The woman's body in the amazonian movies: dichotomy between discipline and freedom

Abstract

Released in 1962, the film An ordinary day, by the filmmaker Libero Luxardo,
was the first fictional feature film made entirely at the Amazonian state of Pará. The film presents the city of Belem on a typical day, revealing the daily life on the streets andthe cultural and religious events, which are attributes of the city. It was disapproved by the critics of that time for its technical and stylistic flaws. However, currently, the film is presented as locus of a series of interpretations related to the body, women, conduct and “social trainings,” which have always been present, but are driven differently in each historical period. This article aims to analyze the construction of meaning related to woman’s figure in the film. In order to do this, as theoretical support, it has been specially chosen the thought of the philosopher Michel Foucault, who understands sexuality as an element historically built. The concept of “docile body”, from this perspective, exposed in his book “Discipline and Punish” (Foucault, 2004), was relevant to understand the social places occupied by female characters in the plot, especially Maria de Belém and Marlene.