Exercícios de representação: simulacro e vida na criação da personagem

Within a film analysis the character proves to be a constitutive element of representation being at the root of the dramaturgical discourse. Thus the character, as an “actant being” amongst the boundaries of fiction and life, is traversed by artistic invention, historical facts and biographical reflection. Traditionally, the character has had the function, through verisimilitude, to enable the audience to project their own life counteracting what one has / is with a contemplation of what one could have / be. Hence through character's lives one can have the possibility to overcome failures and disappointments. Currently we observe the advent of new character building models that emphasize the resourceful aptitude of the transmutation of the Self as well as its constant reinvention through an autobiographical discourse. This new proposal aims to develop in the audience an urge to personal change through contact with characters that have a direct reference to contemporary reality. This way the character reveals itself as a possibility of reinventing existence and interactions with others in a direct transposition with our daily-life. This paper aims to analyze these dramaturgical proposals of “daily-life-characters” supported, for that purpose, on mike Leigh’s film happy-go-lucky (2008).