The capital São Paulo becomes the scene of a criminal investigation along the lines of “ noir ” in the work “Preto Suave” , by Ricardo Mello . For lovers of cinematographic style, the literary release invites readers to imagine the typical black and white scenario of 1940s films, but adapted to a story that takes place in modern times.
With fluid and pleasant language, the work contextualizes the public about the mysteries related to the search for a police officer’s killer. In fact, the judicial and political knowledge of the author, who worked for decades as a lawyer and federal prosecutor, brings fiction even closer to reality.
The narrative follows the character Silas Steffano , a private investigator of civil cases who finds himself involved in a criminal case to help Malu find out who killed her husband. After a new homicide, this time of the mayor of a peripheral city in São Paulo, he discovers a connection between the crimes and a corruption scheme related to urban waste collection contracts. Little by little, the character discovers a truth that is beyond the newspaper headlines.
The work is the perfect choice for those who seek leisure reading fiction and love to capture clues from the investigator to discover the culprit before he is revealed. All of this is in Preto Suave, accompanied by a pinch of romance and an immersion in the São Paulo scene, which takes readers along the busy Rua da Consolação to the historic Sé neighborhood.
noir setting is a striking feature in “Preto Suave”. How did you adapt this cinematographic style from the 1940s to a plot that takes place in modern times in São Paulo?
Adapting cinematographic style to literature is possible when you have this element, style. “ Noir ” cinema appeared in Hollywood in the 1940s, when photography only existed in black and white. The photography itself takes on its own style. The use of black and white is a form of modern industrial, technology becomes an element of everyday life. The absence of color, interrupted by the emotion of the Middle Ages, not used by Western art since the Greek period of marble statues, reappears rescued now, in modernism. The color black gains expression with the movement of images, the shine of cars illuminated at night, the dark alleys occupied by gangsters, the tense actions that disappear in the darkness, bringing the title “ noir ”, given by French critics, who soon recognized the influence of German expressionism, brought by masters who fled Nazism, such as Fritz Lang, for example.
Literature faces the first problems because it does not have images already printed and the black color printed according to expressionism, but literature manages to capture the style, making transposition possible. By making a translation, it is possible to translate from film to book. The rules are those of literature, descriptive, elaborate, poetic language is not allowed . The man of the post-war industrial period is pragmatic, he took the elitism of the European nobility in his pragmatism, in his capacity for economic initiative. Cinema reflects their way of life, way of life , in its Christian morality, maintaining Hebrew patriarchalism so that it is easily absorbed as a dominant ideology.
Ideological morality, however, is challenged by the practice of evil, sheep straying from the great national flock, the commission of crime. the criminal’s motives and weaknesses are exposed as a human condition, as a deviation from the path of the average American. The evil nature of the criminal is confronted with the religious preaching of the Protestant Bible, overcoming the male hierarchy.
Silas Steffano , the private investigator, is the protagonist of the story. Can you tell us more about how you developed this character and what sets him apart from other classic detectives?
The idea was to make Silas Steffano a classic detective, with the intention of being alongside Dashiel ‘s Sam Spade . Hemmety , but as a Brazilian, living daily among the streets and avenues of São Paulo, in the solitude of his activities, among the reality of neglect and suffering among the least favored. This makes him a sensitive, sweet man, seeing human content behind the people he lives with, unlike the classics that only show intelligence and coldness for the clear deduction of the crime scene. Silas gets involved with the client who hires him, making the black of the night soft, like average Brazilians do. As an investigation professional, however, he manages to deal with courage in moments of danger, realizing that shouting and pointing weapons are not signs of masculinity, because they are also present among women and gays. This way he achieves meaningful approaches to work and life, contributing to the understanding of the new type of Brazilianness.
His experience as a lawyer and federal prosecutor certainly brought a unique perspective to the plot. How did these experiences influence the construction of the plot, especially in the judicial and political context?
The fact that I was a lawyer and then a prosecutor greatly enriched the text. I felt very comfortable recreating the environments where criminal law is used, having experienced, with my own experience, the routine and behavior of police stations, the Legal Medical Institute, with the coroner, who is scientific, deductive and cold, who ends up solving the crime without leaving his office. In fact, the Penal Code is known by those who break the law, with the popularity of its articles, frequently cited, such as 155, 157, 129, 121, 171, etc. , as a civilizing knowledge of the social bathroom, where people try to clean careless behavior. In fact, for you to know the people of a country, the shortest way is to know its criminal law.
Law also provided me with knowledge of business plots, where committing a crime seems to be more serious, due to the fact that they had a privileged economic opportunity, than the underprivileged, who commit crimes as if by justice, leaving notions inverted when in stories Brazilian police officers. The book shows the quality of emerging markets, which is more interesting, due to the promising future of economic development.
The plot involves mysteries related to the murder of a police officer and a corruption scheme. How did you balance these elements to create an engaging narrative?
The murder of a police officer is the starting point to develop the plot. Investigator Silas Steffano needs to solve the crime. The suspects are: the regulars of a gay nightclub and the other police officers, his former colleagues. The investigation, however, through a magical scene, but in the end the reason for this magic is seen, leads the detective to discover an involvement of corruption between companies that provide services to City Halls and the leading politicians. This involvement gained more notoriety and news in the first period of President Lula’s government, culminating in the kidnapping and murder of Mayor Celso Daniel, whose references are fictitious in the book, without trial or accusations of historical facts.
The balance of these elements, (where I take this opportunity to thank you for your kind words), is perhaps the most striking content of a Brazilian police plot. It’s what’s behind the news we hear every day, from city halls to the palaces of Brasília. Perhaps what the Brazilian people desire and deserve most are good politicians and what they hate most are the crimes of these people, which must be shown, exposed in literature and art in general, to become extirpated subjects from the past.
The setting in São Paulo, from bustling Consolação to the historic Sé neighborhood, is a crucial part of the story. How did the city become almost a character in the plot?
noir style tradition , originally with the near monopoly of New York City. São Paulo, as a metropolis, I wanted to show that it gained universality, leaving regionalism, with global characteristics of immigration. Originally a working-class city, without a beach or forest, in its abstract anguish of reinforced concrete, it was graced by the industrialization that came from coffee farming and later by European capital. Later São Paulo receives the masses of internal migrations, becoming the epitome of Brazil. In our contemporary days, we realize that the city strives for greater humanism, considering the importance of the common Brazilian man, the one who can resolve political corruption, as he is more culturally advanced in his docility and friendliness that enchants the world.
“ Black Suave” also has a hint of romance. How does this element integrate into the plot and influence the relationships between the characters?
I understand that the novel continues to be an essential element in Brazilian literature. With the advent of modernism, our literature gained autonomy. We have definitively left the colonialist past behind. The man of the Brazilian people became known. He is eager, dreamy, enterprising, a lover of freedom and family. His deepest origins bring the collective importance of tribal, quilombola, indigenous and African origins, making him concerned about his neighbors in a less individualistic way. Specifically in this book, Preto Suave, it deals more directly with white society, with its most comprehensive and powerful political crimes. The novel makes the female characters also powerful, from the naive middle class Malu, to the killer Dendê. It can be seen that the romance of the white characters is conceived in a liquid, horizontal, post-modern way, between homosexual men and women and straight people, who distinguish sex from love.
Silas Steffano is faced with a new homicide involving the mayor of a peripheral city in São Paulo. How does this event impact the investigation and subsequent revelations in the story?
I believe that the mayor’s murder is the climactic moment of the novel, but not the enlightening one. I won’t give spoilers, but it is central to the relationship between the characters, Tomazino , Silas and Malu, who begin to relate more closely, revealing and satisfying their desires, preparing the conditions for the final outcome, the clarification that leaves them even more disturbed.
What were your literary inspirations when writing “Preto Suave”? Are there authors or works that directly influenced the style or theme of the book?
Yes, I had a lot of influence in writing the book. It all started, in fact, with a meeting between a fellow cinephile who had become interested in cinema noir , through a theoretical book he had just read. In this book, there was a classification of “true noir ”, films made in a single period, and everything else that followed, shaping the style. We watched many films, directors, actresses, German expressionism, femme fatale , in an activity of culture collectors, until, having already started as a writer, the desire to write a noir appeared , giving it the originality of being Brazilian, seeking to unveil the people’s reactions in this type of criminal political situation, escaping from shallow entertainment.
Readers enjoy unraveling mysteries along with the characters. How did you approach building the clues into the story while maintaining the reader’s interest throughout the book?
It is the concern of every writer, not only of suspense and mystery, but of literature as a whole. It is the writer’s way of hooking the reader, seducing him, keeping him in tune with reading by recreating his own art in his active imagination. There is a phrase by the brilliant Beethoven in which he states that the listener does not have any chance in front of the music, if it is sad, he cries; if he is happy , he dances; if distressing, learn to know yourself; that is the power of art. With all humility and like any writer, I have this intention, it is what motivates us to continue, to bring something interesting to make life easier and to get to know ourselves and those around us. Knowing our country without hypocrisy and, above all, creating literary art.
What message or feeling do you hope readers take away with them after finishing reading “Preto Suave”?
The approach to the sensation of reading is very interesting. Note that there are several perceptible sensations, for example, the sensation of feeling the atmosphere after a heavy rain, being alone in a corridor at night and feeling the sensation that you are looking at yourself, the sensation of admiration for the painting, being in a museum and feel the past and especially feel the dynamics of seeing your existence after reading a book. This is what every artist expects when creating a work of art, whether he intends to create it with his truth, without pre-conceived formulas, or the sole interest of displaying his ego or solely the financial sale.