Interviews with actor Carlos Vereza: memories of Memórias do Cárcere (1984), by Nelson Pereira dos Santos

Entretiens avec l'acteur Carlos Vereza: souvenirs de Memórias do Cárcere (1984), de Nelson Pereira dos Santos

Abstract

The interviews with actor Carlos Vereza, conducted as part of my doctoral thesis (UFRGS, 2019), deal with the process of creating the character of Graciliano Ramos, in the film adaptation Memórias do cárcere (1984), by Nelson Pereira dos Santos. To seek answers to the questions that guided the research of the thesis, we turned to the work Mal de Arquivo: uma impressão freudiana (2001), by Jacques Derrida. In a deconstructionist view, the archive is not a closed repository, an inert binder, but the opposite, it is openness, movement and the future. In this sense, based on Derrida's reflections, we created the term Gracilian impression in order to search for the traces, traces and marks left by Graciliano Ramos in the following archives: the interpretation of Vereza in the film Memórias do cárcere (1984) and the interviews given by the actor in 2015 and 2016, in dialogue with the "matrix archive" Memórias do Cárcere (1953), by Graciliano Ramos. Vereza's interpretation constructs an integral and unified image of the man who suffers the violence of prison. This is symbolized by the withering away of the prisoners and the physical decay of the actor, who spared no effort to embody the figure of Ramos. The research reveals that the film adaptation in times of exception and post-dictatorship political opening provides a unique moment of reflection and resistance, as it gives the public the opportunity to broaden the vision and understanding of the historical time of which it is a part. It is important to emphasize that these interviews were conducted in the open modality, according to the teachings of Janaína Amado and Marieta de Moraes Ferreira, in the work Uses and Abuses of Oral History (2015), in order to prioritize informality between interviewee and interviewer, and transcribed according to the interviewee's literal speech, in an attempt to ensure maximum documentary fidelity.