Os governos de Getúlio Vargas em filmes de arquivo : imagens que sobrevivem no presente

Abstract

This thesis research presents how Getúlio Vargas’ governments are remembered through archival films, released since the president’s death until today. The frame of research focus on the feature films: Getúlio Vargas – glória e drama de um povo (Alfredo Palácios, 1956), Revolução de 30 (Sylvio Back, 1980), and Imagens do Estado Novo (Eduardo Escorel, 2016). The remembrance of Getúlio Vargas’ autocratic and democratic governments show different perspectives over this historical character, matching the sociopolitical context of the film’s production (BENJAMIN, 2018; GAGNEBIN, 2014; KRACAUER, 2001). Revisiting the films in this research, the “surviving images” (DIDI-HUBERMAN, 2013) of Getúlio Vargas’ government are those that relate with the present: a moment in which Brazilian political life is marked by the advancement of authoritarianism, as well as resistance to democratic setbacks. Each archival film recollects Getúlio Vargas’ as it is juxtaposed to the present the sociopolitical circumstances of their time of release, producing an imagetic archive (DERRIDA, 2001) from the fragments of each different film. The analysis of the images followed the subsequent categories: the face in the crowd, the militarism face, and the face of the elite (AUMONT, 1998; BALÁZS, 2013; DELEUZE, 2006, DELEUZE e GUATTARI, 2012; KRACAUER, 2001). According to the “configurations” (DIDIHUBERMAN, 1995) created by the images, the memory of Getúlio Vargas appears sometimes by toning down the authoritarian aspects of his first government (1930- 1945), and highlighting his democratic period (1951-1954), other times by fading traces of his democratic government, so that his arbitrary period are emphasized. The images of Getúlio Vargas that survive and remain present are those that appear through the edges (DIDI-HUBERMAN, 2015b) of both his authoritarian and democratic governments.