Découpage

Sequence 8

Raul’s story 2 – 8.1. nature

239 – LS of the spit of land
240 – Footprints on the sand. Travelling forward
241 – Detail of a trunk with parasitic plant (negative and inverted)
242 – Trunk and stones with water (negative and inverted)
243 – Empty prairie in diagonal
244 – Detail of the parasitic plan (diagonal)
245 – Detail of the tree with parasitic plant (negative)
246 – Empty prairie
247 – Detail of the dry tree
248 – Detail of the tree reflected in the water
249 – Empty prairie. Right-left pan over the water and left-right pan over the prairie
250 – Grass
251 – Detail of the dry tree (negative)
252 – Detail of the telegraph pole (negative and inverted)
253 – Left-right pan over the grass
254 – Detail of dry branches
255 – Detail from bottom of the arc (inverted)
256 – Detail of the frontal arc
257 – Detail of the arcade in diagonal (darker)
258 – Detail of cactus on the sand/
259 – Footprints on the sand erased by the waves that come from the left twice

The fusion is related to the same spit of land of sequence 6 ([239] see [208]). The footprints on the sand are framed without registering any human presence. In this sequence the same photograms of the sequence 6 are replaced with some inversions of photogram. The tree with parasites ([241] see [212]) is placed in negative and inverted, as well as the trunk, the stone and the water ([242] see [213]), the empty prairie in diagonal ([243] cf. [214]), The parasitic plant ([244] see [215]), here in negative, the tree with the parasite ([245] see [216]), the prairie ([246] see [217]), here without characters, the branches ([247] cf. [219]), the reflection of the tree [248] see [220] and the prairie [249], here without the clothes and with the same pan on the water forward and backward, plant stalks ([250] see [222]), palm ([251] see [223]), here in negative, the telegraph pole ([252] see [224]), here in negative and inverted, and still the PS over the prairie [253], the dry branches ([254] see [226]), here framed in another angle, the ruins ([255] see [227]), here inverted ([256] see [228], [257] see [228]), here darker, the cactus ([258] see [229]). As can be noticed, the order of succession in relation to sequence 6 has not been changed. The only difference is the absence of people and objects that mark their presence (dresses on the prairie). The sequence is closed with the sand shot [259], in which footprints, last evidence of the couple’s passage, are erased by the waves. According to Pereira de Mello, the walking would be one of the useless acts, without efficiency, since there is no evidence left, as well as Raul’s hands cannot manage to hold the short wands ([234] and [236]). Cut.

Raul’s story 2 – 8.2. the woman’s house

260 – Detail of feminine feet. Right-left/top-bottom pan over masculine feet. Bottom-top pan on Rauls hand-kissing. Top-bottom pan. The woman gets out of frame on the right. Right-left/top-bottom pan on the masculine feet that turn back, return as in the beginning and get out of frame on the left /

After the cut, the framing of feminine feet on an open door threshold gives indication of the domestic context. As in the first and second stories, also in Raul’s story there is the detail of a door that is connected to a meeting between the two characters of opposite sex and which precedes a escape. The meeting with Raul also resembles that one of Olga, since it develops out of the door and is detailed on feet and hands ([260] see [39]). The sequence 8.2 is a micro-sequence shot as well as the sequence 2.1.

Raul’s story 2 – 8.3. run to the cemetery

261 – LS of landscape from bottom. Raul enters the frame in the background on the left, who comes forward towards the camera until getting out of frame /
262 – Detail of feet in profile that walk on the left followed by left-right travelling. In super-exposition, the pilasters of a bridge. Then only the feet. In super-exposition, the bars of a fence. Bottom-top pan, then left-right pan and top-bottom pan over the same bars. Only feet /
263 – Detail from top of feet facing forward followed by travelling from behind /
264 – Detail of tree to the wind /
265 – Detail of another tree to the wind /
266 – LS of landscape from top. Raul enters the frame from the right, right-left pan following him. Raul gets out of the frame on the left /
267 – Detail of two palms to the wind /
268 – Detail of the feet in profile which walk on the right followed by left-right travelling /
269 – Windy prairie /
270 – Detail of feet from behind followed by travelling forward /
271 – Rock /
272 – Detail from top of feet followed by travelling forward /
273 – Windy prairie /
274 – Detail of feet facing forward followed by travelling from behind /
275 – Detail of feet in profile which walk to the left followed by right-left travelling /
276 – Detail of feet from behind followed by travelling forward /
277 – Detail of feet in profile which walk to the right followed by left-right travelling /
278 – Detail from top of feet followed by travelling forward /
279 – Quick left-right pan over the prairie, oscillations for five times /
280 – Nature from top. Raul enters the frame from the left, followed by left-right pan and gets out of frame on the right /
281 – Detail of tree /
282 – Detail of tree /
283 – Detail of tree /
284 – Detail of tree /

With a cut an escape-run which is framed from bottom begins ([261] see [40]), as in Olga’s story with the empty road take and the characters successive entering the frame and his leaving, while in Olga’s escape the framing was from top. Raul, as coming from an urban context, begins his escape through nature as opposed to the two women, who before arriving at the rural zone cross the city. In the shot [261], Raul at distance appears, very small, who comes closer (Olga moving away), grows (the camera is on ground level) and passes over the camera, leaving in frame the same tree that now seems smaller. The detail of feet [262] who walk in profile overlaps the shot of pilasters of a group of houses (vertical) and of the bars of a fence (horizontal); over-expositions that sign the passage that takes place in space and time and that in a latent mode allude to an imprisonment of movement. The two legs [263] mark diagonals in fade in with the orthogonal lines of the fence. Raul framed from top and at distance enters the frame in a track, is followed by the camera and gets out of frame. The palms fronded crown, as curls, is grabbed by the wind [267]. The details of feet framed in several positions (in profile to the right and left, from behind, from top, facing forward) are alternated by shots of the windy prairie (from [268] to [278]) and afterwards are consecutive without an intermediate shot, converging into a speedy pan [279] over the grass, characterized by oscillations that are gradually ceased as if they were oscillations of a pendulum. The shot from top in the midst of the leaves comes back [280], almost voyeuristic, of Raul at a distance entering and getting out of frame. Then, cuts over trees, some of them already framed previously ([281], [282], [283] and [284]).

Raul’s story 2 – 8.4. cemetery 1

285 – MS of Raul walking and lighting a cigarette. Travelling backwards following him.
286 – LS with Raul in MS walking. Bottom-top pan. Raul coming closer to the camera and trying to light his cigarette again. Travelling forward over his face and right-left/top-bottom pan over the wall. Raul enters again in frame from the right, crosses the camera, gets out of frame on the left. Right-left pan over Raul on his back in MS leaned on the gate /
287 – Clouds
288 – LS with Raul on his back in MS leaned on the gate. Travelling forward over the gate and beyond.
289 – Mário in MS on the tomb.
290 – Detail of Mário’s hand which touches the band /
291 – Clouds
292 – Raul on his back in MS at the gate. Travelling forward over his back up to the detail of the coat. Raul moves away and bends. Right-left pan and travelling forward up to the detail of Raul’s hand with a flower. Raul walks and travelling forward to follow him.
293 – Detail of the flower. Raul moves away and stops at the tomb and places the flower on it /
294 – Counterframe with Raul facing forward in AS and Mário on his back in AS /
295 – LS of cemetery /
296 – Detail of Raul’s hair to the wind /
297 – AS of Raul with inclined head. Right-left/top-bottom pan over Mário’s feet, passing by tomb, and bottom-top pan up to AS of Mário /
298 – Detail from top of Mário’s combed hair /
299 – AS of Mário. Speedy left-right pan over Raul who wears two wedding rings. Speedy right-left pan over Mário and quick left-right pan over CU of Raul, and top-bottom over feet near a toad which Raul crushes. Bottom-top pan up to CU of Raul and top-bottom over his bust when he is leaving but Mário’s hand holds him by the coat and then releases him /
300 – CU of Mário who asks Raul to light his cigarette. Raul in AS places his hat on the tomb /
301 – CU of Raul’s face in profile. Top-bottom pan up to the coat pocket from which he takes a cigarette and bottom-top pan over his face, when he lights a cigarette and comes nearer Mário /
302 – Detail of Mário’s hand with an empty cigarette-holder. Left-right pan over Raul’s hand with the cigarette and over his face /
303 – AS of both of them in profile on the opposite side. Right-left/bottom-top pan follows Raul who stands up and throws the cigarette on the floor /
304 – AS from top of Mário facing forward. Mário stands up followed by bottom-top pan and speaks /
305 – Caption: You come from the house of the woman who is not yours /
306 – AS of Mário /
307 – Detail of the hand which points. Left-right/top-bottom pan over the land /
308 – CU of Mário who speaks /
309 – Caption: Suppose that she is mine like this one has been yours /
310 – AS of Mário who speaks and comes toward the camera
311 – CU of Mário who speaks
312 – Caption: and if I tell you that she is leprous?… /
313 – CU of Mário who speaks.
Fusion

With Raul in CU [285], we clearly see for the first time, during his story, a form of a man who tries to light a cigarette. By means of a LS he is framed in the same situation until the CU, obtained with Raul’s coming near the camera [286],which at this point begins to move on the landscape, excluding Raul until he reaches a wall from which he meets again the man who enters the frame once more, crosses the camera and gets out of frame. The camera moves to the gate where Raul is on his back. During this micro-sequence shot, the camera firstly precedes Raul, then reaches him, interleaved by clouds [287], a micro-sequence shot [288] leads to the shot that had been left [286], with the LS and Raul on his back. Travelling forward until going beyond the bars of the gate. In diagonal [289] the tomb with Mário sideways is framed: we observe that we are in a cemetery and find a new character. The detail of the hand ([290] see [108]) introduces a wedding ring, in this case handled and not placed on the finger. Again, clouds [291] and for the third time LS with Raul on his back ([292] see [286] and [288]). Travelling forward up to the detail of the out of focus coat (almost like a fade in in white), which shows Raul entering the cemetery. Raul moving away from the camera up to a MS follows, as in the beginning, who is almost picking a flower: then the camera moves to the left while the action is developed and returns to Raul with a detail on his hand and on the flower picked. At the detail of a flower there arrived also a pan which turns aside from Taciana on the right [117]. The camera then enters firstly autonomously the cemetery, then following Raul. With fusion, detail of the flower [293] with the background out of focus and Raul moving away from the camera until reaching the tomb and Mário now on focus. Raul places the flower on the tomb with bars, as well as Taciana had left the basket [111] at the bottom of the stairs after meeting her husband crouched like Mário. In the two micro-sequence shots ([292] and [293]), for two times the travelling over the detail of the character (coat, flower) is followed by the character moving away framed by the motionless camera, almost as if it were a passage of dynamic energy. The counterframe [295] is framed by two posts of a cross out of focus in BCU. A movement of the camera of the detail of Raul’s hair to the wind [296] follows and a micro-sequence shot, which from the CU of Raul through the tomb reaches Mário’s feet and rises up to his AS [297] and [298]. The idea of contrast between the disorder of Raul’s hair and the order of Mário’s is immediate. Another micro-sequence shot begins [299] which from Mário’s AS goes to the hand with the two wedding rings and again over Mário and again over AS of Raul from which there follows the top-bottom pan up to his feet, then bottom-top pan up to CU and top-bottom pan up to the bust, when Mário’s hand touches Raul’s coat (see the fight with the hands of [39]). Mário looks at Raul, speaks, notices the two wedding rings, looks at his, smiles and replaces the wedding ring in the coat. The wedding rings link the love story of Raul to Taciana’s, while Olga’s narrative is strange to these themes. The camera represents twice the passage of Mário-Raul’s eyes before the movement of hands and afterwards the face, then goes down to the feet that crush the toad, as to neutralize an evil, and returns to the face to stabilize on half of the body. Both of them appear together in profile [300] and Mário asks Raul to light a cigarette. The camera moves down from CU of Raul in profile [301] up to the coat pocket (from which he takes a cigarette) and moves up again to the head (places the cigarette in the mouth), moves down up to his hands (which hold a match) and goes up to the head (lights his cigarette and goes closer to Mário’s who entered the frame). The camera moves vertically looking for the details of the action. The detail of Mário’s profile and the hand with the empty cigarette holder follows [302]. Mário’s head gets out of frame and Raul’s hand enters the frame. Mário’s hand gets out of frame and an astonished Raul in profile remains in frame and his hand. Also in this case the camera goes on searching the point in which the action is focused. After this series of details, both of them are framed [303]: Raul is the one who stands up (he was bent towards Mário), placing his cigarette in his mouth. Raul’s cigarette does not have smoke, as Mário’s is not lit and Raul himself tries unsuccessfully to light the cigarette ([285] and [286]). These are all failing acts that underline everyday life’s limits. Mário in AS from top [304] is framed by both sides of out of focus edges of Raul’s back and nape in BCU. Mário stands up and speaks. There appears the first caption of the film [305] which, as the other two, is of the dialogic type and related to the others, making part of a same grammatical period. Mário keeps on speaking [306] and points at [307] the tomb over which the camera moves. The gesture precedes the shot of Mário in CU who speaks [308] and the second caption [309], which content it refers to. Again CU of Mário and afterwards CU with violent expression [310] and fusion into CU of Mário speaking: third caption [312]. The literal content of the captions introduces a complex syntactical structure and of a non-immediate understanding, which is distinguished from that of the tradition explaining function of the captions. In our case, the caption neither illustrates nor clarifies, but adds ambiguous elements. The sequence is closed by the CU of Mário with his mouth not framed [313]: there is nothing more to add. Fusion.