A CANNIBAL IN HOLLYWOOD: OSWALD THE SPECTATOR VALENTINO

Abstract

Invoking the appearances of Rudolph Valetino (one of the first super-starts) in Oswald de Andrade’s text (an emblematic case of the ignored relation between brazilian’s modernism and Hollywood), this paper intents to show how the theme of cinematic reproduction of images can be articulated with the idea of an poetics of “grilo” (fake property, copy), elaborated in the Antropophagic movement. . In the text that synthesizes the Revista de Antropofagia, “Scheme to Thristão de Athayde” Oswald de Andrade invokes Valentino as an example of the nucleus of anthropophagic law: the theory of possession against property. The decline of the aura and the liberation of specters produced by the reproduction techniques (portrayed in a chronicle of Oswald about Valentino) makes it possible to foresee the Antropophagic utopia where its impossible to separate the most authentic original from the cheapest falsification.