For a gaúcho aesthetic

Landscape and regional identity in Paixão de gaúcho (1957) and Anahy de las Misiones (1997)

Abstract

This article examines the hegemonization and homogenization of certain aesthetics within the Brazilian cinematographic environment, through the analysis of two feature films that portray the Farroupilha Revolution, Paixão de gaúcho (Walter George Durst, 1957) and Anahy de las Misiones (Sérgio Silva, 1997). Considering the prominence of the northeastern backlands and the southeastern favela — consolidated from the proposals of Cinema Novo and later resumed during the so-called Retomada of national cinema — it becomes necessary to recover more diversifying perspectives. In this article, our gaze turns to the cinematographic landscape, interpreted through a semiotic reading that aims to deconstruct the reality effect, of Rio Grande do Sul — generally absent from national productions, even though there is a clearly established imaginary around this region and the gaúcho subject. While Paixão de gaúcho presents a static view of the Pampas, linked to a hegemonic masculinity, Anahy de las Misiones brings a diversification in the landscape as female protagonism subverts the conventional versions of this conflict so marked in gaúcho culture. The present methodological proposal, beyond this analysis, seeks to identify the key elements of a given national or regional identity and to deconstruct hegemonic narratives that — whether positive or negative — reduces that space to a few traces of its essence.