Rio de Janeiro streets are full of imitator Fernanda Torres.
They drink beer, plastic clutch scams and maintain improvised talk about accepting that their idol, Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, will award on Sunday night at the Academy awards.
“It’s the highlight of the glory in Brazil: to become a carnival costume,” Mrs. Torres said at the California Film Festival this month, inviting her many impersonators during the celebrations before the last few weeks.
Mrs. Torres was already widely known in Brazil, but now she has become the star of a nation of the moment of achieving something that has long mocked most of her peers and predecessors here: international recognition.
Ever since she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress last month, she has been in an international Oscar campaign for “I’m still here“Brazilian film about the mother of five who started from her husband’s disappearance during the Brazilian military dictatorship.
Mrs. Torres is nominated for Best Actress, while the movie is ready for the best international features and – in the first such nomination for Brazilian film – the best picture.
These awards, as well as the widest American edition of the Brazilian film, made it a certified cultural phenomenon in Brazil. It was Intensive Internet Support,, media coverage and President checks.
The result is a sense of national pride that is more often reserved for the national football team. This is because, many in this country of 200 million, the first main Oscar of Brazil would be a significant validation of a culture that has long awaited the appropriate due.
“I know French culture, I know American culture, I know Russian culture, German culture, Italian culture, but they don’t know much about Brazilian culture,” Mrs. Torres, 59, 59, said in a recent interview It became viral in Brazil. “We miss that communication with the world, but the other hand, Brazil is sorry that the world does not know what we know.”
Brazil created a huge, colorful tapestry of art, music, literature and film for generations – some of them masterfully and most of the deeply original – which was widely celebrated within this immense nation and barely known outside it.
Yes, Brazilian actress Carmen Miranda and her fruit hat became a Hollywood sensation in the forties – although in part strengthening Latin stereotypes – And then Bossa Nova broke in the 1950s. But since then, Brazilian culture is often defined abroad with football, samba and carnival – despite this many,, many more.
One obstacle is language. Brazilian pop star Anitta He recently began to reach a wider audience, but only by singing in Spanish and English.
“Brazil is continental in size, but we speak Portuguese, the Little Language Language, the language of barely recognized in the world,” Caetano Veloso, a Brazilian music legend, said in an interview.
Mr. Veloso created more beauty with that language than almost anyone. My colleague, longtime music critic New York Times Jon Pareles, called Mr. Veloso “One of the Greatest Songs of the Century” while David Byrne from Talking Heads said From him: “When people ask me what musicians I admire, he is always the first on the list.”
Another challenge seems to have not been the quality of Brazilian art, but exposure.
Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese are all fans of the Brazilian cinema. Still, Mr. Scorsese said he had to discover him in the museum. Then he became “obsessed,” he said, call 1969 Brazilian film. “Antonio Das Mortes“Glauber Rocha” one of the main points of my movie experience. “
Kurt Cobain and Beck said they were inspired by Brazilian psychedelic rock band Axis mutantes. Paul Simon and Stiring praised by a Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento. And Stevie Wonder is a fan and a frequent associate with Gilberto GilWho have these pages and invited “One of the brilliant world songs.”
2020. American author Dave Eggers discovered a new translation of the 1881 novel. “Posthumous memoir brás cubas“Machado de Assis, Inventive Brazilian writer. Mr. Eggers was stunned and wrote: “It is a brilliant master and an unhindered joy to read, but, for no good reason, he almost did not read English speakers in the twenty -first century.”
Well, maybe not a good The reason, but the reality is that the west of the last cultural result generally considered less relevant or important.
This is part of the reason why Brazilians are mostly transferred to “Global music”And Latin categories Grammy and the category of Oscar in a foreign language.
This year brought exceptions. On Grammys, Mr. Nascimento was nominated for the best jazz album with American jazz musician Esperanza Spalding. Still, at the ceremony, the organizers were sitting far back as they put Mrs. Spalding in front of it, stimulating it to protest.
In Oscar, Mrs. Torres is the second Brazilian who has ever received the best acting nomination. First? Her mother, 25 years ago. Fernanda Montenegro, the most famous actress in Brazil, was nominated in 1999 for her role in “Central Station”, the Brazilian film of Walter Salles, the same director behind “I’m still here.” Lost to Gwyneth Paltrow, a decision that is Determined in Brazil to date.
Now Brazil is praying for the redemption, including the Best Picture Award. It is only the second time that the Latin American film has received the nomination, after the Mexican movie “Roma” 2018, ” who lost.
The recognition “Much represents Brazil,” said Mr. Veloso. “We tend to exalt our country in songs, but we have a very large complex of inferiority.”
Brazilians often call this phenomenon “Complexo de Vira-Lata”, roughly translated as a “mutt complex”, expression with the exit 1950 Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues.
“Maybe because our European colonizers always perceived us as an inferior people, this stigma was adhered to the souls of the earth,” said Fernando Meirell, director of the 2002 film, “The city of God“One of the few Brazilian films that earned an Oscar nomination, including the best director.” To this day we are dependent on the external approval to deal with our low self -esteem. “
Even Mrs. Torres admitted that she internalized such views. When asked about her colleagues nominated after her victory of the Golden Globe last month, she answeredLaughing, “Everyone deserves it. All. So, I don’t know why they chose this street dog that speaks Portuguese. “
In Brazil, millions believe that it deserves rewards – and show it. The five most prominent posts on the official website of the Oscar and Golden Globe Instagram is now about “I’m still here”, including one post about Mrs. Torres, who attracted almost 850,000 comments – 100 times more than any other Oscar who was not associated with Brazil.
And on Sunday the first time the Brazilian television network will overcome live broadcasting Rio de Janeira Samba Carnival Parade Instead, display an Oscar.
“We are a force of 200 million people,” Mrs. Torres said. “So, when someone outplays those boundaries and take something personal from the outside, it’s such a feeling: Look at how rich we are, look at what we have.”
Leonardo Coelho contribute to reporting.
