Uma “nãobiografia” “nãonarrativa” de “Agripina é Roma-Manhattan”, de Hélio Oiticica

Abstract

This article considers the critical concept of “non-narration”, created by Hélio Oiticica and applicable to his short film “Agripina é Roma-Manhattan”, recorded in the Wall Street region of New York City, an analogy with our reflection on a possible “non-biography” related to the meanings that its protagonist related to the staging environments. One character consists of an incomplete and indirect reference to Agrippina Minor, mother of the Roman Emperor Nero, who lived between the years 15 and 59 AD. Without dialogues, children or subtitles, as the only references to Agrippina are her name in the title, two female characters and some common buildings architectural styles refer us to the classic Greco-Roman period and the advance of the empire over Northern Europe, especially in its version Christianized and expressed by a Gothic church present in the film's landscape. Aiming to verify the relevance of the mentioned hypothesis, we consulted some theorists of history, cinema and the arts who dealt with the concepts of narrative, biography and character in a relative way. We proceeded with an analysis of the film making some systematic divisions in order to agree the contents and according to the syntax of the scenes with our concepts and hypothesis.

Keywords: Narrative. Biography. Cinema.