The screenwriting process of Anna Muylaert’s film The Second Mother (2015, Brazil) over 20 years: In search of a different ending for the female characters

Almost twenty years went by between the first and the last versions of The Second Mother (2015) screenplay. As Brazilian filmmaker Anna Muylaert claims, ‘I started writing in 1996 when I had a baby in my arms, and now he is a grown man with a beard’. The screenwriting process of The Second Mother ( Muylaert 2013 ) involved a great deal of rewriting and change of direction over nearly 20 years. Despite this, the filmmaker claims that the project was never shelved. Instead, it was in permanent transformation, having been rewritten at different moments over the years. Muylaert details this process in several interviews, including in Encontros de Cinema ( Itaú Cultural 2015 ), Metrópolis (2015a) and Primeiro Tratamento (2020) , when she points out the four great moments of the screenplay and its transformations from one version to another (1994–95–96; 2004; 2009; and 2013). Based primarily on these reports and the screenplay version of 30 December 2013, we undertook a study of the archives documenting the creation of The Second Mother screenplay. We focused on Anna Muylaert’s search for a different ending for the female characters (mother and daughter). This work was underpinned both theoretically and methodologically using Cecilia Salles’ critical theory of creation processes and, in addition, studies by screenwriter Jack Epps about the relevance of rewriting processes. Paul Joseph Gulino offers insights into that technique, which is used to structure screenplays, and which is fundamental to Anna Muylaert’s creative process because, as she states, it provides the freedom of improvisation on the set, and the incorporation of the environment that she seeks.

Keywords: artistic creation process ; Brazilian contemporary cinema ; screenplay versions comparative study ; screenwriting practices