Brazilian Rebirth

Moviemaking came to Brazil only seven months after the first projection in Paris by the Lumi?re Brothers. The first public showing-via the "omnigraph"-took place in Rio de Janeiro on July 8, 1896. The first shoot was apparently footage taken in the summer of 1898 by an Italian immigrant, Affonso Segreto, arriving in Rio by sea. He filmed Bulwarks and Warships in Guanabara Bay. Gifted with one of the most spectacular natural harbors in the world, it's fitting that Rio was fated to become the first 'location' in the saga of Brazilian film. The development of moviemaking in Brazil is a saga, a rich and varied tale of big dreams, rising and falling with the shifting tides of the country's mercurial destiny. Happily, the country's cinema is now returning to top form as a new generation of talent offers up some of the finest work produced for the domestic screen in years.

"Brazilian cinema," says veteran director Carlos Diegues, "is very similar to Brazil itself." Diegues, who began making movies in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1960s as a member of the country's Cinema Novo movement, is one of Brazil's living masters. "The movie industry in Brazil sort of lives in cycles-periods where we are vocal, excited and optimistic-and then suddenly something happens and Brazilian cinema disappears. During the 1970s we lived in what may be considered a 'golden age' between the Brazilian movie industry and its audience." These periods of rising and falling fortunes point to an ongoing commitment to cinema which Brazilian artists have never fully relinquished. The thread of domestic moviemaking in this diverse country-a country which houses a rich mosaic of cultures and landscapes-coils back to the silent era, revealing many high points along the way.

The first so-called belle ?poque of Brazilian cinema was between 1908 and 1911. It was then that the first cycle of films was unwound, supported by a solid system of distribution and exhibition. Production was not centered in any one place just yet, and moved among the regions.

The 1920s saw Luiz de Barros begin a prolific career as director, writer, editor, cinematographer and more. Humberto Mauro, who is largely recognized as the country's first great director, came of age in the later part of the decade. In 1930, journalist Adhemar Gonzaga left the magazine trade to set up Cin?dia, the first significant national studio; it was a venture that ultimately did not last. But the high point of this period is represented by Limit (1931), made by 21-year old M?rio Peixoto and considered by many to be a treasure of international cinema.

Then came sound, bringing a period of musical comedies laced with slapstick. Though, overall, it was not a period of great movies, director Humberto Mauro did manage to make some important pictures in the 1940s. Ultimately, attempts to create a studio system like the ones that existed in the U.S. and Europe were unworkable, and by the mid-1950s moviemakers turned their attention to the production of low-budget, independent pictures. Like many countries, Brazil has in a way been blessed with certain limitations-barriers that have often given rise to creativity. Brazilian moviemakers have become masters of the essential. Carlos Diegues laughs about this perennial predicament, which largely remains a fact of life for Brazilian producers. "We never have had huge budgets in film. We were making Dogme films before Dogme existed. For us Dogme is not a theory, but a necessity. In Brazil we never make the films we dream of making; we make the films we can make. We don't make the ideal films; we make the possible films. It's kind of a style."

Hector Babenco’s Pixote (1980) displays a genuine love of the Brazilian people, an attitude that pervades the work of most Brazilian directors.

In the 1950s this 'style' was given a boost, in part by what was happening in Italy. The films of Rossellini, Antonioni and De Sica made a powerful impression on Brazil's nascent film community. A series of pivotal pictures were made in the 1950s that responded to the wake-up call of the new Italian masters. Needle in a Haystack (1953) by Alex Viany, The Road (1957) by Oswaldo Sampaio and The Great Moment (1958) by Roberto Santos are a few of the better titles. The energy of these films was felt far north of Rio in the state of Bahia, where several pictures were made.

One of Bahia's rising stars was a young man named Glauber Rocha. Rocha formed links with like-minded film enthusiasts in Rio-including Diegues, Arnaldo Jabor, David Neves, Leon Hirszman, Ruy Guerra and Joaquim Pedro de Andrade-and the Cinema Novo movement was born. "We didn't have a leader as such," recalls Diegues, "but we had a master: Nelson Pereira dos Santos."

Dos Santos, who was 10 to 12 years older than most of the others in that circle (and is still making movies at the age of 74) started directing films in the 1950s. "He made the famous Rio, 40 Degrees (1955)," adds Diegues, "which is an icon of Brazilian cinema. We loved that movie."

Stirred by a passion for cinema and very much alive with the fever of their times, Brazilian moviemakers created a succession of powerful films dealing with the often explosive social and political realities of their beautiful country. Results were mixed, and some of their efforts would seem na?ve and awkward from a contemporary vantage point. But there is an undeniable ambition and vitality in the work of Brazilian directors around this time. This was a period of courageous and original moviemaking, as film artists began to bring the story of Brazil back to its people. Movies like Rocha's Black God, White Devil, Guerra's The Fun and dos Santos' Barren Lives were all made in 1963 and 1964.

In the early 1960s, Brazil experienced an extraordinary flowering of cultural expression in all the arts, particularly cinema, literature and music. "Cinema Novo was a continuation of what modernism was for literature," Brazilian cinematographer Affonso Beato points out. Beato entered the industry at the time and shot several pictures for the Cinema Novo crowd. "In the '20s, '30s and '40s, we had people trying to do American style cinema in Brazil. After the war we were influenced by different cinemas: by American and French cinema and by Italian neorealism." It was a time when Brazilian artists were beginning to find their own voice and assert an identity that could draw inspiration from the outside, but was still confident enough to tell its own stories and express its own views. Moviemakers in Brazil were spreading their wings.

“For us Dogme is not a theory, but a necessity. In Brazil we never make the films we dream of making; we make the films we can make. We don’t make the ideal films; we make the possible films. It’s kind of a style.”

This momentum wasn't helped by the installation of a military dictatorship in 1964, a tragic downturn in the nation's evolution which nevertheless did not initially manage to silence all creativity. The first response from moviemakers was to move their cameras away from the universe outside of Rio and Sao Paulo-from the regions-and focus on what was happening in the cities. Diegues' The Big City, Paulo C?sar Saraceni's The Challenge, Gustavo Dahl's Brave Warrior and Rocha's Land in Anguish stand out from this second front by the Cinema Novo. When censorship and political oppression intensified in 1968, the Cinema Novo moved into its last and most allegorical phase with films like Brazil 2000, A Very Crazy Asylum and Pindorama, in an attempt to get around the limitations placed on expression. Other directors chose to go into exile in Europe.

Ironically, it was the military government, in an appeal to nationalism, that put some incentives in effect in the 1970s to spur production on. For about a decade there was relative peace and prosperity in the industry. The box office hit, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, directed by Bruno Barreto and starring Sonia Braga, was released in 1976. "We occupied 35 to 40 percent of the market share," recalls Diegues. "We were making about 100 films a year-a lot for a Latin American movie industry." Some of this success was due to erotic, low-budget comedies that were popular in the major cities, but the masters of the Cinema Novo remained active. The open sore of street children-an ongoing problem in Brazil-was put on screen by Hector Babenco with Pixote (1980). For all its shortcomings, the moviemaker's tender and compassionate stance toward the subject is clear, and is indicative of a general attitude that pervades the work of Brazilian directors: a genuine love of the Brazilian people.

Things went bust in the early 1980s, when the country's first democratically elected president in 20 years, Fernando Collor, extinguished the protections which had been put in place for the industry, in the name of free market economics. "In 10 years," recalls Diegues, "we went from 100 films a year to four or five." But there is a kind of justice in the world: Collor was impeached several years later, and the gentleman who replaced him, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, has been a friend to the industry ever since. His government brought in a system of laws which allows private investors and corporations tax deductions for film investments.

We are now witnessing a rebirth of Brazilian cinema, with a promising new generation (and a few of the veterans) making some great pictures; pictures that meet and sometimes surpass international norms. Directors like Walter Salles, Andrucha Waddington and Beto Brant are making their marks with surprising panache. All relatively new to narrative moviemaking-though most have assisted one or more of the Cinema Novo directors-they are doing masterful turns behind the camera.

José Wilker and Sonia Braga in Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976).

Walter Salles' picture, Central Station (1998), was the first big hit for a Brazilian moviemaker in years. The film has become the flagship of a new generation. It won prizes at Cannes and Berlin and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film-and it was a hit on the home front. More impressive even than the wonderful cinematography and generally high level of craft that the picture exhibits is its sensitive treatment of complex characters and themes. Very much representative of a new chapter in Brazilian cinema, it also carries forward some great traditions from the Cinema Novo: the inspired use of real locations and non-professional actors. Salles' latest picture, Behind the Sun, was quickly snatched up by Miramax and will be released in North America this fall.

Andrucha Waddington's Me You Them (2000), which also saw wide distribution, is a charming, poignant picture that loves its characters, but at a certain distance, allowing their story to unfold at its own measured tempo, never stooping toward forced or tidy resolutions. The actual resolution of the film is, in fact, beautifully enigmatic. Beto Brant's The Trespasser (2001) is another new film that's winning praise. Comments Diegues, "I think that these new movies are very much representative of what Brazil is today; very much involved with the social and political realities of Brazil." Diegues is a big fan of the new talent. "We are turning back to Brazilian themes and trying to understand what we are and what is happening in the country-not only socially speaking, but also ethically and morally."

The Cinema Novo generation of Brazilian moviemakers can point to the fact that, whatever setbacks they may have suffered along the way, their passion and commitment set the stage for this new stage of growth. "I'm very proud of Cinema Novo," Diegues concludes. "We were very young-22, 23 years old-when we met each other in the university in Rio. What brought us together was our love of movies. We dreamed of making movies about Brazil because there was no industry in Brazil at all. That passion for films plus our interest, our curiosity, about Brazil kept us going-discovering our own country through movies." MM

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