The neo-baroque phase of New Latin American Cinema

Abstract

This essay examines, for the first time, the existence of a neobaroque phase within the New Latin American Cinema, starting from a definition of baroque and neobaroque that writers like Lezama Lima and Severo Sarduy elaborated in order to theorize Latin American literature and culture, and complemented by a further theorization of the differences between the neobaroque in the metropolis and the periphery. The analyzed films include Terra em Transe (Land in Anguish, Glauber Rocha, Brazil, 1967), Macunaíma (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Brazil, 1969), Org (Fernando Birri, Italy, 1978), Frida, naturaleza viva (Paul Leduc, México, 1985), Sur (Fernando Solanas, Argentina, 1988) and La nación clandestina (Jorge Sanjinés, Bolivia, 1989).