Sound and image
Memories they told me was shot in four locations:
Rio de Janeiro. The history of the group of friends happens in Rio. Here they live and theoretically meet at the hospital looking for news about Ana, their friend who is hospitalized. The outsides that mark the city: streets of Urca, district where the character Irene lives, Praia do Arpoador, outside of the Federal Police, Parque Lage, everything carried out on the real locations, kindly conceded by the institutions. Some interiors like the Italian restaurant where Paolo works also was filmed in Rio,at Luciano Pessina's restaurant, Osterial del Angolo. Luciano himself was also a character, an immigrant who came to Brazil and had extradition requested by the Italian government.
Paulínia. The film received the support of the Cinematographic Center of Paulínia and might have its major part filmed in the region. Researched carried out allowed us to assemble the hospital where Ana is hospitalized in the city. The interiors were in part built by the art department, complemented by the Hospital Samaritano de Paulínia and in part by the lobby of the Municipal Theater. Also the houses of all characters were located in the region, searching to fit these interiors to districts where theoretically the characters lived (like Urca, Irene's district).
Paris. The Ana's character lived her exile in Paris. We wanted to show her isolation, and at the same time, the difficulty she went through to come back and get reintegrated in the Brazilian society. The return meant also abandonning marginality. For instance, her encounter on the streets of Paris with an immigrant that gained some money making soap bubbles represented the marginality and the pleasure related to this marginality. We looked for paradigmatic places of Paris, like Pont Neuf. The great difficult was to avoid the modern interferences, like the small trash cans placed everywhere, the buses and even the people, as we didn’t have license to close the streets and interfere in the locations. In the farewell of Paris, we used the George Pompidou Cultural Centre (Beaubourg), opened close to the end of the exile, in 1974, that represents what is left behind from the cultural point of view.
Brasília. The character of the minister in the film (Josecarlos) represents the part of the generation that got to the power. An important discussion of the film. We wanted images that represented political power, internationally known as exercise of this power in Brazil. So, the Praça dos Três Poderes [Three Powers Square] and Esplanada do Ministério [Ministries Esplanade]. The beauty of Brasília by night, its futuristic charm was extensively explored by the photographer.