Cinema Novo
Years active | 1950s to early 1970s Soviet cinema[4] |
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Cinema Novo (Portuguese pronunciation: Today, the movement is often divided into three sequential phases that differ in tone, style and content.
Origins
Background
In the 1950s, Brazilian cinema was dominated by
Cinema Novo became increasingly political. In the 1960s, Brazil was producing the most political cinema in South America. Brazil therefore became the natural “home of the Cinema Novo (New Cinema) movement”.[9] Cinema Novo rose to prominence at the same time that progressive Brazilian Presidents Juscelino Kubitschek and later João Goulart took office and began to influence Brazilian popular culture. But it was not until 1959 or 1960 that 'Cinema Novo' emerged as a label for the movement.[10] According to Randal Johnson and Robert Stam, Cinema Novo officially began in 1960, with the start of its first phase.[12]
In 1961, the Popular Center of Culture, a subsidiary of the National Students' Union, released Cinco Vezes Favela, a film serialized in five episodes that Johnson and Stam claim to be "one of the first" products of the Cinema Novo movement.[13] The Popular Center of Culture (PCC) sought "to establish a cultural and political link with the Brazilian masses by putting on plays in factories and working-class neighborhoods, producing films and records, and by participating in literacy programs."[13] Johnson and Stam hold that "many of the original members of Cinema Novo" were also active members in the PCC who participated in the production of Cinco Vezes Favela.[13]
Influences
Brazilian filmmakers modeled Cinema Novo after genres known for subversiveness: Italian neorealism and French New Wave. Johnson and Stam further claim that Cinema Novo has something in common "with
Some proponents of Cinema Novo were "scornful of the politics of the [French] New Wave", viewing its tendency to stylistically copy Hollywood as elitist.
Ideology
Cinema Novo filmmaker Alex Viany describes the movement as having elements of participatory culture. According to Viany, while Cinema Novo was initially "as fluid and undefined" as its predecessor French New Wave, it required that filmmakers have a passion for cinema, a desire to use it to explain "social and human problems," and a willingness to individualize their work.[10]
Auteur theory also greatly influenced Cinema Novo. Although its three phases were distinct, Cinema Novo encouraged directors to emphasize their personal politics and stylistic preferences. As Cinema Novo filmmaker Joaquim Pedro de Andrade explained to Viany in a 1966 interview:
In our films, the propositions, positions, and ideas are extremely varied, at times even contradictory or at least multiple. Above all they are increasingly free and unmasked. There exists a total freedom of expression. ... At first glance this would seem to indicate some internal incoherence within the Cinema Novo movement. But in reality I think it indicates a greater coherence: a more legitimate, truthful, and direct correspondence between the filmmaker--with his perplexities, doubts, and certainties--and the world in which he lives.[15]
Class struggle also informed Cinema Novo, whose strongest theme is the "aesthetic of hunger" developed by premiere Cinema Novo filmmaker Glauber Rocha in the first phase. Rocha wished to expose how different the standard of living was for rich South Americans and poor South Americans. In his 1965 essay "The Esthetic of Hunger," Rocha stated that "the hunger of South America is not simply an alarming symptom: it is the essence of our society. ... [Cinema Novo's] originality is [South Americans'] hunger[,] and our greatest misery is that this hunger is felt but not intellectually understood."
Themes and style
Most film historians divide Cinema Novo into three sequential phases that differ in theme, style and subject matter. Stam and Johnson identify "a first phase going from 1960 to 1964," a second phase running "from 1964 to 1968," and a third phase running "from 1963 to 1972" (though they also claim the final phase concludes at "roughly" "the end of 1971").[18] There is little disagreement among film critics about this time frame.[19][20][21][22]
Filmmaker Carlos Diegues claims that while lack of funds lowered the technical precision of Cinema Novo films, it also allowed directors, writers and producers to have an unusual amount of creative freedom. "Because Cinema Novo is not a school, it has no established style," states Diegues. "In Cinema Novo, expressive forms are necessarily personal and original without formal
First phase (1960–1964)
Films of the first phase represent the original motivation and goals of Cinema Novo. First-phase films were earnest in tone and
Unlike traditional Brazilian cinema that depicted beautiful professional actors in tropical paradises, first-phase Cinema Novo "searched out the dark corners of Brazilian life--its
Most film historians agree that Glauber Rocha, "one of the most well-known and prolific filmmakers to emerge in the late 1950s in Brazil",
With Rocha at the helm during its first phase, Cinema Novo was praised by critics around the world.
Second phase (1964–1968)
In 1964, popular Democratic President João Goulart was removed from office by military coup, turning Brazil into a military-run
At this time, filmmakers also started trying to make Cinema Novo more profitable. Stephanie Dennison and Lisa Shaw state that second-phase directors "recognized the irony in making so-called 'popular' films, to be viewed only by university students and art-house aficionados. As a result, some auteurs began to move away from the so-called 'aesthetics of hunger' toward a filmmaking style and themes designed to attract the interest of the cinema-going public at large."[28] As a result, the first Cinema Novo film to be shot in color and to depict middle-class protagonists was released during this time: Leon Hirzshman's Garota de Ipanema ("Girl from Ipanema," 1968).
Third phase and Cinema Marginal (1968–1972)
Hans Proppe and Susan Tarr characterize Cinema Novo's third phase as "a mixed bag of social and political themes against a backdrop of characters, images and contexts not unlike the richness and floridness of the Brazilian jungle".[29] Third-phase Cinema Novo has also been called "the cannibal-tropicalist phase"[30] or simply the "tropicalist" phase.[29]
With Brazil modernizing in the global economy, third-phase Cinema Novo also became more polished and professional, producing "films in which the rich cultural texture of Brazil has been pushed to the limit and exploited for its own aesthetic ends rather than for its appropriateness as political metaphor."
But third-phase Cinema Novo also had supporters. Cinema Novo filmmaker Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, who was active during the first phase and produced one of the premiere films of the third phase, Macunaíma, was pleased Cinema Novo had made itself more relatable to Brazilian citizens, despite accusations it was selling out to do so. Referencing Leon Hirszman's Garota de Ipanema, de Andrade praised Hirszman for using "a popular stereotype to establish contact with the masses, while at the same time ... demystif[ying] that very stereotype".[32]
End of Cinema Novo
Burnes St. Patrick Hollyman, son of famed American photographer Thomas Hollyman, states that "by 1970, many of the cinema novo films had won numerous awards at international festivals".[33] In 1970 Rocha published a manifesto on the progress of Cinema Novo, in which he said he was pleased that Cinema Novo "had gained critical acceptance as part of world cinema" and had become "a nationalist cinema that accurately reflected the artistic and ideological concerns of the Brazilian people" (Hollyman).[33] But Rocha also warned filmmakers and consumers that being too complacent in the achievements of Cinema Novo would return Brazil to its pre-Cinema Novo state:
The movement is bigger than any one of us. But the young should know that they cannot be irresponsible about the present and the future because today's anarchy can be tomorrow's slavery. Before long, imperialism will start to exploit the newly created films. If the Brazilian cinema is the palm tree of Tropicalism, it is important that the people who have lived through the drought are on guard to make sure that Brazilian cinema doesn't become underdeveloped.[34]
Rocha's fears were realized. In 1977, filmmaker Carlos Diegues said that "one can only talk about Cinema Novo in nostalgic or figurative terms because Cinema Novo as a group no longer exists, above all because it has been diluted into Brazilian cinema."[35] Toward the end of Cinema Novo, the Brazilian government created film company Embrafilme to encourage production of Brazilian cinema; but Embrafilme mostly produced films that ignored the Cinema Novo ideology. Aristides Gazetas claims that Third Cinema now carries on the Cinema Novo tradition.[36]
Legacy
Embrafilme
In 1969, the Brazilian government instituted Embrafilme, a company designed to produce and distribute Brazilian cinema. Embrafilme produced movies of various genres, including fantasies and big-budget epics. At the time, Cinema Novo filmmaker Carlos Diegues said he supported Embrafilme because it was "the only enterprise with sufficient economic and political power to confront the devastating voracity of the multinational corporations in Brazil."[35] Moreover, Diegues held that while Cinema Novo "is not identified with Embrafilme", "[Embrafilme's] existence ... is in reality a project of Cinema Novo."[35]
When Embrafilme was dismantled in 1990 by President Fernando Collor de Mello, "the consequences" for the Brazilian film industry "were immediate and grim."[37] Lacking investors, many Brazilian directors co-produced English films. This caused English cinema to overrun the Brazilian market, which went from producing 74 films in 1989 to producing nine films in 1993. Brazilian President Itamar Franco ended the crisis by implementing the Brazilian Cinema Rescue Award, which funded 90 projects between 1993 and 1994. The award "opened new doors to a young generation of new film-makers (and a few of the veterans) who were confident that, as the title of a film by Cinema Novo veteran director Carlos Diegues prophetically announced, better days would come (Melhores Dias Virao/Better Days Will Come, 1989)."[38]
Third Cinema
According to Aristides Gazetas, Cinema Novo is the first example of an influential genre called Third Cinema. Like Cinema Novo, Third Cinema draws on Italian neorealism and French New Wave. Gazetas claims that Cinema Novo can be characterized as early Third Cinema because Glauber Rocha "adopted Third Cinema techniques to bring awareness of the social and political realities in his country through cinema".
In 1965, Glauber Rocha claimed that "Cinema Novo is a phenomenon of new peoples everywhere and not a privilege of Brazil."
List of key films
First phase
- Aruanda (1960)
- Arraial do Cabo (1960)[6]
- Cinco Vezes Favela (1962)[6]
- Barravento (1962)[6]
- The Unscrupulous Ones (1962)[6]
- Ganga Zumba (1963)[6]
- Barren Lives (1963)[6]
- Black God, White Devil (1964)[6][41]
- The Guns (1964)[5]
Second phase
- The Deceased (1965)
- The Challenge (1966)[42]
- Entranced Earth (1967)[42]
- The Brave Warrior (1968)[42]
- Hunger for Love (1968)[42]
- The Red Light Bandit (1968)[42]
Third phase
- Macunaíma (1969)[30]
- Antonio das Mortes (1969)[43]
- Of Gods and the Undead (1970)
- The Heirs (1970)[43]
- How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (1971)[5]
- Pindorama (1971)[43]
- São Bernardo(1972)
- Iracema: Uma Transa Amazônica (1974)[44]
List of key directors
- Mário Carneiro
- Joaquim Pedro de Andrade
- Carlos Diegues
- Nelson Pereira dos Santos
- Ruy Guerra
- Leon Hirszman
- Gustavo Dahl
- Arnaldo Jabor
- David Neves
- Glauber Rocha
- Paulo César Saraceni
- Alex Viany
- Olney São Paulo
- Roberto Pires[45]
See also
- Nuevo Cine Mexicano
- List of Brazilian films
- Walter Salles-Acclaimed director of the 1998 Oscar-nominated Brazilian film Central do Brasil and 2004 Oscar-winning The Motorcycle Diaries
Notes
- ^ Brazilian pronunciation of "Underground."
References
- ^ Brazil: Five Centuries of Change-library.brown.edu
- ^ The 10 Greatest New Wave Movements in Film History« Taste of Cinema
- ^ Cinema Novo revolutionised Brazilian cinema in the 1960s-Brazil
- ^ Cannes 2016: 'Cinema Novo' Review-Variety
- ^ a b c Dixon & Foster, 293.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Johnson & Stam, 33.
- ^ a b Gazetas, 308.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 42.
- ^ a b c Dixon & Foster, 292.
- ^ a b c d Viany, 141.
- ^ a b c Johnson & Stam, 65.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 32.
- ^ a b c Johnson & Stam, 58.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 55.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 75.
- ^ a b c Johnson & Stam, 70.
- ^ Dixon & Foster, 292-293.
- ^ a b Stam & Johnson.
- ^ Xavier, 372-373.
- ^ Rodríguez, 108.
- ^ King, 113.
- ^ a b c Dennison & Shaw, 133.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 34.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 66.
- ^ Hollyman, 9.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 73.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 35-36.
- ^ Dennison & Shaw, 134.
- ^ a b c Proppe & Tarr.
- ^ a b Johnson & Stam, 37.
- ^ ISBN 8539601508.
- ^ Johnson & Stam, 74.
- ^ a b Hollyman, 96.
- ^ Qtd. on Hollyman, 97.
- ^ a b c Johnson & Stam, 100.
- ^ a b Gazetas, 306.
- ^ Rêgo, 35.
- ^ Rêgo, 37-38.
- ^ Gazetas, 309.
- ^ Gazetas, 310.
- ^ BBC-Culture-Brazil: Cinema's most radical battleground
- ^ a b c d e Johnson & Stam, 35.
- ^ a b c Johnson & Stam, 38.
- ^ Lund, Joshua Kristofer (March 14, 2002). "Theories and Narratives of Hybridity in Latin American Writing". University of Minnesota – via Google Books.
- ^ The Cinema of Salvador Bahia (1953-1962): 3 x Robert Pires on Vimeo
Bibliography
- Dennison, Stephanie and Lisa Shaw (2004), Popular cinema in Brazil, 1930-2001, New York: Manchester.
- Dixon, Wheeler Winston and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (2008), A Short History of Cinema, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers.
- Gazetas, Aristides (2008), An Introduction to World Cinema, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
- Hollyman, Burnes Saint Patrick (1983), Glauber Rocha and The Cinema Novo, New York & London: Garland.
- Johnson, Randal and Robert Stam (1995), Brazilian Cinema, New York: Columbia.
- King, John (2000), Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in South America, New York & London: Verso.
- Proppe, Hans and Susan Tarr (1976), "Pitfalls of cultural nationalism in cinema novo", Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 10, 45-48.
- Rêgo, Cacilda (2011), "The Fall and Rise of Brazilian Cinema", in Rêgo, Calcida; Carolina, Rocha, New Trends in Argentine and Brazilian Cinema, Chicago: intellect.
- Rodríguez-Hernández, Rafael (2009), Splendors of South Cinema, Westport, CT: Praeger.
- Stam, Robert and Randal Johnson (November 1979), "Beyond Cinema Novo", Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 21, 13-18.
- Viany, Alex (Winter, 1970), "The Old and the New in Brazilian Cinema", The Drama Review, 14 (2), 141-144.
- Xavier, Ismail (2000), "Cinema Novo", in Balderston, Daniel; Gonzalez, Mike; Lopez, Ana M., Encyclopedia of Contemporary South American and Caribbean Cultures, London: Routledge.