Ugo Giorgetti interviewed in Folha de São Paulo
April 15, 1998
São Paulo, Brazil
Ugo Giorgetti talks to Folha about his new movie in which soccer is the main character.
by José Geraldo Couto, staff writer
Brazilian Football Revisited/PROS, Ugo Giorgetti’s soccer saga finally reaches the screen. A sneak preview is scheduled for today, in São Paulo, attendance by invitation only, promoted by Folha, Espaço Unibanco de Cinema and Multishow tv channel. The film will premiere at movie theaters in São Paulo, Curitiba (April 24th ); Rio and Porto Alegre (May).
Giorgetti, who also directed Festa and Sábado, discussed cinema and soccer with Folha.
Folha - Besides portraying the world of soccer,
Brazilian Football Revisited/PROS can also be seeing as a chronicle of the city of
São Paulo, right?
Ugo Giorgetti - I only like localized movies. I think a movie needs
an address. That gives it character, personality. I like movies in which one sees that things
happen a certain way because the place is a certain way. I could hardly have avoided this. Even
if I didn’t show the city itself, it would appear in some other manner: the accent, in local
idioms.
Folha - The women portrayed in Brazilian Football
Revisited/PROS are the "Amélia", the bourgeois and the bimbo. Wouldn’t this
upset the female audience?
Giorgetti - I don’t believe so, because this is the way things
are in the universe of soccer. Actually, of sports as a whole. Do you remember Jake La
Motta’s wife in "Raging Bull"? All she did was get hit. Besides, Denise Fraga’s
character is not much of an "Amélia". She rebels, goes after the guy and makes a scene.
Folha - One of the high points in the movie are the "people", played
by unknowns. How did you find the right people for those roles?
Giorgetti - Tests. That is it. I had a team doing research based on
some basic recommendations. A "Gavião da Fiel" had to look like a "Gavião da Fiel".
There was no point is showing an Arian wearing a tie. You had to believe in the image. Afterwards
we moved to screen tests. And you also need to see the individual in the group. The three
"Gaviões", for example. Only after seeing the three guys in the proper garb did I believe
they were right. They worked as a group.
The main point is the following: what is sad is the
career of a soccer player. I’ll give you an example. Once I was doing a commercial for
Cinzano and needed a "boleiro". Someone suggested Basílio who had played for the
Corinthians. Exactly that week Basílio was threatening to retire. In the newspapers I
would read: "the old Basílio", "Basílio, the veteran". Then the
"old Basílio" showed up, he was a 33 years old young man. I mean, I don’t know of a
drearier career. The bitter sentences in the movie are not mine. When Flavio Migliaccio’s
character says that he looks at the pictures on the wall and wonders if that did really happen to
him, he is repeating a sentence by Luisinho, O Pequeno Polegar [Tom Thumb], in an interview at TV
Cultura. The coach’s statement ‘I never dream that I am on the bench guiding the team;
I dream that I am out there, playing’, was said by Pepe in Jô Soares’ talk
show.
Folha - How was it, talking with the players and former players
for the production of the movie?
Giorgetti - Zé Maria and Luís Carlos (former
Corinthians’ players), besides being in the movie, provided us with technical consulting.
Furthermore, we talked to dozens of players, to obtain authorization to use their photos or their
names in the broadcasting of an imaginary game. The team could have been André; Cafu,
Julio César, Cléber and Roberto Carlos; Dejair (or anyone else who does not fumble
a pass), César Sampaio, Raí e Rivaldo; Muller e Ronaldinho.
The Teams and Their Stories:
Juventus
Threatened by Big Shots who bribed him, a corrupt referee (played by
Otávio Augusto) has to make the small town team beat the Juventus, in São Paulo.
The referee overlooks faults, calls for penalties that never happened, but the team does not
help.
Portuguesa
Azul (played by Cléber Colombo), a young, black attacker for the Luso team, becomes
the MVP of the match upon scoring an unbelievable goal. He then appears on radio and TV, dines
with an Italian head coach, and ends up being abused by the police at the Marginal (São
Paulo).
Santos
A reporter (played by Cássio Gabus Mendes) pays for an interview
with an ex-top player for the Santos and the national teams — Paulinho Majestade (played by
Aldo Bueno), who now lives in a shanty town, and put his medals and trophies up for sale.
Palmeiras
On the eve of a decisive classic match, Palmeira’s MVP, Fabinho
(played by Paulo Coronato) tricks the coach (Lima Duarte) and leaves the rookie Mamamá
(César Negro) outside, in order to sleep with a woman (Marisa Orth) in the team’s
training camp.
São Paulo
Former São Paulo player (Adriano Stuart), tired of the rich kids
who attend his soccer school, is taken by the skills of a street kid (João Motta), but
cannot steer him away from the street life.
Corinthians
The team doctors do not succed in treating MVP Caco’s contusion.
Three "Gaviões da Fiel" (Adílson Pancho, Robson Nunes and Eduardo Mancini),
friends of the player, take him to a Santeria temple.