Cinema Paulista - Ovo de Codorna

Experimental documentary about the life and work of obscure samba musician Vassourinha (1923-1942), born in São Paulo, who only recorded six 78rpm records, dying at 19.

The documentary’s starting point is the discovery and restoration of a rare and unknown photography reel reproduced from a mutoscope film, made in 1901 in London, about Santos Dumont (1873 – 1932). The work approaches historic and artistic aspects from the beginning of Cinema (pre cinema, variety film) and a cinema that appropriates archive material (found footage, recycled films), through interviews, documents, visual metaphors and the articulation of a poetic essay.

A lesson in conciseness, expressiveness, and humor on the inexhaustible theme of the dream of making movies. A parodic lesson, a Brazilian version of historical scenes filmed by the Lumiére brothers in 1895—the baby, the bath in the garden, the workers leaving, and the arrival of the train. The melodrama of a couple of lovers through time and the history of cinema. Many sequence shots, as preferred and taught by Cinema Novo. Everything about a film being made and being watched. The language of cinema (shot, reverse shot, tracking shot, editing, mixing, dubbing, etc.), interspersed with quotes from Humberto Mauro, Godard, Glauber Rocha, and Rossellini.