Brazilian contemporary cinema.

The new visionaries

Caught by incessant waves of political and economic change, Brazilian cinema was never stable throughout its lifetime, constantly entering downward spirals it would be saved at the last moment every time. The most recent rescue could definitively set it on the path to international recognition.

 Cinema of a quality standard

Screenshot from film a grande arte - close up of weary looking man.

Contemporary Brazilian cinema, modern and steadfast

 

Dictatorship or democracy, military junta or republic, none of these situations seemed to really influence the reality that Brazilian cinema evolves despite setbacks from its environment.

The intrinsic weakness of its creative potential also places it in a delicate position in the face of the invasion of North American blockbusters who flood the cinematic world with their over – simplified vision of existence.

This weakness, however, seems to have faded for fifteen years, thanks to the arrival on the international scene of visionary Brazilian filmmakers speaking of the problems of their country, and producing strong and well-built works.

These individuals can take credit for the survival of Brazilian cinema, thanks to them at the end of the dictatorship although nothing was won, they managed to prevent everything from being lost.

Advertisement for contemporary Brazilian film, city of God.

A swift sweep

 

The military dictatorship ended in 1985 with the election of President José Sarney. But the first free elections did not really take place until 1990 and brought to power the very liberal Fernando Collor.

In the context of economic recovery of a country undermined by corruption and political negligence, he applied the severe restraints he had promised. His string of tight budget cuts hit an already weakened Brazilian film industry hard.

Institutions that were to promote film production, including the famous Embrafilme created by the military junta, no longer existed. The laws supposed to regulate the market and encourage national production were repealed, due to the determination of President Collor to adopt liberal policies propagated by Mrs Thatcher and Mr Reagan, in particular that which cinema must be managed entirely by private companies.

The results were not long in coming: no more Brazilian films were produced, with the exception of A Grande Arte in 1992, by Walter Salles (the film is only available in English). 1992 was also the year of the dismissal of President Collor for trading in influence and the appointment of Itamar Franco in his stead.

aquarius-le-film

The dream – team

 

The Brazilian film industry would take about ten years to recover from this disastrous blow.

Little by little, new structures were put in place to once again support and encourage the emergence of cinema: the Secretariat for Audiovisual Development, which releases funds for the production of films, and the Audiovisual Law came about under the government of Fernando Cardoso.

A more favorable tax system and the creation in 1997 of a production company, “Globo Filmes”, will gradually lead to a renaissance of film creation and production.

The first encouraging signal comes in 1998 with the release of Central of Brasil, Walter Salles, was awarded in many international festivals and received the prestigious Golden Bear of Berlin in the same year.

In line with the directors of Cinema Novo, Salles proposed his realistic and raw vision of the problems of Brazilian society, and especially of poorer people. He became one of the spearheads of Brazilian contemporary cinema and obtained another international success in 2003 with Carnets de voyage, a road movie on the motorcycle trip in 1953 of the young Che Guevara and one of his friends who went to discover South America.

The turn of the century really marked the resurrection of Brazilian cinema with the The City of God (Cidade de Deus) by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lung. Released in 2002, this extremely hard but beautifully directed film unveils to the world the sordid reality of child gangs in Rio’s favelas in the seventies. Highly decorated, the work was nominated for Oscars! A just revenge for a cinematic culture too often suffocated by the Hollywood giant.

This theme of the denunciation of ultra-violence in the slums of the big mega-cities of Brazil was taken up in 2007 by José Padilha with Elite Squad. The major difference was that the director focused on trying to describe the harsh working conditions of the police, between the imminent danger of over-armed gangs and endemic corruption in all the workings of the administration.

The figures and statistics of Brazilian cinema at the end of the millennium clearly show an improvement in the production of films and the attendance of theatres. In ten years, the number of spectators multiplied by three and new directors regularly started to appear, such as Daniel Filho whose film, Se Eu Fosse Você 2 in 2009, was the biggest national success for a Brazilian film with more than one million entries.

Most recently, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film Aquarius has been shown not only in Cannes, but also in his country of origin where the warm welcome has gone beyond simple cinematographic boundaries.

Active, committed, and demanding, Brazilian cinema is still characterized by sociological criticisms through an assertive mastery of staging and narration, always with beautiful luminous moments even if the subject evoked remains, sometimes without hope. Brazilian cinema is still recovering, but is doing well and can hope for a definitive remission … if everything is done to let it heal.

Its fresh success is there to testify.

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