O cinema como território do armário: cidade, corpo e representações contemporâneas

Abstract

This research discusses the relationships between cinema and the closet, having as object of analysis, three contemporaryBrazilian films: Tattoo (Tatuagem, 2013, Hilton Lacerda), Futuro Beach (Praia do Futuro, 2014, Karim Aïnouz) and The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho, 2014, Daniel Ribeiro). First, understanding cinema as a dark room, we condition its territory together with other spaces that were part of the sexual organization between men in Brazilian cities. Also in this section, we contextualize the national Queer cinema, addressing its presence in the periods of Chanchada, Pornochanchada and Retomada, pointing out the growing wave of films about “coming out”, as a gay identity was consolidated in the reflection of HIV/AIDS pandemic. Subsequently, we explain concepts linked to Queer, Feminist epistemologies and phenomenologies and Cultural Studies of Masculinities, such as Men's House (WELZER-LANG, 2001), Disorientation (AHMED, 2006), Compulsory Heterosexuality (RICH, 2010), Disidentification (MUÑOZ, 1999) and Heteronormativity (Michael WARNER, 1991), which approach social practices linked to the experience of the body in the closet. Furthermore, these concepts served as analytical categories, where it was possible to identify compatible processes in the titles studied. Finally, we observe the connection between the closet and cinema according to the film/spectator experience, where the body reterritorializes cinematographic images through a carnal consciousness that is linked to each person's cultural maps. Through the clipping and focalization (PAASONEN, 2011) of some scenes present in the analyzed filmography, we show how the materiality of the film affects its audience, especially those in which the closet conditions new practices of subjectivity and affection.