tonacci tijdens het Tiradentes Film Festival (BR) in januari 2016.
Andrea Tonacci werd geboren in Rome (Italië) in 1944 en emigreerde met zijn familie naar Brazilië toen hij 11 jaar oud was. Hij werd een belangrijke figuur van de stroming Marginal Cinema, uit de late jaren 60 en 70. Toen maakte hij twee korte films (Oog om oog en Bla Bla Bla) en zijn eerste lange film Bang Bang, wordt beschouwd als een mijlpaal van de Marginal Cinema. Tussen 1975 en 2006, Tonacci produceerde een verscheidenheid aan videomateriaal, meestal met en over verschillende Braziliaanse inheemse stammen (Gesprekken in Maranhão in 1977 en de Araras, 1980). In 2006, maakte Tonacci zijn tweede lange film: Serras da Desordem (The hills of Disorder). In 2013, zijn laatste werk: Já visto, Jamais visto (Seen, ever seen) is een visuele dialoog tussen herinneringen van de auteur aan de hand van persoonlijke en emotionele beelden.
