Cinema
The Earth Is Flat
Jorden er flad
Henrik Stangerup · 1977
Synopsis
In a village in Brazil, in the seventeenth century, peasants have bled themselves dry to send one of their own, Rasmus Berg, to study at university in Portugal. He returns under the Latinised name of Erasmus Montanus, laden with a learning that serves no one, and parades it on every occasion, going so far as to maintain against the whole village that the Earth is round. His brother Jacob had hoped to find in him an ally in his struggle against the big landowners.
Context
The film transposes Ludvig Holberg's comedy, published in 1731, to seventeenth-century Brazil. Written with the Brazilian writer Fausto Wolff, who also plays the title role, it was shot in colour at Porto Seguro, in the state of Bahia, in January and February 1976, in Portuguese and with Brazilian actors. The screenplay was published as a book the same year. Criticised from the time of shooting because it received Danish public funding, the film was released in Copenhagen on 1 February 1977.
Who it is for
From an hour and a half to two hours depending on the copies, in Portuguese. A farce played freely, in the manner of the commedia dell'arte.
Prizes and reception
A critical and public failure in Denmark; shown the same year at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, where French critics received it favourably.
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