Ivan Cardoso is an icon of Brazilian underground film whose works shy away from neither nudity nor the macabre, and his creations have never subscribed to the notion of high or low art. In a compilation film that sums up his rich career, a notion stands out that entertainment was never more intense and unscrupulous, and yet, at its core, benign.
In one sequence of this lurid and delirious prose poem by Brazilian underground bad boy Ivan Cardoso, local pop culture icon José Mojica Marins speaks on camera. A moment later we watch as a woman masturbates over a magazine featuring Coffin Joe, made famous by Marins. In Cardoso’s vision of the world, the division between high and low art was passé even before this was acknowledged by university-level cultural disciplines – and nothing illustrates that better than the scene in which the music of John Cage accompanies the shaving of a woman’s crotch. The film collage demonstrates how close Cardoso’s freethinking work is to blatantly salacious exploitation films, but also how it is deeply rooted in local (pop) culture, which it approaches with romantic fascination. Although he is undoubtedly an outsider among filmmakers, it’s still possible to perceive his approach as artlessly philosophical and timeless – kind of like plastic vampire teeth that never age.
Viktor Palák
62 min / Color, DCP
Director Ivan Cardoso
/ Screenplay Ivan Cardoso
/ Dir. of Photography Ivan Cardoso, Cezar Elias, Eduardo Viveiros, Renato Lacletti
/ Music Julio Medaglia
/ Editor Gurcius Gewdner
/ Art Director Ivan Cardoso
/ Producer Ivan Cardoso
/ Production Topázio Filmes
/ Cast Wilson Grey, José Mojica Marins, Claudia Ohana
/ Sales Topázio Filmes
Ivan Cardoso (b. 1952, Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian filmmaker and photographer with the status of a cult underground artist. He’s been involved in film since 1970 when he served as assistant director to Rogério Sganzerla on No Way, Spider (Sem Essa, Aranha); since that time he has been making his own movies on Super 8. His feature debut The Secret of the Mummy (O Segredo da Múmia, 1982) was followed in part by The Seven Vampires (As Sete Vampiras, 1986), The Scarlet Scorpion (O Escorpião Escarlate, 1990), A Werewolf in Amazonia (Um Lobisomem na Amazônia, 2005), Sarcofago the Macabre (O Sarcófago Macabro, 2005), and numerous shorts.
Topázio Filmes
Praça Eugênio Jardim, 34, 1002, 22061040, Rio de Janeiro
Brazil
Phone: +55 213 258 6016
E-mail: [email protected]
Ivan Cardoso
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