A Brief History of Brazilian Cinema

Cinema has always been very popular in Brazil. By the 1930s, even the smallest towns in the northeastern interior had their own modest movie palaces screening Hollywood flicks. In Rio, Praça Floriano became known as Cinelândia after the elegant downtown square was lined with sumptuous art deco movie palaces. Rio was also the birthplace of the Brazilian film industry. In 1930, Cinédia studios began churning out a series of popular romances and burlesque musical comedies known as chanchadas, some of which satirized Hollywood fare. A few of these films featured a very young Carmen Miranda, then at the height of her fame as a recording star.

In the 1950s and ’60s, dreaming of a cinema novo (new cinema) and inspired by Italian neorealism directors such as Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Ruy Guerra, Anselmo Duarte, and Glauber Rocha took to making low-budget films, many shot on location in the arid Sertão, which highlighted the stark realities of the Brazilian Northeast in expressive black-and-white imagery. If not wildly popular at home, these films were a hit with international critics.

In 1964, the beginning of the military dictatorship caused cinema novo to experience a sudden demise. Government hard-liners censored any criticism of Brazil and forced many directors into exile. Instead, in 1969 the government created Embrafilme, a state-run production company whose goal was to develop Brazilian filmmaking. Although censorship, bureaucracy, and favoritism severely limited artistic expression, Embrafilme did provide enough capital to maintain a small industry that funded the production of important films by major directors, such as Bruno Barreto’s Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, 1976) and Cacá Diegues’s Bye Bye Brasil (1979).

The end of Brazil’s military dictatorship also meant the end of Embrafilme and a state-subsidized film industry. By the early 1990s only 3–4 Brazilian films were being released each year. Fortunately, things improved with the introduction of new incentive laws whereby private companies that invested in film productions would receive tax breaks. Eager to see their lives depicted onscreen, Brazilians flocked to the cinema in record numbers, despite the fact that, since the 1970s, more than two-thirds of movie theaters had been closed down, often converted into evangelical churches. Not only did the number of films produced gradually grow, but the quality was on par with the best of world cinema and was recognized as such by foreign critics, who showered awards on productions such as the Oscar-winning Central do Brasil (Central Station), directed by Walter Salles, and Fernando Meirelles’s Cidade de Deus (City of God, 2002), which took both Brazil and the world by storm with its brilliantly acted story of survival amid the gang warfare typical of a Carioca favela.

Excerpted from the First Edition of Moon Living Abroad in Brazil.

Michael Sommers

About the Author

Born in Texas and raised in Toronto, Michael Sommers grew up with travel on the brain-a consequence of time spent riding around in Oldsmobiles, Mini Mokes, and Pan Am jets in the company of a Gourmet-addicted mother and a father with a roving zoom lens.

When Michael turned 18 he took flight, setting down temporary roots in cities such as Bordeaux, Paris, Montreal, New York, and Lisbon. During this time, he earned a BA in Literature from McGill University and an MA in History and Civilizations from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, where his thesis was “The Image of Brazil and Brazilians in Hollywood Cinema.” He also worked as a writer and editor at magazines and newspapers and freelanced for publications such as The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, and The Globe and Mail.

Michael first traveled to Brazil at the age of four. His only memory is that of being served a glistening orange wedge of papaya in the grand dining room at Rio de Janeiro’s Hotel Gloria. Twenty years later, he returned to Brazil, where he was seduced by the intense, colorful landscapes, rich cultures, and warm people. Michael eventually settled down in Salvador, the baroque capital of Bahia, where he has worked as a writer and journalist for over 15 years.

While Michael has yet to master the art of preparing feijoada (Brazil’s national stew of beans, salted beef, and pork), he does make a mean caipirinha.

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