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 Jack Kerouac's On the Road, symbol of a generation and a fundamental key to the beatnik movement will be adapted to the screens by no one else but Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles, the same director who signed Central Station and The Motorcycle Diaries.
Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope has held the rights of the book since 1979, and many directors have had eyes on the job. Coppola, who will do the executive production of the film, told the press that he never found a project that seemed good enough to motivate him to go ahead and take On the Road to the screen.
On the Road is not an easy book to bring to the screens. It portrayed a generation in such an intense way, that it became a symbol of an era. The right team of director and screen writer for the job suddenly seems to have jumped out of the screens with The Motorcycle Diaries.
Walter Salles and José Rivera's work that tells the political awakening of Che Guevara showed that dealing with such themes is not only possible, but it can be done beautifully and touch beyond the generations more closely involved with the story told.
The story of Sal Paradise, seen as Kerouac's disguised alter ego, hitchhiking throughout the U.S., meeting other adventurers and fighting for survival, moved a whole generation who identified with him in his questions, dissatisfactions, and rejection of the system and its impositions.
It is probably the most American of all Americans stories told, and it will probably become one of Walter Salles's biggest challenges. Whatever he proposed to Coppola, it conquered the successful producer and director's heart and mind, after so many years holding on to the rights without using them.
The shoot is scheduled to start in 2006. Again there will be an American producer, a Brazilian director and a Puerto Rican writer, a multicultural team similar to that featured by The Motorcycle Diaries, a movie that was not allowed to run for an Oscar, because allegedly it did not have a country. The Motorcycle Diaries may have been left out of the major award, but was certainly in the hearts of millions, becoming the number one foreign movie seen last year.
On the Go
Walter Salles directed Dark Water, his first movie in English, featuring Jennifer Connelly and in theaters now.
But the director is having a busy time these days, with many plans. Walter Salles told the press about his new project with long time partner Daniela Thomas. He told he and Daniela have a pact to work together at least every 7 years. This time they will make an international movie together on the life of Emmy Blum, an 87-year-old victim of Josef Mengele in Auschwitz, who lives in Brazil.
After learning about the story of Ms. Blumm, who took several toxic injections given by Mengele, they visited her for a long talk. When the two directors left Emma Blumm's house, they were not only touched by all the atrocities narrated by the old lady, but they knew they had a powerful movie in their hands.
Brasília 18%
Nélson Pereira dos Santos started shooting his new film, Brasília, 18%. At 77, Nélson says this is his last movie. He started his career with Rio, 40 Graus (Rio, 100 Degrees) and never stopped. The author of Vidas Secas (Barren Lives) and an inspirer for the new cinema of Glauber Rocha, Nélson said last year that Brasília, 18% would feature what he loves best in life: beautiful women.
And he settled for the best, as the film features blonde mature beauty Bruna Lombardi and the brunette drop-dead-gorgeous Malu Mader. Carlos Alberto Riccelli and Carlos Vereza are also in the movie, a co-production of Regina Filmes, Video Filmes and Columbia.
One of the characters of the story, in the federal capital, Brasília, is a politician who is murdered because of involvement with corruption and the like. Any resemblance with real facts is just a coincidence, Nélson swears - his screenplay has been ready for some time now. The 18% in the title is not associated with dirty money, but with Brasília's low humidity numbers.
In Nélson's own words, Brasília "is a fiction story. It is a love story that has in the background Brasília's political scene. Brasília is a city with 18% of humidity in the air... What I can say now is that we are looking for the best. We have a lot of female roles, we will need five gorgeous women, gorgeous and wonderful women. We are starting the process now it is like seeking gold, so all the good actors will be in this list..."
Black Orpheus Goes to Broadway
Black Orpheus finally makes it to Broadway by the hands of Julie Taylor. Eurydice, the heroine, should be speech impaired in the musical, which gives a chance to a Brazilian actress to audition for the role, as silent acting does not have foreign accents.
But there will be plenty of foreign sounds, with the Brazilian music that reached beyond borders through the screen and brought the world's attention to Brazil and its art and culture.
Black Orpheus (in Portuguese Orfeu Negro), a French-Brazilian production directed by the great Marcel Camus, became the 1959 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize winner and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film and a Golden Globe.
Based on the Orpheus legend, it was updated and transported to Carnaval in Brazil. The film introduced an all black cast and it was adapted from Vinicius de Moraes musical Orfeu da Conceição.
It was Black Orpheus that brought bossa nova, the new Brazilian beat, to life and the names of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfá. The film had a story but it was the music that made it alive, that conquered hearts all over.
It was after Black Orpheus that the world was introduced to João Gilberto, Stan Getz and the soft voice of Astrud. Black Orpheus music is timeless and this soundtrack sold and still sells millions. Broadway's revival of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice in the favelas of Rio should attract millions from all over the globe.
Clara Angelica Porto is a Brazilian bilingual journalist living in New York. She went to school in Brazil and at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Clara is presently working as the English writer for The Brasilians, a monthly newspaper in Manhattan. Comments welcome at clara.angelica@gmail.com.
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