Description
Suzana Amaral is interviewed by Mateus Araujo at Amaral’s home in São Paulo, Brazil on March 24, 2016. It is a co-production with the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative and is part of the project From Latin America to Hollywood: Latino Film Culture in Los Angeles 1967—2017.
Suzana Amaral begins the interview by reminiscing over her first memories of going to the movies as a child. She fondly remembers accompanying her father to see the Shirley Temple film THE LITTLE COLONEL (1935) and watching Sunday matinees of war films during the World War II. She speaks about how, from a very young age, she always kept abreast of cinema’s development; an evolution that remained with her throughout her life. As well as a deep connection with cinema, Amaral describes how her in interest in politics developed. She speaks about her rebellious and contrary nature and her affiliations with the Brazilian Communist Party. She shares her experiences of teaching sceenwriting at the University of São Paulo, of working for TV Cultura with whom she made multiple documentaries, and of her time studying film directing at NYU with director Jim Jarmusch.
Amaral discusses a number of the short films she made in São Paulo after returning from four years in New York City and describes in detail the evolution of her first feature film, A HORA DA ESTRELA [THE HOUR OF THE STAR] (1985). She outlines the challenges she faced making the film, recounts how she came to cast Marcélia Cartaxo in the role of Macabéa and speaks about the positive reception of the film, both in Brazil and abroad. Amaral alludes to her love of literature and story-telling with reference to her film adaptations of Antônio Dourado and João Gilberto Noll’s novels. She talks about the year she spent in Berlin writing the script for UMA VIDA EM SEGREDO (1996) and her experience working with cinematographer Lauro Escorel to realise the project. In declaring HOTEL ATLÂNTICO (2009) to be her favorite of all her films, she describes it as the one which feels the most “alive.”
(jtakahashi 7/21/17)
