It is impossible not to think about the film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain and not to remember these striking shades. The first time I watched this French film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet was in 2012, when I was 15 years old. I was absolutely fascinated by the narrative, the characters, the photography and the colors. What I didn't imagine is that the inspiration for this color palette came from an artist from my city.
Juarez Machado was born in 1941 in Brazil, in the city of Joinville, located in the state of Santa Catarina. Joinville is not a very big city, and for lack of this artistic diversity, Juarez left the state to study the arts. In 1966 he started his career as a visual artist in Rio de Janeiro, making many paintings, film sets, illustration and sculptures. In 1986 he moved to Paris, France, where he made many exhibitions and where he started a friendship with Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Juarez lived on the same block as Jean-Pierre, and the two had many things in common. Jean-Pierre, in addition to being a filmmaker, also makes animations (which often appear in his films, including Amélie Poulain). The two always attended each other's exhibitions, and it was impossible for Jean-Pierre not to fall in love with the works of art by the Brazilian artist. And they not only served as an inspiration for the color palette, but also two prints are part of the scenery of Amélie Poulain's bedroom. The funny thing is that the works that appeared in the room were not even original, Jean-Pierre printed to put them in the frames, not least because Juarez's paintings are usually large (and this curiosity I had the opportunity to know directly from Juarez).
In 2017, in the first year of my film and audiovisual college, I developed an exercise that was to transform a scene from a film under the eyes of another director. So I chose Whiplash's first scene under the eyes of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. For this, the team and I elaborated a whole narrative similar to that of Jean-Pierre to adapt the Whiplash scene. But the crucial point for the work was the direction of art and photography. I had the idea of contacting Juarez to find out if he would lend any of his works to be on the scene of our work. I was already familiar with him because I met him as a child and my father knows him. He and his team were very helpful and we were lucky to meet him at the same day at his institute. He was extremely affectionate, asked for details about the work and the curiosities that involved his partnership with Jean-Pierre. Juarez is a very fun person and loves to talk. So we borrowed one of his reproductions.
Unfortunately youtube blocked the video of my work due to the copyright of the songs, which are the soundtrack of the films. When I find another way to publish it, I will show it to you!
You can find more informations here: www.institutojuarezmachado.com.br
Pictures from Google.
I hope you like it!
Aline Machado.
(no, we are not related 😅)