" May I talk already?" " Yes, you may." "well, we're all together, I'm very glad," "I'm here with my whole family." "This is Miss "Beibe", my wife, with whom I'm married for 57 years." "This is my aunt Cora, my mother's sister" "And the 1 7 grandchildren, six children, the in-Iaws, and a great-grand child" "I can't see him around." "naturally, during today's party we'II dedicate this soccer field, this sports plaza, to which we gave my brother's name." "Francisco Mauro, who passed away in January." "Something that made us very sad." "well, during the 80 years of my Iife," "I have, really, 52 years in film." "I worked a Iot with electricity, I worked a Iot in radio, and then I became involved with film." "Now, miss "Beibe" here is to blame if I ever did something." "Because as I use to say, applying a verse by Long fellow, that she's been the thread that distends the bow so I can throw the arrow." "Without her, I'd have done nothing." "And, naturally, with lots of help of my whole family." "specially my children." "Among my works in film, I'd stress my sons Zequinha and Luiz, who helped me a Iot in filmmaking." "How's that story that Father Cicarine used to tell?" " Is it already recording?" " Yes." " It is not yet, is it?" " Yes, it is." "Go." "Father Cicarine was a priest in Cataguazes." "He was a good friend of ours, of my family, of my father, and he liked me a Iot." "A couple of days ago, a girl asked me..." "A reporter from São paulo came here and was surprised to know that I was a practicing, apostolic, Roman, catholic." "I said:" "I am, and I'm in very good company." "Pope John X XIII was a catholic." "And the present pope, paul VI, he's a apostolic, Roman, catholic." "De gaulle used to confess, to partake the holy Communion and everything." " Now, what about father Cicarine?" " Now, father Cicarine." "In the old days, the confessional had little holes so the priest would not recognize who was confessing to him." "But, when I kneeled, he said immediately 'Humberto, how do you do?" "'" "I used to say: 'Gee!" "I'm lost!" "'" "'TeII me your sins'" "I started to talk to him and he said:" "'No, it is not possible!" "'" "'Aren't you the son of Caetano?" "' 'It can't be possible!" "'" "'But have you repented?" "' 'Yes, father, I've repented.'" "'WeII, Iet's do this way:'" "'You repent from all your sins since you were 8 you pray 5 Our Father 5 hall Mary e leave in peace.'" "When I was about to leave, he said:" "'Humberto, pray only 3 Our Father but tell Caetano that I will have dinner in his place.'" "I said: 'Yes." "It's all right, father.'" "He was an extraordinary man." "In one occasion, I found him in the sacristy of the church of..." "Let me move to there." " Is this because of the lump?" " No..." "Yes..." "But I met him in the sacristy in Rio Branco, in 'Visconde do Rio Branco', and there was one of those old boring ladies, who was really pissing him off." "He said: "'Chiquinha"', would you do me a favor?" "'" "'Why don't you go to the protestant preacher, please!" "'" "'Go to the protestant, protestants are the same thing.'" "'You have it all there, it's all right, go..." "Leave me in peace!" "'" "He used to say these kinds of things." "And the oven-bird story, isn't it with him?" " No." "The oven-bird was someone else." " Someone else?" "It was the italian priest, a priest in LeopoIdina, where I was studying high school." "It was father..." "I can't remember his name now..." " The name of the priest in LeopoIdina?" " In LeopoIdina?" " Wasn't it father Cicarine?" " No, no." "It wasn't father Cicarine." "He had a museum and when we were on vacation, we used to go to the museum, to see him." "And then he used to tell things to us, and to lie to us." "For exampIe, in LeopoIdina, there was Mr. Pimenta - the city's sheriff -- who had a parrot that was famous because it only spoke shouting words." "It was an amazing thing!" " Just like mine, the 'Soiza'." " It was Pimenta." "And then, when we went there to see the museum, he said:" "'Hey boys, want to know something?" "I celebrated 42 weddings today.' 42 weddings in LepoIdina?" "He didn't make even 5!" "'But when I arrived home, I was telling this to a friend of mine and my macaw turned to me and said like this:" "'Chuvinha', I want to marry Mr. Pimenta's parrot.'" "I didn't know this one." "Is this the Iast parrot joke?" "It was father JúIio Fiorentini." "JúIio Fiorentini, an italian." "He Said: 'Boys, you should be devotees of Saint Conegunda'." "I am a devotee of St. Conegunda." "The other day I went to celebrate a baptism in the county in the afternoon when a terrible storm came, and a lightning felt on me." "I screamed: 'St. Conegunda, protect me!" "'" "I walked calmly." "I arrived in the farm, I checked out and the mule was headless.'" " This father JúIio was good!" " A really good priest!" "Now comes his story of the oven-bird." "'Another time, I went to do a wedding" "On the going, I saw an oven-bird finishing his little house." "When I returned, I saw that his house was totally illuminated." "I thought immediately that he had installed electricity in his house but, when I examined, he had put a firefly in every room.'" "These are clean jokes." "talking about religious jokes..." "'I heard the other day that a Coca-CoIa representative went to Rome." "He had a hearing with the pope and he told the pope seriously -- the pope first thought that he was kidding -- that he would give him thousands of dollars to change the verses of Our Father." "Instead of being 'give us this day our daily bread' it should be changed to 'give us this day our daily Coke'." "The pope took it as a joke but, when he saw it was no joke, he didn't like it." "The man left the pope after offering him a fabulous fortune, and, while talking to a friend, he said" "'I'd Iike to know how much the baker paid him to use "bread" instead.'" "Our daily bread!" "What is your next celluloid?" "There are no celluloid nowadays, now it's acetate butyrate." "So, what is you next acetate butyrate?" "My next acetate butyrate is called brazilian ballads." "naturally, with alex's technical and artistic assistance." "And vice-versa, isn't it?" "It's the vice-versa that's interesting." "I'II illustrate some of the ballads verse by verse." "Others, I won't." "I will seize the spirit of the ballads and, then, make the scenes." "They can even show sex, this so called sex, that is so talked about nowadays." "But no violence at all." "To kill a guy..." "Ta-ta-ta" "Is sex OK?" "You turned the TV on, they're killing people." " And sex?" " They kill but don't bury." "To photograph things in a way people are not used to see." "Because we're not used to see it I'm seeing you here and there." "But the Iong shots, the infinity, no one is really used to see." "The same thing with big cIose-ups." "A different way of photographing, all this will be applied there, it will be applied in the film." "But Humberto, look, I always said that everything that's good in the film is yours." "and everything that's bad is mine." "This is not a phrase." "It's really true." "Because I think that the good things in the film are those you have imagined during these 30 years of the story" "and they are there." "I don't know what you'd do." "If it looks like the way you would have done." "Maybe, I don't know, she is possessed by the wind, or the dog's death, those are things that were imagined by you." "Or, in the end, the yearning she leaves behind." "I don't know." "It's already done, isn't it?" "It was something, wasn't it!" "For exampIe, you see, the wind." "The idyll with the wind, I imagined it in a field of grass in blossom, but it does not exist here." " If you're going to wait..." " We can search." "This nature thing." "There are moments of nature that if you Do not shoot, you'II never shoot again." "It will never present itself to you again in the same manner." "But it's very good." " By the way, you edited a Iot, didn't you?" " A Iot." "But it's very good." "It's not too long, it has the exact time." "Great!" "The film as a whole is very good." "You are one of those who like carlos imperial playing the sheriff that you would have played." " It's a role Humberto Mauro would play." " What?" "You should have played the role of the sheriff." "No, I was going to play..., but there is a scene that is not in the movie." "It was the arrestment of the guy who saw the idyll of the star with the wind." "and, thinking that she had suffered something, he tries to help her, but she started to shout and the man was arrested." "I was going to play the sheriff who was to make a speech, but it ended up differently, didn't it?" "Besides, it is not very good, is it?" "And when you couldn't do it, because it was a difficult production and you knew that." "Besides, when I had the idea to make this film you tried to convince me to give up, because you knew it was a difficult project." "And it was very difficult." "When you could not do it you did 'Canto da Saudade', instead, didn't you?" "exactly." "In 1 951 or 1 952 you made 'Canto da Saudade'." "I got money for 'Canto da Saudade' through a very good friend of mine, called Fausto AIvin, who was the president of 'Banco Hipotecário', he made the bank lend me money to make "Canto da Saudade"." "And so, I made it with him." "I had two partners who invested some money each." "I paid the Ioan and I couId make the movie." "But 'A Noiva da Cidade' was much more expensive, wasn't it?" "'" "Which are the main things present in your films?" "In this film you saw?" "Because, after all, the story was totally made by the two of us, with the participation of miguel in the beginning of the script, by miguel Borges." "But it was all made based on recorded tapes, wasn't it?" "Because you had those ideas through the course of many years and there was practically nothing in writing." "You had, in fact, just a single sheet of paper." "That sheet you had written in 1 952." "The rest was in your imagination and came out during chats." "That's true." " And we went on making the film..." " Nothing was written..." "That ending..." "And you, alex, which are the main influences that you'd stress?" "well, I don't know, I think the film is..." "When Humberto went Rio to see the first rushes..." "When he saw the rushes with more than 3 hours in the MovioIa" "Then I wrote a letter, you gave me your first opinions about the film and suggested some cuts." "I wrote you a letter saying that the film was really weird because, at the same time that it was a homage to you -- and, therefore, a very 'Mauroan' like film - it was a film that had resulted in a very personal work from me." "I am entirely in the film, don't you think?" "And with all my defects and some possible qualities." "But, at the same time, the film took an identity of its own." "It exists by itself." "It exits with you, with me, and in spite of ourselves." "It is there." "It's a film about a moment of the brazilian cinema." "I don't know." "I'm very suspicious of any filmmaker that pretends to play the important pointing ways, these kind of things." "I'm very suspicious of others and, therefore, even of ourselves." "Of you and I when we claim to be like that." "But, in the end, you're the man who laid the roots." "And the idea of the film was to see if .." "'You're the man... 'whomadewhat?" "The man who laid the roots of the brazilian cinema." "And we decided to see the obvious..." "To see the life that lied in these roots" "And they are pretty much alive -- the roots of the cinema that you proposed and still propose." "I believe it is probably the liveliest thing in the brazilian cinema." " Thank very much!" " That's true." "I believe this is what a film can have of positive, of good." "I congratulate your daughter too." "Those sequences..." " It's Betina, isn't she?" " Made by you both..." "I don't..." "The music is very good." " And the photograph by...?" " The photograph is great too." "David really knows your work, doesn't him?" " Yes, he does." " He made a 'Mauroan' photograph." " Do you think it is a photograph?" " Yes, undoubtedly." "especially the end, the river baths, the waterfalls, all that..." "Verynice!" "The photography is great." "And the sound is good too, isn't it?" " Yes." "Sound is good, we can hear all" " Very good." "They want you to say something about the importance of Gonzaga." "Gonzaga has always been to me and to my family..." "We were very good friends, we've always been." "He was a friend of family." "It was Gonzaga who took you to Rio de Janeiro, wasn't him?" "Yes, it was him who took me, he insisted on taking me to Rio." "And I helped him a Iot in the beginning of Cinédia [Studios]." "Cinedia's first film, 'Lábios sem Beijos', [Lips Without Kisses] was directed by me." "Is there already a very big influence of Gonzaga in 'Lábios sem Beijos'?" "Because I have my doubts about it..." " About what?" " About Gonzaga's influence." "No." "The storyline of 'Lábios sem Beijos' was his, he was going to make it with Carmen Santos." "Later, he decided to give it to me." "He didn't get involved with anything." "Nothing at all." " It's a film that I Iike a Iot." " What?" " I Iike 'Lábios sem Beijos' a Iot." " Ah..." "There is a Iot of me in it." "Of course it does because Gonzaga's process was like mine." "there was nothing in writing." "Except for a few things..." "Because I always imagined to divide the story into sequences." "and the sequences into shooting plans." "and these plans, were all improvised, because if you decided to write an idyll with a tree, in this and that way you'd end up not finding the tree and you'd have to do it somewhere else, right?" "So as to..." "That's what I call a film scenery, the division of the sequences in scenes." "I improvised everything, including in 'Lábios sem Beijos'." "Now, when you started making talking pictures..." ""Ganga Bruta" had a few dialogues already..." " Just a few lines." " Very few lines, right?" "But in "Ganga Bruta", I changed completely." "My storyline is right, it is there, because Gonzaga, in the beginning," "apparently, he didn't want to make movies." "Just later, we became adapted to each other..." "I have some letters where he says that he wanted to go to Cataguazes, to work there, to make movies with me." "Therefore, I'm sure that I encouraged him a Iot to start making movies to produce and direct, because he knew a Iot about film." "In which area do you think Gonzaga's importance was bigger?" "In production, in the area of...?" "Gonzaga's biggest importance?" "In criticism, as a producer, as a Promoter of brazilian cinema?" "What was his biggest importance?" "well, he..." "It was not as a producer." "It was exactly that, as a supporter, he encouraged everybody." "I met Gonzaga because, in Cataguazes, I had a friend who said:" ""would you find me a..." there was no 'filmmaker' yet..." "It was 'Paratodos' magazine, wasn't it?" "There was a film section in it..." "We gave him some money " "I'm not going to tell his name here, because he's a good friend of mine and he is well known in Cataguazes - we gave him 500 thousand "réis"" "At that time, 500 thousand "réis" was a Iot of money!" "It was used to pay the publication of a picture of us in Cataguazes a picture of this film, "A Primavera da Vida"." "It was the first film that I did there, and it had a plot." "And the photograph never appeared in the magazine..." "And every week we bought 'Paratodos'." "'Come, Iet's take a look at 'Paratodos' But the picture was never there!" "Then, I talked to Agenor Homero who was one of the directors of 'Phebo'" "I went to Rio and looked for Gonzaga in the editorial room of 'Paratodos'." "I talked to him, I told him what was going on, we paid, but the picture was never published, nothing was published." "He became very upset." "He did not know that we were making films in Cataguazes." "He said:" ""You're wrong, it is me who pays"."