Cinema Novo vs. Beatlemania: Discovering the use of sound and music in two unfilmed and unpublished Brazilian screenplays from the mid-1960s

Abstract

In this article, I analyse sound and music in two unfilmed screenplays written by filmmakers Sergio Person and Jean-Claude Bernardet: SSS against Jovem Guarda (1966) and The Plague of the Ruminants (1967). Why would two leading figures of the politically engaged Cinema Novo jump into a commercial project with the ‘alienating’ leader of the Americanized Jovem Guarda? Their next project, The Plague of the Ruminants, contested the dictatorship. Inspired by magical realism, it would use Hollywoodesque fantastic spectacle. Through interesting interventions on the soundtrack, Person and Bernardet subtly denounced Jovem Guarda’s support for the military regime. This ironically contrasts with the soundtrack to SSS against Jovem Guarda. The article contributes to studies of sound and music in screenplays. I analyse different aspects pertaining to sound and music, compare these screenplays to other completed film projects by Person and Bernardet and place them in the context of Brazilian culture and politics.