Black God, White Devil

Plot

In the 1940s, during another drought in the sertão, ranch hand Manoel is fed up with his situation and hopes to buy his own plot of land. His boss tries to cheat him of his earnings and Manoel kills him, fleeing with his wife, Rosa.

Now an outlaw, Manoel travels to the holy site of Monte Santo to join up with a religious cult headed by the self-proclaimed saint Sebastião who condones violence and preaches disturbing doctrines against the wealthy landowners. Meanwhile, the church and local elites hire a bounty hunter by the name of Antônio das Mortes to take out the group. Before Antônio is able to assassinate Sebastião, Rosa stabs him after he kills a baby who is being held by Manoel, leaving him dead, and the two are on the move once again. At this point, the couple end up with a band of cangaceiros also working to take down the government and bosses of the sertão. Antônio is now tasked with assassinating these bandits. He finds head cangaceiros Corisco and Dadá and murders them.

Manoel and Rosa once again by themselves, running from one allegiance to another, in search of their place in a ruthless land.

Cast

• Geraldo Del Rey as Manoel
• Yoná Magalhães as Rosa
• Othon Bastos as Corisco
• Maurício do Valle as Antonio das Mortes
• Lidio Silva as Sebastião
• Sonia Dos Humildes as Dadá
• João Gama as Priest
• Antônio Pinto as Colonel
• Milton Rosa as Moraes
• Roque Santos as Roque

Production

Glauber Rocha was 25 years old when he wrote and began to direct the film. Its filming took place on Monte Santo and Canudos, Bahia lasting from June 18, 1963, to September 2, 1963.

In the scene where we see "Manoel" (Geraldo Del Rey) carrying a huge stone over his head while climbing Monte Santo on his knees, Del Rey insisted on carrying a real stone that weighted over 20 kilos - something that worried Rocha. After the shooting, Del Rey had to take 2 days off, due to fatigue.

During the dubbing of the sound, Othon Bastos performed three voices. Besides dubbing himself as "Corisco", he performed the voice for "Lampião" (whom "Corisco" had "incorporated") and also dubbed "Sebastião", the black God, even though Lídio Silva played the character on screen.

Release

The film was released on DVD in North America for the first time by Koch-Lorber Films.

A 4K restoration had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, at the Cannes Classics section.

Reception

Critical reception

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 100%, based on 15 reviews, with a rating average of 8.3/10.

A. H. Weiler from The New York Times praised the film, calling it "Simple, black-and-white, more arresting as a shocking polemic than as memorable drama." Ted Shen from The Chicago Reader wrote, "The fusion of European and Afro-Brazilian elements--dialogue, exquisite black-and-white images, and music by Villa-Lobos--is startlingly original and poetical in conveying the hope and despair of the oppressed." Time Out Magazine praised the film's style as being "somewhere between folk ballad and contemporary myth, since the references to Brazilian history and culture are pervasive and fairly opaque to the uninitiated".

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the main competition of the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. It was also selected as the Brazilian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 37th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

In 2015 it was voted number 2 on the Abraccine Top 100 Brazilian films list.

References

References

1. "Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol". [[Cinemateca Brasileira]].
2. "Black God, White Devil".
3. "Black God, White Devil".
4. (27 November 2015). "Abraccine organiza ranking dos 100 melhores filmes brasileiros". Abraccine - Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Cinema.
5. (2000). "Enciclopédia do cinema brasileiro". Senac.
6. Tartaglione, Nancy. (2022-05-02). "Cannes Classics Lineup Includes Ethan Hawke's 'The Last Movie Stars', Restorations Of 'Singin' In The Rain', 'The Mother And The Whore' & More".
7. "Black God, White Devil (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol) (1964)". [[Rotten Tomatoes]].
8. "Black God, White Devil Reviews".
9. (25 September 1971). "Black God, White Devil,' From Brazil". The New York Times.
10. (9 September 1999). "Black God, White Devil". Ted Shen.
11. (10 September 2012). "Black God, White Devil, directed by Glauber Rocha". TR.
12. "Festival de Cannes: Black God, White Devil". festival-cannes.com.
13. Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
14. (2015-11-27). "Abraccine organiza ranking dos 100 melhores filmes brasileiros".