Terra em Transe

Director: Glauber Rocha
Year Released: 1967
Rating: 1.5

A hopelessly idealistic journalist/poet is torn between two politicians vying for power in the fictitious city of El Dorado in Brazil, and both politicians, in their own ways, are flawed. Functioning (poorly) as agit-prop for the common man, it is fumbling and scattered - Rocha's approach is impassioned and frenzied (there's enough embellished acting in this for two melodramas) but too self-conscious to be 'moving,' plus all that faux-poetic voice-over either doesn't translate well or is just plain awful writing. Rocha's camera spins in circles and cuts around the players as if to generate a visual windstorm, but all it can manage is a sneeze. Godard, Wajda and Pasolini are clearly influences, and like them, Rocha lacks a sense of humor.