Terra em Transe follows the story of poet and journalist, Paulo Martins, as he navigates the political scene in the fictional nation of Eldorado and tries to find purpose. The majority of the movie is a flashback, as Martins explains how he ultimately ends up getting shot by military police and meeting his demise.
When the flashback begins, Martins is closely affiliated with Porfirio Diaz, a prominent conservative political figure, as a poet and friend. However, he wants to serve a more crucial role in politics, so he goes to Alecrim province, where he encounters activist Sara. Together, they support liberal politician, Felipe Vieira, in his campaign for governor of the province, as in the view of Martins, Vieira will advocate for the common people. Upon his election though, Vieira violates campaign promises and violence starts to erupt throughout the province. Martins decides that he can no longer stand for this, and subsequently goes back to Diaz.
Martins loses sight of his original purpose and falls into a series of bad decisions. During this time, Sara comes to him with a proposition to help Vieira in the upcoming presidential election by creating a film about Diaz that would weaken his position. Largely because of his feelings for Sara, Martins agrees and approaches Fuentes, a rich businessman in control of the media. Martins releases the damaging film on television after securing Fuentes’ support. Following this betrayal against Diaz, an intense fight takes place between Martins and Diaz. Martins returns to Alecrim province where he once again works alongside Sara and Vieira, and Fuentes joins forces with Diaz. As the opposing campaigns escalate and Diaz’s party begins to stage a coup against Vieira to defend its political and economic interests, the story is brought back to the present.
Against Martins’ advice, Vieira refuses to take up arms to defend his candidacy for the presidency, and Martins leaves the palace with Sara. He is ultimately unable to achieve the change he hoped for, and he gets shot by military police as he drives across enemy lines.
Describes the setting of a scene in a play or a film. It refers to everything placed on the stage or in front of the camera—including people. In other words, mise en scène is a catch-all for everything that contributes to the visual presentation and overall “look” of a production. When translated from French, it means “placing on stage.”
This is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a motion picture or television show. Cinematography comprises all on-screen visual elements, including lighting, framing, composition, camera motion, camera angles, film selection, lens choices, depth of field, zoom, focus, color, exposure, and filtration. Cinematography sets and supports the overall look and mood of a film’s visual narrative. Each visual element that appears on screen, a.k.a. the mise-en-scène of a film, can serve and enhance the story—so it is the cinematographer’s responsibility to ensure that every element is cohesive and support the story. Filmmakers often choose to spend the majority of their budget on high-quality cinematography to guarantee that the film will look incredible on the big screen.
Editing is the process of putting a film together–the selection and arrangement of shots and scenes. Editing can condense space and time, emphasize separate elements and bring them together, and organize material in such a way that patterns of meaning become apparent. In addition, editing can determine how a film is perceived: for instance, quick, rapid cuts can create a feeling of tension, while a long take can create a more dramatic effect. The first photoplays generally had no cutting, owing to the fact that they were single-reel films; once filming began, you could not stop until the film ran out. (https://filmglossary.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/term/editing/)
The rhythm of Terra em Transe is fairly volatile, being fast-paced and frantic at times, while following a slower pace at other times. This variation serves to capture the instability and unpredictability of the political system in Eldorado. The varying rhythm of this film is a prime example of how in cinema, drama and emotion can be represented both through quick action shots as well as through slow zooms and pans. Examples of the different paces of Terra em Transe can be seen under the “Handheld Camera” and “Pan” entries in the “Movement” section of “Cinematography” above. In the “Handheld Camera” clip, the camera moves shakily and rapidly around the group of characters, demonstrating the rapid rhythm that Terra em Transe often reaches. In the second “Pan” clip, the camera slowly surveys a room, serving as a contrast to more fast-paced portions of the film.
Although changes in the rhythm create a natural sense of discombobulation at times, Terra em Transe is largely coherent, with themes of morality, disillusionment and power being constantly reinforced through cinematography and editing devices such as scale and cuts. Its storyline and character arcs are logical and consistent, as well as being thoroughly explained throughout the film. In fact, as in the included clip, viewers are frequently exposed to Paulo Martins’ internal dialogue, which fills in most gaps about his motivations as well as the important flaws of each politician he has worked under.
Within the realm of match cuts in Terra em Transe, many are eyeline match cuts. This means that a character will look off screen and the next shot is of what they are looking at. In the example provided (the last two shots), Felipe Vieira grimly looks past the camera. The next shot is of his political cohort that he had presumably been looking at, pacing in circles and likely discussing the corner that Vieira has been backed into by Porfirio Diaz’s recent threats. In this scene and others, match cuts and shot-reverse shots are used to communicate multiple parts of a scene to viewers from different perspectives. These two fairly simple techniques bring the viewer naturally along with the action and reinforce the film’s continuity editing.
On the other hand, elliptical editing is used to compress time as characters travel from one place to another. Paulo Martins frequently travels between Porfirio Diaz and Felipe Vieira, but none of this is shown. In the example provided (the two stills), Martins is depicted leaving Sílvia's side and suddenly appearing in Alecrim province. Time is expanded primarily during conversations and speeches while being compressed during travel between locations. These editing decisions have the effect of drawing the audience’s attention to the parts of the film in which time is expanded, and omitting details that are regarded by the filmmakers as unnecessary to witness. Voice and dialogue thus have a major emphasis in the film, and transition stages typically don’t.
Sound is an integral part in a film. It refers to everything that the audience hears including sound effects, words and music. Sound is used in films for various purposes, including: providing the information to the viewer about the location of the scene, heightening the mood, telling the audience about the characters and advancing the plot. Every person who watches a film realizes that the choice of voices, soundtrack and music present in a film affect the way that the viewer perceives a particular film. As a result, the sound is an important and integral element of the film, one that determines the way that the viewer experiences and understands a film as a visual experience.
Narrative analysis is an examination of the story elements, including narrative structure, character, and plot. A narrative can be considered to be the chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space. In order to analyze the narrative of a film, we need to first make the distinction between the plot of the film and the story of the film. This is sometimes referred to as the discourse and story of a film. Narrative may also be called the story thought story mainly refers to the events that describe the narrative.
Film genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films. (Genre comes from the French word meaning "kind," "category," or "type"). These provide a convenient way for scriptwriters and film-makers to produce, cast and structure their narratives within a manageable, well-defined framework. Genres also offer the studios an easily 'marketable' product, and give audiences satisfying, expected and predictable choices. Genres refers to recurring, repeating and similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, styles, themes, syntax, templates, paradigms, motifs, rules or generic conventions.
Rocha, G. (Director). (1967). Terra em transe [Film]. Mapa Filmes; Difilm.