# Limite > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Limite > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Limite.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limite > Source revision: 1356170405 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|1931 film}} {{For|the Mexican band|Grupo Límite}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = Limite | image = Limite_Poster.jpg | caption = | director = [Mário Peixoto](/source/M%C3%A1rio_Peixoto) | writer = Mário Peixoto | starring = Olga Breno
Taciana Rey
Raul Schnoor | producer = Mário Peixoto | music = | cinematography = [Edgar Brasil](/source/Edgar_Brasil) | editing = Mário Peixoto | studio = | distributor = | released = {{Film date|1931|05|17|Brazilian premiere,
Capitol Theatre,
Rio de Janeiro|df=y}} | runtime = 120 minutes | country = Brazil | language = Portuguese }} '''''Limite''''' ({{IPA|pt-BR|liˈmitʃi|lang}}, [Portuguese](/source/Portuguese_language) for "limit", "border" or "edge") is a 1931 [Brazilian](/source/Cinema_of_Brazil) [silent](/source/Silent_film) [experimental](/source/Experimental_film) [psychological drama](/source/psychological_drama){{Cite web |date=8 November 2021 |title=A Dicotomia da existência: Limite (1931), de Mário Peixoto |url=https://www.rua.ufscar.br/a-dicotomia-da-existencia-limite-1931-de-mario-peixoto/}} film directed, written, and produced by [Mário Peixoto](/source/M%C3%A1rio_Peixoto). The film was inspired by a photograph by [André Kertész](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Kert%C3%A9sz) and was shot in 1930, with its first screening taking place in 1931. It is often considered one of the earliest experimental feature films.{{Cite web |title=Limite: Memory in the Present Tense |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4627-limite-memory-in-the-present-tense}} The film tells the story of two unnamed women and an unnamed man drifting in a small boat. As they float aimlessly, they reflect on their pasts through flashbacks. One woman escaped from prison but is still being pursued, the other left an unhappy marriage, and the man is grieving the loss of a lover. Tired and without hope, they stop rowing and let the boat drift. ''Limite'' was restored between 1966 and 1978 from a single damaged nitrate print, though one scene remains missing. Despite its limited release, incomplete condition, and the fact that Peixoto never made another film, ''Limite'' received praise from critics and filmmakers, including [Georges Sadoul](/source/Georges_Sadoul) and [Walter Salles](/source/Walter_Salles). It has since gained a [cult](/source/Cult_film) following and is frequently mentioned as one of the [greatest Brazilian films of all time](/source/List_of_films_voted_the_best). ==Plot== thumb|thumbtime=20|''Limite.''|left In ''Limite'', a man and two women are stranded in a rowboat, drifting aimlessly at sea. Tired and without hope, they stop rowing and let the currents take them. As they float, their pasts are revealed through flashbacks, each marked by changes in the music. One woman, a seamstress, escaped from prison with the help of a guard. She tried to start over in a new city but had to flee again when she saw in the newspapers that the police were still looking for her. The other woman left her unhappy marriage to an alcoholic pianist, tired of his coldness and lack of care. The man, a widower, shares that he fell in love with a married woman. Later, while visiting his late wife’s grave, he learned from the woman’s husband that she had [leprosy](/source/leprosy). Man and woman see something black in the sea. Man wants to see what is there but woman don't let him to go. Then as he jumps to water, he disappeared. Soon we see waves. After it, boat and one woman disappeared. Only one woman remained clutching a piece of boat in the sea. ==Background== {{multiple image | footer = The image of handcuffs in ''Limite'' is a recreation of a photograph by [André Kertész](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Kert%C3%A9sz). | image1 = Limite scene, by Peixoto.jpg | width1 = 216 | image2 = Vu magazine - Aug 1929.jpg | width2 = 120 | align = right }} In August 1929, Peixoto was in Paris, on a summer break from his studies in England, when he saw a photograph by [André Kertész](/source/Andr%C3%A9_Kert%C3%A9sz) of two handcuffed male hands around the neck of a woman who is gazing at the camera. This became the "generative" or "Protean" image for ''Limite''.{{Cite news|author=Andrade, Fábio|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4627-limite-memory-in-the-present-tense|title=Limite: Memory in the Present Tense|work=The Criterion Collection|access-date=17 August 2017}} The film's unusual structure has kept the film in the margins of most film histories, where it has been known mainly as a provocative and legendary cult film.Ruiz, Raúl; Bressane, Julio; et al. (2008) [http://www.cinelatino.com.fr/sites/default/files/lesdocs/cinemas_damerique_latine_n16_2008.pdf "''Limite'', le film culte de Mário Peixoto"] ''Cinémas d'Amérique Latine'' n.16 {{isbn|978-2-85816-989-4}} ==Cast== * Olga Breno as Woman #1 * Taciana Rey as Woman #2 * Raul Schnoor as Man #1 * Brutus Pedreira as Man #2 * [Carmen Santos](/source/Carmen_Santos) as Woman eating a fruit * [Mário Peixoto](/source/M%C3%A1rio_Peixoto) as Man sitting at the cemetery * [Edgar Brasil](/source/Edgar_Brasil) as Man asleep in the theater * Iolanda Bernardes as Woman at the sewing machine == Production == Peixoto wanted to play the male lead himself, and pitched the film to Brazilian directors [Humberto Mauro](/source/Humberto_Mauro) and [Adhemar Gonzaga](/source/Adhemar_Gonzaga), both of whom said that Peixoto's scenario was too personal to be directed by anyone else. Peixoto decided to proceed and paid for the production using family funds. He filmed in 1930 on the coast of [Mangaratiba](/source/Mangaratiba), a village about 50 miles from Rio de Janeiro, where his cousin owned a farm. Stylistically, ''Limite'' follows a number of great 1920s directors. In his article on the film, critic Fábio Andrade notes the influence of [D. W. Griffith](/source/D._W._Griffith), [Soviet montage](/source/Soviet_montage_theory), the [German expressionist](/source/German_expressionist_cinema) works of [F. W. Murnau](/source/F._W._Murnau) and [Robert Wiene](/source/Robert_Wiene), French Surrealist shorts by [Germaine Dulac](/source/Germaine_Dulac) and [Man Ray](/source/Man_Ray), [Robert J. Flaherty](/source/Robert_J._Flaherty), [Carl Theodor Dreyer](/source/Carl_Theodor_Dreyer) and particularly [Jean Epstein](/source/Jean_Epstein), all of which are visible in German-born [Edgar Brasil](/source/Edgar_Brasil)'s cinematography. One scene takes place at a screening of ''[The Adventurer](/source/The_Adventurer_(1917_film))'' by [Charlie Chaplin](/source/Charlie_Chaplin), suggesting another important influence on Peixoto's film. Mário Peixoto said that Limite cost 60,000 reis.{{Cite web |title=Limite – Production {{!}} Limite |url=https://limite.uff.br/language/en/production-en/ |access-date=2026-05-10 |language=en-GB}} ==Reception== ''Limite'' had three public screenings in Rio de Janeiro between May 1931 and January 1932, receiving little public support or critical acclaim. Its reputation built slowly: [Vinicius de Moraes](/source/Vinicius_de_Moraes), who later became a prominent Brazilian poet and lyricist, showed the film to [Orson Welles](/source/Orson_Welles) when he visited Brazil in 1942 to film parts of ''It's All True''. Other screenings took place in private film societies, alongside works by [Sergei Eisenstein](/source/Sergei_Eisenstein) and [Vsevolod Pudovkin](/source/Vsevolod_Pudovkin), during the 1940s and early 1950s. Peixoto died in 1992, aged 83, leaving a substantial body of literary work, unproduced screenplays and scenarios, and a fragment of a planned second feature film, ''Onde a Terra Acaba'', which never was completed and mostly lost in a fire. Peixoto continued to promote ''Limite'' throughout his life. In 1965, he publicized an article about the film, supposedly written by Eisenstein, praising its "luminous pain, which unfolds as rhythm, coordinated to images of rare precision and ingenuity." Peixoto was vague about the article's provenance, which lacked primary sources, claiming first that it appeared in ''[Tatler](/source/Tatler)'' and then an unidentified German magazine and finally admitted that he had written it himself. In 1988, the [Cinemateca Brasileira](/source/Cinemateca_Brasileira) named ''Limite'' the best [Brazil](/source/Brazil)ian film of all time.{{cite news |last=Rohter |first=Larry |title=Brazil's Best, Restored and Ready for a 21st-Century Audience |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/movies/10cinema.html |access-date=July 13, 2024 |work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) |date=November 9, 2010 |page=C1}} In 1995 a national survey of critics by ''[Folha de S.Paulo](/source/Folha_de_S.Paulo)'' named it the best Brazilian film.{{cite web |url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/1995/11/30/caderno_especial/18.html |title='Limite' é o melhor filme brasileiro |date=November 30, 1995 |website=[Folha de S.Paulo](/source/Folha_de_S.Paulo) |access-date=July 14, 2024 |language=pt}} In 2015, it was voted number 1 on the [Abraccine Top 100 Brazilian films](/source/Abraccine_Top_100_Brazilian_films) list.{{cite web |url=https://abraccine.org/2015/11/27/abraccine-organiza-ranking-dos-100-melhores-filmes-brasileiros/ |title=Abraccine organiza ranking dos 100 melhores filmes brasileiros |last=Dib |first=André |publisher={{ill|Brazilian Film Critics Association|pt|Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Cinema}} |date=November 27, 2015 |access-date=July 13, 2024 |language=pt}} ==Preservation status== By 1959, the single nitrate print of ''Limite'' had deteriorated due to poor storage conditions and could no longer be screened, a situation that contributed to its near-mythical status in Brazilian film history. It was stored at the [Faculdade Nacional de Filosofia](/source/Faculdade_Nacional_de_Filosofia) (FNF) until 1966 when the [military dictatorship](/source/Brazilian_military_government)'s police force confiscated it, along with works by Eisenstein, Pudovkin and other Soviet directors. Former FNF student Pereira de Mello managed to retrieve the print later that year. The restoration process then began with photographic reproductions of every single frame, which was completed in 1978. The most recent version, based on that restoration, was made with the assistance of the Mário Peixoto Archives and [Cinemateca Brasileira](/source/Cinemateca_Brasileira). It had its American premiere at the [Brooklyn Academy of Music](/source/Brooklyn_Academy_of_Music) in [Brooklyn, New York](/source/Brooklyn%2C_New_York) on 17 November 2010, as part of the World Cinema Foundation's Film Festival. One scene of the film remains missing and was replaced by an [intertitle](/source/intertitle). In 2017, the [Criterion Collection](/source/The_Criterion_Collection) issued ''Limite'' on DVD and Blu-Ray, as one of [Martin Scorsese](/source/Martin_Scorsese)'s selections for his [World Cinema Project](/source/World_Cinema_Project).{{Cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/1258-martin-scorsese-s-world-cinema-project-no-2|author=Staff|title=Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 2|website=The Criterion Collection|access-date=17 August 2017}} ==See also== * [List of rediscovered films](/source/List_of_rediscovered_films) ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== {{commons category|Limite}} * {{IMDb title|0022080}} * {{TCMDb title|id=520912}} Category:1931 drama films Category:1931 films Category:Brazilian avant-garde and experimental films Category:Brazilian black-and-white films Category:Brazilian silent drama films Category:Brazilian silent feature films Category:Films set on boats Category:1930s avant-garde and experimental films Category:1930s rediscovered films Category:Rediscovered Brazilian films Category:1930s Brazilian films Category:Articles containing video clips --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Limite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limite) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limite?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.