O Barroco Subversivo de Luiz Fernando Carvalho: A Reinvenção de Machado de Assis em "Capitu"
Luiz Fernando Carvalho’s (2008) is widely regarded as a watershed moment in Brazilian television, transforming Machado de Assis’s classic novel Dom Casmurro into an experimental "operatic" experience. Rather than a literal adaptation, Carvalho describes the miniseries as an "approximation" or a "dialogue" with the source material, aiming to preserve the book's psychological depth and modernist spirit. Aesthetic and Visual Style Seriado Capitu - Luis Fernado de Carvalho
Antonelli plays Capitu with a sharp intelligence that justifies Bento’s insecurity while never confirming his accusations. She is not a passive victim; she is a woman fighting for her survival within the constraints of 19th-century patriarchy. The chemistry between Gueiros (young Bentinho) and Antonelli is electric, making the eventual disintegration of their marriage feel like a genuine tragedy. O Barroco Subversivo de Luiz Fernando Carvalho: A
For Machado de Assis's centennial, Carvalho didn't want a faithful, page-by-page translation. In his own words: "I don't believe in adaptations. Adaptations are always, in a way, a flattening of the original work, an assassination of the original text". Instead, he called his work an "approximation" — a dialogue. This dialogue is why the series is named after the female protagonist, Capitu , and not the bitter narrator Bento Santiago (Dom Casmurro). The director was reaffirming the novel's central, unanswerable doubt as a vital process of modern culture. This doubt—whether Capitu betrayed her husband or not—is not a flaw but the novel's core, an engine of perpetual interpretation. She is not a passive victim; she is