A Brief Introduction to Brazilian Cinema - notes

 A Brief Introduction to Brazilian Cinema by Peter Rist




- Brazilian cinema received little recognition in the wider world until recent international success from films like Central Station (1998) and City of God (2002)

Early Brazilian Cinema
- Films were first screened in Brazil in 1896, and the first films made there were in 1900
- The period of 1908-12 has been called the golden age of Brazilian cinema
- Post-1911, foreign films began to dominate the Brazilian film market, relegating Brazilian filmmakers to newsreels and documentaries
- Big cities still produced films, including the later-acclaimed, avant-garde Limite (1930)
- Brazilian cinema finally industrialised once sound created a language barrier
- The first major film movement in Brazil was the 'chanchada', which took after Hollywood backstage musicals, and combined them with Brazilian comic theatre and carnival
- This led to the great success of comic team Oscarito and Grande Otello, most notably in Carnival Atlántida (1952)
- Then came Vera Cruz filmmakers who, instead of reflecting Brazilian moviegoer tastes, made films inspired by European cinema, such as O Cangoceiro (1953), which, whilst breaking local box office records, taking two Cannes prizes, and being distributed in 22 countries, failed to keep the company afloat for long

Cinema Novo
- In the 1960s, the Brazilian film movement of Cinema Novo came to define Brazilian cinema, with director Nelson Pereira dos Santos being called the father of the movement
- He kickstarted it with the film Rio, 40 Degrees C. (1954), with a low-budget, independent style of filmmaking, which began to dominate Brazilian cinema
- Brazilian films, from Agulha no Palheiro (1953) onwards, adopted elements of Italian Neo-realism (shooting on location, unprofessional actors, non-dramatic takes on contemporary issues, opposition to Hollywood's style)
- This lay the framework for Brazilian films dealing with "marginals" and the poorer parts of society, with a focus on the culturally significant carnivals and soccer

- Cinema Novo can be divided into three sections:
1960-64: first coup d'état - opposition to commercial cinema, filmmaking was political
1964-68: second coup - democracy undermined by military dictatorship and encouragement of North American investment - films of this era analysed the failings of Brazil and of leftism to stop it
1968-72: post-coup - "cannibal tropicalist" - censorship forced filmmakers to be indirect in their approach, using irony and parody

- Director Glauber Rocha, considered to be a GOAT Brazilian filmmaker, used Eisensteinian montage methods, to create a surreal combination of realism and cinematic techniques, such as in the film Black God, White Devil (1964)
- Other key films of this era: Ruy Guerra's The Guns (1964), Carlos Diegues' Ganga Zumba (1963), and dos Santos's Barren Lives (1963)

- Key films of the mid-1960s: Luiz S. Person's Sao Paulo S. A. (1965), Carlos Diegues' The Big City (1966), and Rocha's Land in Anguish (1967)

- Key films of the late-1960s: Andrade's Macunaima (1969), Santos' How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman? (1971), The Gods and the Dead (1970), Antonio das Mortes (1969)
- Depressing mood of the period was captured by a group of young, low-budget, and anti-cinema nihilistic directors
- Key films: Red-Light Bandit (1968), Killed the Family and Went to the Cinema (1969), Bang Bang (1971)
- Cinema Marginal movement, replaced the Cinema Nova Richo ("aesthetics of hunger") with "aesthetics of garbage" - anti-intellectual films disliked by critics

After all that:
- Despite the repressive capitalist regime, the state became involved in film production to such a degree that 
- National Film Institute (INC) made nearly a hundred films a year at peak times, however this was often at the behest of quality, after the exiling of Rocha, Guerra, Diegues, porno chanchada began to dominate, erotic comedies, such as The Virgin Widow, Infidelity Within Everyone's Reach, Lenient Husbands

- However the 1970/80s still had a lot of quality films with Babenco's Pixote (1980), Barreto's Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976)
- Three important films by women:
Ana Carolina: Sea of Roses (1977)
Tizuka Yamasaki: Gaijin (1980)
Suzana Amaral: The Hour of the Star (1985)
- Widespread creative production of short films  

- In 1989, when the country had its most democratic election in over a century, Brazilian film production slumped massively to only 25 features, and the Ministry of Culture was closed in April 1990, with the industry collapsing overnight
- In 1993, a new Ministry of Culture promised $25 million of support for Brazilian filmmaking and it immediately made a comeback with Barreto's Four Days in September and Central Station winning top prizes.

Comments

  1. Lisa SocratesOctober 5, 2021 at 11:41 PM

    Daniel a highly commendable account of the history and rise of Brazilian Cinema which affords you opportunities to contextualise the work we do. Have you seen Central Station?

    ReplyDelete

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