They don't speak in portuguese, but in crioulo, which is a black-colonies
deviation from standard portuguese. Even straight portuguese spoken in Portugal
generally needs translation for brazilian audiences, and JUVENTUDE EM MARCHA is
completely non-understandable for a brazilian audience. Of course, you catch
some words, some sentences, but not the whole sense of what's said.
"Juventude em Marcha", it seems, is a politlcal-liberation slogan, and naming
the film with it is an act of dissonance with the characters' lives as of their
diegetic present. In fact, the whole film builds itself between present and
past, and the several-times-repeated letter is a way of juxtaposing present and
past (of course, the letter does not correspond to the feelings of Lento, who
was supposed to sign it). The song played in the grammophone is "Labanta Braço",
which is also a liberation song. But as Costa films the scene, he mixes the
political with the sentimental (political liberation = freedom = Ventura's love)
in a way we can no longer define what's exactly at stake. The film's
indefinition is a triumph, not a flaw, IMO.
Ruy

----- Original Message -----
From: jpcoursodon
To: a_film_by@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 9:38 PM
Subject: [a_film_by] Juventude



I recently had a discussion about the film with Tag Gallagher (who
likes it a lot -- probably more than I do)and he said that it took
him months of repeated viewings trying to figure out the plot --
even people who are big fans of the film, he said, told him they
didn't understand what's going on. My view was that the plot's
murkiness is intentional and part of the overall aesthetic strategy.
But Tag argued that perhaps if we understood Portuguese it wouldn't
be murky at all. So, as a modest point of departure, I'd like to ask
Ruy, who speaks the language, what his opinion is.

Another modest question: the title is perhaps what's murkiest about
the film (at least to me).If there is one thing we don't get a
glimpse of in the film it's Youth on the March!

It's interesting to see Costa's documentary on the
Straub's "Sicilia!" as Costa is very much a Straub-like cineaste
while at the same time very different (and insisting at time he is
anti-Straub).

In France right now Costa is a bone of contention between Positif
and Cahiers du Cinema about "Juventude" -- just as about Straub in
the old days and Hitchcock in the even older days -- Plus ca
change...

JPC





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