The portrait that was and the one that could have been: About Santiago. Uma reflexão sobre a matéria-prima (João Moreira Salles, 2007)

Abstract

The following paper proposes to explore the figurations of domestic work in Santiago (Uma reflexão sobre o material bruto) (Moreira Salles, 2007) based on a formal analysis of documentary material (filmed by Moreira Salles at the end of the nineties and revised thirteen years later for the making of the film) that portrays Santiago over five days of interviews at his home. The preponderance of fixed shots in the film allows us to affirm that the cinematographic device is intertwined with the operations of the photographic to build a multiple, fragmented image of Santiago, in permanent dialogue with his stories and anecdotes, apart from the work in the house of the Moreira Salles family. While outlining a possible portrait of Santiago, the film reveals three pillars that support it, linked to the relationship between image and power. 

First, the power of the interviewer and the interviewee. Secondly, the power exercised by the camera over the portrayed. And finally, the power of “the boy” over the butler, which permeates all instances of filming. Taking these relationships into account, the hypothesis of the article suggests that Santiago (and his portrait, and his stories, and his typewritten heritage) slips and slides through the twists and turns of these three layers of power that seem to fall upon him. 

The paradigmatic scene is the one that presents a request -almost an imposition- from Santiago. He asks to film the dance of his hands. Following Deleuze (1983) taken up by Kratje (2017) this scene proposes a rostrification of those hands that occupy the entire screen, becoming a stopping point, a departure from everything previous and everything to come.
In this line, the film contains two possible films: the film that is presented to the viewers, with the fixed shots of Santiago, the cross-cuts through the family home, and the framed photographs; and the other, the one that could have been and was not, the one that was thought, but not made, which permanently tensions with what is present on screen.