Amora Mautner sets the tone for 'Quem Ama Cuida' and jokes: 'If it's not successful, I'll give up on the soap opera'

Amora Mautner and Leticia Colin during the recording of 'Quem Ama Cuida' in São Paulo.
Globo
Under the artistic command of Amora Mautner, a director known for her (at least) energetic style on set, the new TV Globo soap opera, "Quem Ama Cuida", premieres this Monday (18).
Written by Walcyr Carrasco and Cláudia Souto, the plot has as its starting point a São Paulo devastated by a historic flood.
The plot follows the journey of Adriana (Letícia Colin), a physiotherapist who loses her home and sees her husband, Carlos (Jesuíta Barbosa), being swept away and killed by the waters.
In an interview with g1, the director detailed the behind-the-scenes of the project, revealing everything from cast preparation methods to neuroscience studies and cinematic references that shaped the language of the soap opera. Check it out below.
A 'wolf' on the set
At 50 years of age and with 31 years at TV Globo, Amora Mautner's trademark is the organic work that is born in the heat of the set - what she calls a "turn", in which creation happens alive, on stage.
In an interview with the program "Ofício em Cena", she has already revealed that she hates actors who come "premeditated from home": "I once worked with an actress who arrived with a little piece of paper with everything written on it: 'Get up, walk, sit down'. I'm not a civil servant, I'm an artist", she said at the time, without revealing any names.
Amora Mautner
GloboNews
The Rio native has directed hits such as "O Cravo e a Rosa" (2000), "Cordel Encantado" (2011) and "Avenida Brasil" (2012). For the new plot, preparation involved tools that were, to say the least, curious.
One of them was the distribution of a questionnaire with 80 questions to each cast member about their own personal routines, investigating everything from the menu in their refrigerators at home to their reading habits.
"Chay [Suede], for example, said that he is addicted to drinking whipped chocolate. We put this on stage to show that his character is spoiled", says the director.
In the plot, the actor will play Pedro, son of lawyer Ademir (Dan Stulbach), who will fall in love with the protagonist Adriana (Letícia Colin).
Letícia Colin and Chay Suede behind the scenes of Quem Ama Cuida
Globo/Manoella Mello
Isabel Teixeira plays a 'cathartic villain'
Amora Mautner also uses the lessons of Aristotle's classical philosophy on catharsis to shape the tone of the great antagonist, played by Isabel Teixeira. best Soap Opera Actress for 'Pantanal'.
Globo/Sérgio Zalis
In the plot, Pilar is the jealous sister of Arthur Brandão (Antônio Fagundes) and tries to have him judicially interdicted, becoming one of the main suspects in his murder.
Working with the actress, however, required a certain amount of "wieldiness":
"I joked with Isabel, I said: 'Our problem is one of excess'. While with the other actors I had to fight to bring it, with her I had to clean it up", recalls the director.
The legacy of 'Avenida Brasil'
On the recording set, Mautner's directing method is based on the concepts of "countermark" and "strange element", techniques that seek to break the "artificiality" of the scenes.
The dynamics are inspired by the theater and the dynamism of the cinema of Frank Capra, director of classics such as "Do Mundo Nada Se Leva" (1938) and "A Felicidade Não Se Compra" (1946), known for revolutionizing the naturalness of dialogue and overlapping actions on stage.
"My soap operas are like this: while one is drinking coffee, the other is leaving for work. One is suffering from a breakup and the other is radiant. There can't be an idealized moment where everyone shares the same feeling because, in real life, that doesn't exist", explains Amora.
This signature is already a trademark of the director, responsible for dictating the chaotic rhythm of "one talking over the other" that established the iconic nucleus of Carminha (Adriana Esteves), Tufão (Murilo Benício) and Jorginho (Cauã Reymond) in "Avenida Brasil".
Carminha in "Avenida Brazil"
Reproduction
For this new plot, Mautner works with two main groups. One is Adriana (Letícia Colin), which will feature, among other actors, Tony Ramos, Nathalia Dill and Allan Souza Lima.
The other is Brandão (Antônio Fagundes), which will feature Tatá Werneck, Agatha Moreira, José Loreto and a large cast.
The director's references
To support the mystery of the murder of Brandão (Antônio Fagundes), who this time gains strength right at the beginning of the plot - between chapters 13 and 14, according to the director -, Mautner sought inspiration in the suspense and tension of cinema.
In addition to Frank Capra, the director sewed references from the work of great filmmakers:
Alfred Hitchcock: inspiration in the style of suspense and the director's millimetric decoupage to build the levels of tension and stretch the mystery of "who killed";
Bong Joon-ho: direct reference to the film "Parasite", which served as inspiration for the flood that begins the story;
Roy Andersson: influence in his singular look in the scene compositions to create a visual atmosphere;
Douglas Sirk: reference in the classic melodramatic structure that dictates the strength of the relationships between the characters in a soap opera.
The great 'Méliès Project'
The big news for this new plot is the rejection to digital resources common in current television, such as chroma key (the famous green screen).
Named by the team itself as "Project Méliès", in honor of the French filmmaker who pioneered visual effects in cinema, the concept uses optical illusions and totally physical tricks inside the studio. premiere of "Quem Ama Cuida", a new soap opera at 9
Neuroscience in the edition
For editing the soap opera, Amora Mautner reveals that she applies concepts from neuroscience, an area she has been researching for 14 years.
The director explains that she uses knowledge about the functioning of the brain to map the "viewer's vanishing point".
As she did in scenes from the first chapter, where she had to remove elements because the audience would not be able to find Adriana (Leticia Colin) in up to three seconds:
"That was how long the plan lasted. She was tiny, in red. If I don't do this, I'm making a mistake in the dramatic function of the image", he analyzes.
'Quem Ama Cuida': Leticia Colin (Adriana) during the recording of the soap opera
Manoela Mello/Globo
Let the wheels spin...
The director usually argues that Brazilian soap operas should absorb more of the language of reality shows: always imprinting naturalness, spontaneity...
This desire for a "living thing within the set" is becoming drew in a practical way during the interview with g1, held last Thursday (14), at the soap opera's launch event.
The conversation was briefly interrupted by the arrival of Ana Paula Renault, winner of BBB 26, to whom the director gave great praise ("authentic", "original", "good") and invited to participate in the soap opera
"Brazil really wants people like that. And we have that with this plot: a cast that is pulsating, visceral. If the public doesn't like it, I think I'll give up on making a soap opera", he joked.
Ana Paula Renault and Amora Mautner at the launch event for the soap opera 'Quem Ama Cuida'.
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Source: G1