The Most Marginal of the Brazilian Marginals

Perhaps the most marginal of all Brazilian cinema's marginal films. It surpasses even Ozualdo Candeias's "ZéZero" and Rogério Sganzerla's "Sem Essa, Aranha" in terms of subversion and marginality. Anyone familiar with Neville d'Almeida's films like "A Dama do Lotação" or "Os Sete Gatinhos" will likely be taken aback by "Mangue-Bangue". D'Almeida isn't usually cited alongside Bressane, Rosemberg Filho, or Sganzerla when it comes to Brazilian experimental/underground cinema, but, in this film, he lives up to his credentials. Not only in his handling of his Super-8 camera, but also in his editing, which reveals an incongruity of associations.

It's a silent film, but it screams a cathartic and delirious poetry of critique of underdevelopment and involvement with the "extravaganza." Neville d'Almeida not only documents Rio's underworld during the military dictatorship, but also the high-flying world of the stock market. Paulo Villaça's character is highly symptomatic of this transition between the bourgeoisie and the slums. It's a film that features shameless drug use, from recreational to destructive. Maria Gladys, Damião Experiênça, and the filmmaker himself star in the most haphazard spree seen in Brazilian cinema. There's also hopelessness and a harsh critique for those with an idyllic view of nature. Cockfighting only imprisons us in the primitive. Humanity is irretrievable in the universe depicted in "Mangue-Bangue". Between luxury and waste, all we have left is the beauty of survival. Or the beauty of Maria Gladys's erotic dance with the camera.

If Neville d'Almeida's goal in "Mangue-Bangue" was to leave us with images in our memories, or to heroically record a reality so cruel in the eyes of official censorship (to the point that the filmmaker almost lost the film), he succeeded with all due respect. It's my favorite film in his entire career.

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Mangue-Bangue

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