For a long time, a common belief permeated conversations among critics and filmmakers in Brazil: the notion that Brazilian cinema had a chronic problem with screenplays. The doctoral thesis defended by Natasha Romanzoti Graziano at the Institute of Arts (IA) of Unicamp dismantles this idea with a set of documents, interviews, detailed analyses, and a historiographical care that was still needed in Brazilian research. "There was a lack of material that treated screenwriting with the same theoretical and historical seriousness dedicated to directing and editing." "There was no framework to organize these practices," he says.
Instead of encompassing the entire history of cinema, the researcher focused precisely on a specific area: she analyzed five Brazilian feature film screenplays from different decades, each representative of a particular mode of production and aesthetic moment. These are: The Diamond Hunter (1934) The Sputnik Man (1959) The Red Light Bandit (1968) Central do Brasil (1998) and In the Heart of the World (2019). The author explains that the selection of the collection was not intended to portray all of national cinema, but allows us to see profound changes in the culture of this writing over time. “These films form a kind of possible timeline. Each one opens a window into what was happening with screenwriting during that period.”
To that end, Romanzoti starts from the idea that the screenplay should be understood in three dimensions: as a textual format, both as a writing practice within a production chain and as a discourse about cinema itself. This approach, which engages with authors like Steven Maras, helps to understand the complexity of what can be called a "screenplay" in Brazil. "When we talk about a screenplay, we need to ask: which one are we talking about? The document? The plot? The practice? What goes into the script?" set"The term encompasses all of that," she states. According to the researcher, the thesis examines the script as a document, analyzing its format.
One of the strongest findings of the research is the realization that improvisation, often interpreted as a lack of planning, is actually a structural characteristic of Brazilian screenwriting. “It’s not improvisation in the sense of carelessness. It’s a planned opening that allows us to incorporate the reality of the location, the rhythm of that space, and the concrete possibilities for filming.”"This flexibility appears in both low-budget films and works marked by documentary aesthetic ambitions," says the author. According to her, this can have various motivations: "Sometimes it's an artistic choice; sometimes it's a budgetary issue. But it's on paper; it's planned."
The screenplays analyzed help to dismantle the belief that important works of Brazilian cinema were created spontaneously. Although some directors have defended the intuitive gesture as an aesthetic ideal, the documents studied show that, even in these cases, there is structure, sequence, indications of environment, and clear formal intentions. “The myth of Brazilian cinema without a script doesn't hold up. It's the result of public statements, perceptions about the process, and idealizations about what creativity should be. But, empirically, they exist and are solid.”"Says Alfredo Suppia, professor at IA and supervisor of the thesis."
Another identified characteristic is what Romanzoti calls "Brazilian rhetoric"—an atmosphere that permeates these texts and seeks to anchor the narrative in the national experience. "There is a very strong desire to make Brazilian films, in the sense of incorporating spaces, characters, and conflicts that only make sense here. It's an intention that appears written in the screenplays, often from the very first line," he explains. This mark, which can be interpreted as an effort to construct a unique cinematic cultural identity, representing Brazilian specificities, runs through the five films analyzed, albeit in very different ways.
The thesis also reveals an important structural fact: throughout the 20th century, Brazil had virtually no screenwriters dedicated exclusively to filmmaking. “It’s very common for screenwriters to also be directors, journalists, playwrights, writers, editors, and TV screenwriters. The production culture has always been very hybrid,” says Romanzoti. This movement between different languages profoundly marks screenwriting in the country. Suppia adds: “We didn’t have a studio system with stable teams of screenwriters like in the United States. Here, writing has always been influenced, in the best sense, by other artistic and industrial practices.”
Among the hypotheses raised is that the strength of Brazilian television, especially telenovelas, may have influenced the ways of structuring characters, conflicts, and scenes in cinema. "It makes sense to think of a dialogue with other media, such as radio and TV, and with other audiovisual products, especially telenovelas, in the creation and formatting of narratives, as something that leaves traces in cinematic writing," says the researcher, emphasizing that this is still an initial hypothesis that deserves further investigation.
Romanzoti emphasizes that understanding screenplays doesn't just mean commenting on a technical document, but rather accessing the film's aesthetic intention even before the camera is turned on. “In the screenplay, we see the country that will be filmed, and also the country that the filming aims to capture. It is a silent protagonist in all stages of audiovisual production, from pre-filming to editing,” he says. For the advisor, studying these texts opens a door to understanding Brazilian cinema from the inside, through its inner workings. “The screenplay reveals the film's thinking. It documents choices, conflicts, limits, ambitions. It is a first-rate historical source.”
The thesis also points out that academia itself still lacks organized material on screenwriting in specifically Brazilian production contexts. “There was a lack of historical compilations and theoretical discussions applied to the Brazilian case. Many of the available texts were fragmented, limited to specific decades or authors,” explains Romanzoti. Even so, the researchers agree that the research does not seek to provide a definitive overview, but to open a field of study and offer an initial map for those who wish to continue investigating. “Screenwriting is an inward look. Studying this look is to better understand what we see on screen and also what we don't see,” reflects the author.
