BETWEEN ECHOES OF THE GROTESQUE AND CARNAVALIZATION IN NATIONAL CINEMA: the verbo-visual fabric of the film “O Cheiro do Ralo”

Abstract

This article investigates the verbo-visual fabric of the film O cheiro do ralo (2006), inspired by the eponymous novel by Lourenço Mutarelli (2002), in the light of the concepts of the grotesque and carnivalization developed by the Bakhtin Circle. The analysis establishes a dialogue between Rabelaisian aesthetics and the signs of capitalism, aiming to understand how the degraded body and hierarchical inversion configure a symbolic critique of the contradictions of contemporary society. Based on a qualitative and interpretative approach, we explore the film’s polyphonic dimension through the transcription of a selected excerpt and the analysis of a single image from the narrative, as paths for reflecting on the gestures, bodies, and voices on screen. It is observed that grotesque corporality and rites of degradation act as disruptive forces, establishing a liminal space of symbolic resistance. This Brazilian cinematic production reenacts, in a carnivalesque key, the unraveling of a subject in ruins, revealing the abysses of a daily life marked by alienation and consumption. Thus, the work is inscribed as an ethical-aesthetic gesture, in which the grotesque not only subverts, but reveals the subterranean layers of social norms and their subtle violence.