A poetics of the unfinished: a look at the film Moscow by Eduardo Coutinho

Abstract

The article discusses Eduardo Coutinho´s film Moscow as a unique case in the filmography of this documentalist, in which the film-work turns to a theatrical creation process that has no other end that the film itself. Instead of opening the eye of the camera to testimonies or scenes from “real life”, as in other works, Coutinho uses the interface of theatre, proposing to Grupo Galpão and theatre director Enrique Diaz, a process of construction around the play Three sisters by Anton Chekhov. The article seeks to discuss the particularities of this creative process, analyzing their directions and guidelines; the interrelationships between reality and fiction; the hybridism between theatre, cinema and the multiple authors of the film, from the authors’ own vision of what I have called a “Poetics of the unfinished”. As theoretical tools, I recall the thoughts of art historian Michael Baxandall, genetics critic Cecília Almeida Salles, cinema theoretician Christian Metz and philosopher Gilles Deleuze.