The Breaking News ...
The survivor's death sent shock waves around the world
A two month old baby ... landed as a stowaway in a freighter in Rio de Janeiro
In a raid at Hotel Vigo the police found in a moldy box an important document
Premiere! First screening of scenes from the top secret movie Final da Linha
You don't need money! Huey Lewis once said. And he's right!
You don't need men! A rebel without a crew founded the One-man-band
All stars and professional actors were substituted by self-portrayers
Mutation! A documentary mutated into a feature film and attacked ...
Revenge: An editor reveals the secret deficiencies of his director.
A rebel without a crew cuts out all hairdressers and animal trainers
The newest news about stars and putas
Final da Linha
His ways had to be gone every day to keep everything as it was; as it used to be. ... But it did not stay that way.
The survivor is dead
Jean Mitchell died at the age of 58
Jean Mitchell was the greatest rock singer you've never heard of. His concert at Rock in Rio in 1985 moved a whole country, however the white bluesman never escaped the shadow of his black idols. Of all things it was a gig with Little Richard which made him a legend, as he was not given a microphone.

Known as a master of the art of living and survival, his death in 2008 sent shock waves around the world and broadcasters announced a movie about his life. This movie was never made. Not his life, his dying was filmed! Final da Linha documents the last days of the survivor's life. And these days do not run as intended.

Jean dwells in a dark hole in the catacombs of Hotel Vigo. The ruin, inhabited by fixers and whores, is under the direction of drug dealer Gurundé. Unexpectedly thrown out on the street due to rent debts, the fallen star is forced to take his fate into own hands one more time. He needs to find Gini, his friend, manager and guitarist of his band. Only Gini could provide some money and arrange a last gig. But the search for him turns into an odyssey through Salvador leading Jean out of his dream world.
Go home!Abandoned
Biography of Jean Mitchell
Paris. 1950. A two-month-old baby is parked in front of the door of a day-care centre. Abandoned by his parents, Jean grows up in an orphanage. At the age of 12 he runs away, flees to Paris and struggles along with waifs and strays of the same age, begins to steal and rob. Finally he is arrested and sent to a reformatory. There he learns the "law of the dog", and when he finds himself on the street at the age of 18, he has become hard-hearted. His path leads him to the Latin Quarter, where he joins the heroin trade. Followed by 2 ½ years in the prison of Fresne. When he is released on parole, he flees to Portugal with 16-year-old Chantal and marries her in order to make her inheritance available. Some months later he lands as a stowaway with a freighter in Rio de Janeiro and never returns to France. His luggage contains $40,000 and the Rock'n Roll.

The Frenchman not only brought the rock'n roll to the land of samba, he was also a long-time underrated painter and an even more esteemed writer, however, never to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Just as his paintings are no longer available in the local galleries, his novels are considered lost. Only Anjos Negros survived.
----------------------
Anjos Negros
----------------------
Anjos Negros shooted the novelist to nationwide fame. Professional circles regard the crime novel as a priceless work. Jean earned good reviews but hardly any revenue, for his readership consisted of the destitute, analphabet and blind who were not always able to recognize the utility of a book or at least they saw it hazy like Luis, a man with cataracts.

By the way, a lot of mysteries, myths and legends entwine around the course of Jean's life. They say, his novel was autobiographic, and indeed, Jean gained glory with rather inglorious works: check forgery, counterfeiting of currency, diamond heist, falsification of passport and drug offences.

Jean Mitchell 5 years in prison
----------------------------------------------------------
From Rock in Rio to Rock on the Road
----------------------------------------------------------

Rock legends
Rock legends: Otis Redding, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, James Brown,
Jean Mitchell
Jean sang to any audience, not necessarily on the biggest stages, but with pleasure for children, cats and dogs.

He was an artist, no doubt. But his life's work is modest. His great art was not the painting, not the literature and not the music. His great art was the art of living, in his case the art of survival, and his life's work was self-destruction.
Go home!A raid at Hotel Vigo
The Making of Final da Linha
Salvador. Brazil. 2017. In a raid at Hotel Vigo, a flophouse in the darkest alleys of Pelourinho, a mouldy box fell into the hands of the police. The content turned out to be worthless junk: old photographs and newspaper clippings, hand-written scraps of paper, a manuscript and a copy of the novel Anjos Negros. It was the legacy of Jean Euchène Mouchère, better known as Jean Mitchell. Also some film tapes were among the junk. They were considered as lost for ten years. These recordings are an important document. They show events from real life and they document Jean Mitchell’s dying.

Since the observation of persons and occurrences – no matter how discreet and inconspicuous this may happen – commonly doesn't remain unnoticed, it was impossible to capture reality without influencing it. So things slipped off course and Jean's last days ran differently than intended. In the end, it was recorded a reality that would not have happened without its recording.

Final da Linha is a documentary in fiction style without any fictional content, a drama written by life, not played, but happened; a real event based on a short story by the Lord, ...
... performed on the stage of life, presented by real people, realized on location, documented through the perspective of a street dog, and produced by a soloist who played all instru­ments himself. Thanks to a production philo­sophy that respected the living conditions of the protagonist, Final da Linha became the cheapest feature film ever made.

Film historically, Final da Linha pursues the tradition of the Poetic Realism. Besides the production conditions – authentic locations, amateur actors, direct sound and sporadically used music – there show up content-related parallels in the focus on the inner drama of the hero and his failure at the circumstances of life, whereby he – as a Frenchman quite existen­tialistically – is self responsible for it. On a formal-aesthetic level, realism permanently has to compete with impressionistic and expres­sionistic elements doing justice to Jean's illusions.

In order to avoid plot holes, it was necessary to follow the principle "form follows fiction". This does not mean that formal composition was completely neglected; unfortunately, it also does not mean that plot holes could be avoided in any case.
Go home!The perspective of a street dog
Trailer
The announced movie about Jean's life was never made, and you never would have heard of him if there wasn't this movie, which undeniably actually exists. But beware: not Jean's life, his dying was filmed! And there is neither a Hollywood star nor any other famous personality, no hero who has the world at his feet, but one who is lying on the ground himself. Final da Linha
Trailer Final da Linha
This trailer does not claim to be a trailer. He hadn't the slightest desire for a short-lived trailer being and he refused to tolerate being cut down to two minutes. Unfortunately he is not allowed to choose his audience himself, but he doesn't mind if you just press Stop and leave him in peace. By the way, he doesn't wish to be watched in daylight either.
Stars and prostitutes
Trivia
2001. Jean Mitchell gives a breath­taking performance in the nightclub Fridays in Salvador – not for the first time, but on this evening Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci and Mathieu Kassovitz are sitting in the audience. Thrilled by their compatriot's show and no less fascinated by his life story, they spontaneously offer him their support. Jean, just released from prison and without valid identity papers, had good reason to rejoice, but has not the least thought of abandoning his bird-free life in Brazil for the sake of an orderly life. He prefers to disappear. This instantly stifles the burgeoning idea of a film adaptation of his novel Anjos Negros, in which he had fictionalized his adventurous life.


In the 1990s, A Tarde reported a quarrel on a yacht in which a prostitute went overboard and drowned in the Bay of All Saints. She was highly pregnant. She was 13 years old. She was Jean's daughter. In this context Jean's favorite joke "Papa, how far is it to France? – Shut up and keep swimming" may sound rather macabre.
No need of money
The production costs
Not to spend more than absolutely necessary – this premise, initially introduced as a gesture of respect for the protagonist, eventually led to the decision of positioning Final da Linha as a counter-example to the mainstream film. Befitting his rank, such a film is not made with a budget of millions, but funded from a hollow hand and shot with a cheap camera in your hand.
A manifesto
This film, small and cheap, is directed against the waste of money and the exorbitant extravagance of commercial productions, which are in spectacular disproportion to the miserable result.

Huey Lewis kindly provided the words for the manifesto of this film: You don’t need money, you don’t need men, don’t need no credit card, to make a film. You need one man, you need real life, then play your instruments and make your film.
Go home!No need to play
About actors and self-portrayers
The performers' fees amounted to bread and butter and several bottles of rum, because instead of qualified actors, Final da Linha features an ensemble of self-portrayers – unknown people who present themselves uninhibitedly make-upless. However, it is an illusion to expect amateurs to breathe more authenticity into a film. In truth, amateurs only play well when they don't. The self-portrayers in Final da Linha were allowed and able to go on stage, because their stage was real life and they had no need to play, but to go through the Lord's strange script ideas and devote themselves completely to the misery of their daily lives. Such (self)performers then are authentic.

In order not to sophisticate their behaviour, the technical equipment had to be reduced to a minimum. This measure ensured authenticity and simultaneously went easy on the budget.
The use of disturbing artificial illumination was avoided as far as possible, although it would have been helpful for the night shootings in regard to the faint DV material. But as so often, appearances are deceptive: in the spotlight there wouldn't remain much authenticity of a heated quarrel or a secret con­versation.

Not to be omitted might be the camera. However, this inherently indiscreet device requires a conduct code which obliges it to proceed dis­tinctly discreetly in public and to move preferentially in the back­ground, in order not to interfere the characters' interaction, especially with non-participants. The protago­nists in Final da Linha, admittedly, accustomed themselves soon to its presence and hardly noticed it even when it approached them in intimate moments. To them reality was more important than its recording.
Go home!No need of men
The crew
Jean always faced dogs and cats at eye level. For a Hollywood production, naturally the cats would have to be cast and thoroughly prepared for their appearances by three animal trainers and a hair­dresser. In Final da Linha they crossed the set unasked, uncombed and free of any star airs and graces, which made animal trainers and hair­dressers superfluous.

None of the decisions mentioned were due to cost reasons, they all serve authenticity. The voluntary renouncement of any staging finally made the biggest cost factor, the crew, superfluous as well. And so Final da Linha could be made by "a rebel without a crew", a soloist who played all instru­ments himself .... supported only by some­one for recording the audio.
The cheapest feature film ever made
The one-month production with 14 days of shooting during which 36 hours of life were captured on film, cost 6,200 real. At that time this corresponded to 2,356 €. Unconsidered remained the value of the equipment and the time investment of producer, director, cameraman and cutter, who fused for various reasons into one person and nevertheless came away empty-handed.
world cultural heritage: entry free
The locations
Pelourinho, Salvador da Bahia by Ricardo Salva
Jean Mitchell painting at the Pelourinho in Salvador da Bahia

As well as God's honorary contribution as a scriptwriter, it was also very helpful that a world cultural heritage site offered its picturesque scenery for free use. But there isn't much to be seen of the Pelourinho in the film, because the protagonist preferred to wander in the shabby side streets. Entrance to this region is free, you pay at the exit: this labyrinth is one of the most dangerous areas in the world. Filming there, especially at night, was only possible because the film hero was on familiar terms with even the most evil characters. It was advisable not to meet the exceptions.
A pretty long shortening process
The cutter has the floor
Deus o Senhor blessed his script with a multitude of events. Since many events still don't result in a film, the editor had to detect a story in the vast amount of material and concentrate it on its essence. Such a shortening process may stretch itself pretty long!

Hardly anyone will seriously doubt that the same material can be used to cut completely different films. But the dictum of the film, which is only created in the montage, deliberately disregards that a cutter can only use what has been filmed before. The available material offered a large, albeit limited number of images. It was a matter of improvising and putting together what actually does not belong together in order to create a continuous storyline that naturally never existed in such a way. The deconstruction process was not limited to the images, nor the spoken word was spared: entire sentences were taken apart, individual words torn out of their context and given a new meaning. Thus Jean's death story was fiction­alized, so to speak.

The editor took two years for his work, which he mainly used to get excited about the sins of director and cinematographer. The fact that each scene existed only once (always uncut and without any change of perspective) he was still willing to apologize with the special recording conditions; the lack of establishing shots, reverse shots and other implementable images as well as the camera showed hardly any movement apart from its onset Parkinson's syndrome, revealed all too clearly the notorious planlessness of director and cinemato­grapher. So the editor had to pay for what he had got himself into as a cameraman.
convert reality into a drama
The film critic has the floor - pt. i
In the analysis excerpt inserted below, the editor talks in his role as a film critic about his own work and the difficulties of converting reality into a drama.
I. Filming Life
In professional film productions the light-footed brother coincidence dribbles on a heavy turf. From the first word in the script to the last cut of the cutter every single move and movement of the characters, every detail and even the most insignificant requisite is repeatedly reconsidered and monitored with military precision; every scene is rehearsed stubbornly and replayed nerve-rackingly often until the director is finally satisfied. – Unfortu­nate­ly, life can't be rehearsed nor repeated. What happens is irreversible. You have exactly one attempt! Of course, this also applies to a movie that aims to record real life: every event must be shot untrained and be in the can right away. And since real events are not conceived in mind, the script cannot be written before, but only during the filming process – consequently directly with pic­tures. Since in each human being a tragedy takes place, it was only a question of time until it reveals itself, and just as an initially vague idea wants to be recognized and forced while painting an abstract picture, the drama also wanted to concretize itself only step by step.
fictionalization of reality
The film critic has the floor - pt. ii
God is a really creative, but also self-willed scriptwriter. He doesn't like if someone tries to poach on his territory, not even a runaway film producer, moreover an atheist. So it suits him very well that an irreligious producer can hardly dictate any­thing to someone he considers non-existent. Unfortunately, the drama­turgical abilities of the Lord are greatly overrated: despite his undisputed strengths in the development of overly human characters, he cares little about arcs of suspense, also his dia­logues often lack goodness. Aware of the deficits of his employees, the producer felt compelled to take care of everything himself. God should feel free to write the scenes, but the development of the dramatic structure couldn't be left to him. The producer preferred to delegate the job to himself in his capacity as editor.
II. The fictionalization of reality
excerpt from the analysis of Final da Linha
Go home!Cat and dog trainers
Credits of Final da Linha
___________________________
Country of production
Germany
Country of shooting
Brazil
Year of shooting
2005, 2007
Year of completion
2019
Running time
115 min.
Format
16:9
Recording material
DV, 720p
Production costs
2.356 €
Script
Deus o Senhor
Dramatization
Ricardo Salva
Production
Ricardo Salva
Direction
Ricardo Salva
Camera
Ricardo Salva
Montage
Ricardo Salva
Audio recording
Nicolas Hallet
Sound mixing
Ricardo Salva
Music
Jean Mitchell
Baden Powell
Cast
 
Jean
Jean Mitchell
Neia
Neia
Gurundé
Gurundé
Contact
Contramão Film
Ricardo Salva
Final da Linha