Even after the Military Dictatorship, there was prior censorship in Brazil. Any film that was shown in the country, until 1988, had to pass the evaluation of the so-called Division of Censorship of Public Entertainment of the Federal Police.
In 1986, during the government of José Sarney, the film “Je Vous Salue, Marie” (“I greet you, Maria”, in Portuguese), by Jean-Luc Godard passed through the hands of the censors, whose decision was not consensual, but ended up banning the film from circulating in Brazil.
The production story is simple and classic: Marie (Myriem Roussel) is a student who works at her father’s gas station and enjoys playing basketball. Joseph (Therry Rode) is her boyfriend and drives taxis around Paris in the 80s.
Marie then receives news from a stranger (Philippe Lacoste) that she is going to be a mother. His name is Gabriel and he’s a brute, he smokes, he rides a cab and he says what he wants bluntly.
Upon learning of Marie’s pregnancy, Joseph accuses her of infidelity, since, for two years, there was no sexual act between the couple.
It is, in fact, a controversial film within the Christian religion. There are several nude scenes, long monologues about the relationship between sex and nature, as well as a sequence in which a gynecologist attests to Marie’s virginity.
After a troubled pregnancy, Jesus is finally born, revealing himself to be a spoiled and curious child, especially in relation to his mother’s body.
In Brazil, a certain popular pressure got what it wanted, therefore. Several letters were sent to the then president, José Sarney, claiming that the film was sacrilege, that it had scenes that were offensive to Catholics and that it painted a mundane image of Our Lady.
The explanation for the censorship was given through the spokesperson of the Presidency to the newspaper Estado de São Paulo. According to Fernando César Mesquita, the president, despite not having seen the film, for being a man “profoundly religious […] responded to an appeal from the Church. He goes to mass every Sunday, he always reads the Gospel, and he would not go against the Christian spirit of the Brazilian people”.
The government also stated that it took into account the guidelines of Pope John Paul II and the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), as both said that the film had “fundamental themes of the Christian faith, misrepresenting and vilifying the sacred figure of Virgin Mary”.
Faced with so many difficulties, curiosity among the spectators was already planted. Some institutions, such as PUC de São Paulo and USP, still tried to show the film at the time, which was confiscated.
However, the film would be “free” two years later. With the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, the Federal Police’s Public Entertainment Censorship Division ceased to exist and prior censorship in Brazil was abolished.
Source: CNN Brasil
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