Without an exhibitor, film that shows Renato Aragão ‘villain’ goes to the drawer

Director and screenwriter of “Trapalhadas Sem Fim”, Rafael Spaca threw in the towel. He gave up on releasing the controversial documentary that would expose the troubled relationship between the group formed by three of the comedians of “Os Trapalhões” — Dedé Santana, Mussum and Zacarias — and the protagonist, Renato Aragão.

The production, budgeted at R$ 2 million, took three years of research and interviews and, according to Spaca, was presented to “practically all” streaming platforms. There was no interest on the part of any of them to exhibit it. “It lacked the courage to air an independent documentary without a tail”, says the director to the F5.

“It was a shock of reality. Brazil is the country of the white plate and prefers to produce a documentary like this one by Neymar [ Neymar – O Caos Perfeito, da Netflix]which is pure flattery, than showing more provocative things”, says the director, who is not a neophyte on the subject. He has already written two books about the group: “As HQs dos Trapalhões” and “O Cinema dos Trapalhões”.

He says that the series would reveal details of tense moments behind the scenes, such as arguments and disagreements over money between the four. “That Renato earned absurdly more than the others, that’s a fact. Another fact is that at one point in the quartet’s career, he ‘pulled the rug’ Dedé, Mussum and Zacarias”.

Divided into five episodes, the documentary series would show the trajectory of “Os Trapalhões” from the beginning of the group, with its original formation (Renato Aragão, Wanderley Cardoso, Ivon Cury and Ted Boy Marino), in the 1960s, until the recordings of ‘ The Clumsy Mummers: Towards Hollywood’ (2017).

Spaca denies that he tried to deconstruct the image of Renato Aragão’s “nice myth”, giving Didi Mocó’s interpreter an air of villainy. “I would leave it to the public to make that judgment”, says he, who says he has followed American and European models of audiovisual productions. “They’re journalistic. There’s not this story that every documentary needs to be an ode to the object of research”, he observes.

THE F5 contacted Renato Aragão, but did not receive a response until the publication of this report. Folha found that the comedian’s lawyers had already expressed interest in blocking the series as soon as it was announced by a broadcaster or streaming platform.