Between the Primeiras and the Outras estórias: an analysis of the transcreation of Rosa’s backwoods in the film by Pedro Bial

Abstract

The discussions about the appropriation that cinema makes of literary works are not recent, neither can be considered as a passed or solved case. From this, the present work consists in the analysis of the transposition of some elements of the literary narrative of five short stories from Primeiras estórias (1962), by João Guimarães Rosa, to the film narrative Outras estórias (1999), directed by Pedro Bial. We took into consideration, mainly, the characterization of the characters; the organization, the exploitation and the intersection of the plots; besides the presence of the narrative voices. As a result of such analysis, we intend to demonstrate how the tension of several human dramas was transposed to the essentially cinematographic elements, to which the image, the photography, the plans and the framework, among others, collaborate with the narrative, as well as the resources used by Bial to re-create in cinematographic language Rosa’s universe.