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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2023
Studies providing a comprehensive overview of the intersections between cinema and television are scarce in Brazil. One of the first and few works by a Brazilian scholar which cuts across different media is José Mário Ortiz Ramos's Cinema, televisão e publicidade (2004). Ortiz Ramos analyses what he calls the Brazilian audiovisual ‘borderlands’, offering a thorough account of underrated films starring Os Trapalhões (The Goofies), the famous Brazilian quartet of comedians. Following in the footsteps of Ortiz Ramos's sociological and intermedial approach to the Brazilian audiovisual production, I will address in this chapter three Brazilian popular films released between the 1960s and 1980s. Brazilian cinema was particularly thriving in that period – despite the spurious military dictatorship imposed on the nation from 1964 onwards – and this lasted until the latest major crisis in the history of Brazilian cinema, brought about by the shutdown of the state production and distribution company Embrafilme, in 1990. Throughout those three decades, a number of Brazilian films succeeded in communicating effectively with wide audiences, with major box-office hits such as Bruno Barreto's Dona Flor e seus dois maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, 1976), with more than 10 million spectators, or J. B. Tanko's Os saltimbancos trapalhões (The Goofy Acrobats, 1981) and Os trapalhões na Serra Pelada (The Goofies in Serra Pelada, 1981), both with more than 5 million spectators.
Many films from the 1970s and 1980s featured parodies of American blockbusters, attempting to recreate popular US film genres with local colour. This is the case with Brazilian adventure films targeted at juvenile audiences, and one can think of titles as varied as Roberto Farias's Roberto Carlos em ritmo de aventura (Roberto Carlos at Adventure Rhythm, 1968); Adriano Stuart's Os Trapalhões na guerra dos planetas, a.k.a. Brazilian Star Wars (The Goofies in the War of the Planets, 1981) and O incrível monstro trapalhão (The Incredible Goofy Monster, 1981); Ivan Cardoso's O segredo da múmia (The Secret of the Mummy, 1982) and As sete vampiras (The Seven Vampires, 1986); and Francisco de Paula's Areias escaldantes (Scalding Sands, 1985). Some of these films are of particular interest for an intermedial approach, insofar as they are musicals starring popular Brazilian singers or rock bands or featuring popular showbiz artists.
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