The Remains of the Days

No, it's not a typo, if you've read the book or seen the film. This is about a different kind of butler, in every sense. Santiago (1912-1994), the real person in the documentary by João Moreira Salles, was an Argentinian of Italian descent who worked for his family at their modernist home in Rio. The film, which is also a reflection on documentary making, reveals as much about the relationship between the director and the former employee as it does about this highly cultivated, flamboyant character. I don't want to give away too much, so I'll stop here.

The elegant residence, which Salles filmed empty, now houses the photographical and musical archives of the Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS), a cinema, several exhibition rooms, and a café. For obvious reasons (just look at these photos!), it has become one of my favorite spots in Rio. A self-confessed voyeuse, I walk down the hallways and look toward the pool and Burle Marx gardens and try to imagine what it must have been like to be wealthy in Rio in the Fifties! Those were the days, I'm sure.