Cinema

Cinema did not take long to arrive in Brazil. Seven months after the first session put on by the Lumière brothers in Paris, that is to say on the 8th of July 1896, the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro were treated to a crude imitation of the cinematographer, in the busiest and most novelty-seeking street in the center of Rio, the Ouvidor. The first images created here with a camera date from June of 1898. They focused on the bay of Guanabara and some vessels anchored there. The man with his eye to the viewfinder was an Italian immigrant named Afonso Segreto, who was arriving from Europe with his first Lumière camera.

For a time, Afonso and his brother Paschoal held the monopoly of moving pictures here in Brazil. At the beginning of this century immigrants like the Segretos started the competition in movie making in Brazil. One of them, Guiseppe Filipi, established himself in Curitiba and later in Porto Alegre. From 1905 on, the Portuguese Antônio Leal specialized in recording fait divers (various happenings) and popular celebrations in Rio. The creator of our first chain of moving picture theaters, Francisco Serrador, was of Spanish blood.

Films with a plot were only made from 1908 on. Films in this vein started with a comedy, Nhô Anastácio Chegou de Viagem (Mr. Anastácio has arrived from his travels), by Júlio Ferrez. Antonio Campos, influenced by the Frenchman Georges Méliès, filmed O Diabo (The Devil), also a pioneering film, with special effects. Antônio Leal, enthusiastic about the possibilities offered by cinematography of creating a fantasy world, changed the documentary into fiction. He adapted O Guarani (an indigenous tribe), by José de Alencar, and with Os Estranguladores (the Stranglers), he discovered a rich vein which became fashionable in Rio for some time: films of medium length dramatizing lurid stories from the police records of the time. He ended up being defeated in this field by Alberto Botelho, who made O Crime da Mala (The Suitcase Crime) into the first box-office hit of the Brazilian cinema.

The cinema fever infected nearly the whole country. Paulo Benedetti carried it as far as Barbacena; Anibal Requião, to Curitiba; Aristides Junqueira, to Belo Horizonte; Diomedes Gramacho, to Salvador. However, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo continued to be the most exuberant production centres – and the most aware of the novelties from abroad. In our enthusiasm in imitating them, we produced as many as three versions of A Viúva Alegre (The Merry Widow) and one of A Cabana do Pai Thomás (Uncle Tom’s Cabin).

Political satire transposed from the theatre-review was much more authentically Brazilian – the pioneering example Paz e Amor (Peace and Love), made in 1910 by Alberto Botelho and W. Auler, already displayed in title a joke directed at the president Nilo Peçanha, who promised to govern Brazil “with peace and love”. The public adored it, but even so Brazilian cinema did not get off the ground at once. A recession in production in 1913 was followed by two more years of material hardship, caused by the war. When activity in the cinema was resumed in 1916, satire had given way to the old obsession for adaptations from literature and patriotic sagas.

Between 1919 and 1925, seven new adventurers burst upon the scene: José Medina (in São Paulo), Silvino Santos (in Manaus), Gentil Roriz (in Recife), Eduardo Abelim (in Porto Alegre), and from the state of Minas Gerais, Francisco de Almeida Fleming (in Pouso Alegre), Humberto Mauro (in Cataguases) and Eugênio Kerrigan (in Guaranésia). Of these, only Mauro succeeded in making a career and crossing bridge into the talkies.

In the years prior to the arrival of sound film in Brazil, the most promising productions continued to be a privilege of the Rio de Janeiro – São Paulo axis. The versatile Adhemar Gonzaga jumped behind the cameras from a career in journalism, brought Humberto Mauro to Rio de Janeiro and founded a studio. The Adalberto Kemeny / Rodolfo Rex Lustig duo set up a production company (Rex Film) and repeated in the Paulicéia (São Paulo, A Sinfonia da Metrópole – São Paulo, a Metropolitan Symphony) what the German Walter Ruttmann had done in Germany.

Brazilian cinema entered the age of sound film with a comedy starring the comic duo Genésio Arruda and Tom Bill, Acabaram-se os Otários (The End of the Simpletons, 1929). The folklorist Luiz (Lulu) de Barros, who would make dozens of similar frolics, gave the orders from behind the camera, – Mário Peixoto, on the other hand, would only manage to make one film, Limite, which was enough to have him consecrated as a genius of the genre. Peixoto and Mauro (above all on account of Ganga Bruta, 1933) are the two key filmmakers of the period, which was also noted for the insistent presence of a woman, Carmen Santos, actress, producer, studio boss and finally director, and by the first Carnival musical films bursting upon the scene, produced by Wallace Downey and Alberto Byington Jr., imitated and improved upon in the Cinédia of Adhemar Gonzaga, with the best that radio and popular music could offer.

In 1941, a group of idealistic youths, led by Moacir Fenelon, Alinor Azevedo, José Carlos Burle and Edgar Brasil, founded an independent production company, the Atlântida, which, side-tracked from its initial aims, became the most successful studio of all time in Brazil. Its creators dreamt about making serious films, something solemn and dedicated, but they had to adapt themselves to the demands of the market. In this way popular movie was born, a mixture of comedy, carnival musical and crime thriller, the most profitable genre of film that was to flourish in Brazil – and which only television succeeded in destroying at the start of the 60s.

While Atlântida amused the masses with its popular movies, Vera Cruz, the megalomanic craze of an Italian businessman established in São Paulo, staked its chips on films that were sensible, pompous – and with no future. Today, Vera Cruz is only remembered by the prestige gained by O Cangaceiro (a northeastern Brazilian Bandit), and by the fact that the filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti had passed through its board of directors. In 1954, Vera Cruz closed its doors and Atlântida forged ahead, allowing itself the luxury of financing more pretentious projects such as Amei um Bicheiro (I Loved a Lottery Ticket-seller, 1953), by Jorge Illeli and Paulo Wanderley, an American-style urban thriller, modelled on the John Houston classic O Segredo das Jóias (The Secret of the Jewels).

Divided between those who endeavoured to imitate Hollywood, and those who saw in Italian neo-realism a more suitable option for a modest and peripheral film industry such as ours, Brazilian cinema passed through the 50s with a certain style and elegance, revealing talented filmmakers such as Carlos Manga, Roberto Santos (O Grande Momento, The Great Moment, 1958), Galileu Garcia (Cara de Fogo, Face of Fire, 1958) and Walter Hugo Khoury (Estranho Encontro, Strange Encounter, 1958) – none of them so influential as Nelson Pereira dos Santos, with whose blessing the Cinema Novo (New Cinema) was born on the threshold of the next decade.

As a movement for renovation inspired by the Nouvelle Vague in France, as so many others were in the rest of the world, Cinema Novo represented the Utopia of a generation of university- educated cinema-lovers, ideologically left-wing and opposed to the Hollywood style of production. Nevertheless, there was a vacuum in our Brazilian film industry, caused by the disappearance of the popular movies, which was filled by the Cinema Novo, helped by a company striving for a different image of the country – more direct, raw and demystified. The rebels were led by a restive, astute and disconcerting man from Bahia – Glauber Rocha, in whose shadow Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Paulo César Saraceni, Carlos Diegues, Ruy Guerra, Leon Hirszman and others blazed the main trails for modern Brazilian cinema to follow.

At its peak, Cinema Novo, originally from Rio de Janeiro, bore offsprings in other states (Luiz Sérgio Person of São Paulo, author of the fundamental work São Paulo S.A., 1965 stands as one example), was able to take on the challenge of its most intransigent Edipuses (Julio Bressane, Rogério Sganzerla), collected various international prizes and left its indelible mark on innumerable filmmakers from other countries. It also fell victim to the creativity crisis which afflicted world cinema in the 70s and 80s – Cinema Novo became simply a label which could be applied to works as diverse as Lição de Amor (Lesson of Love, Eduardo Escorel, 1975), Mar de Rosas (Sea of Roses, Ana Carolina, 1977), and certainly to all those bearing the names of its most notable survivors: Diegues, Guerra, Walter Lima Jr., Arnaldo Jabor, Eduardo Coutinho.

At the start of the 90s, Brazil underwent a new crisis, this time internal. Having lost its state protection – abolished by the government of Fernando Collor de Mello – the cinema economy became disorganized and film production dropped to zero, threatening to force premature retirement upon talents discovered in the previous decade (Murilo Salles, Tizuka Yamasaki, André Klotzel, Chico Botelho), and keep its prodigal sons Hector Babenco and Bruno Barreto out in the cold for an indefinite time. Arising from the ashes with new production bases, Brazilian cinema promises to celebrate its centenary optimistically, with surprising box-office phenomena (Carlota Joaquina, by Carla Camurati; O Quatrilho, The Quadrille, by Fábio Barreto) and at least reasons for hoping that better films will follow: Walter Salles Jr., author of the moving Terra Estrangeira (Foreign Land) and Central do Brasil, and Jorge Furtado, who made a short, Ilha das Flores (Island of Flowers), an unparalleled masterpiece in its gauge – talking about which, it is the one which reveals the most talent on the Brazilian screen in recent times.

Art and Culture

From the mid 1990’s, Brazil witnessed an extraordinary upsurge in cultural activities and cinema was the first area to benefit. Public acclaim for films such as “Carlota Joaquina”, “O Quatrilho”, “O Que é isso Companheiro?” and “Central do Brasil” showed that Brazilian cinema could quickly regain the important position it had occupied within the cultural scene early in the 1960s with “Terra em Transe” and other films. It is a sign that the Brazilian cinema industry has a future.

But cinema is not unique. In the area of Brazil’s artistic and cultural heritage there are also many and varied initiatives being undertaken in different spheres of public responsibility, showing that in societies such as Brazil, which have achieved a reasonable degree of control of inflation and economic stability, the social energy formerly used by the community in its struggle for survival can also be channelled into the preservation of cultural identity.

The restoration of the Pelourinho (Pillory) in the historical centre of Salvador (State of Bahia), the improvement and refurbishment of the State Picture Gallery and the Ipiranga Museum (São Paulo), the renovation of the historic centre of Rio de Janeiro and the colonial centre of cities such as São Luiz (State of Maranhão), Ouro Preto and Diamantina (State of Minas Gerais), and Recife and Olinda (State of Pernambuco), and the nation-wide celebrations of 300 Years of Zumbi and the Decade of the Native Peoples, show that despite necessary advances in economic and social areas, on the eve of celebrating 500 years of the Discovery of Brazil, Brazilians are rediscovering the importance of their own historical and cultural past. They are all signs of an enormous cultural revival.

The renewal of Brazilian culture can also be seen in music, literature and more important still, in an extraordinary media phenomenon that reflects Brazilian interest in the nation’s cultural production. Certainly, the reassessment of activities by museums and the fine arts – with exhibitions of painting and sculpture by artists such as Rodin, Miró, Monet and Maillol, not forgetting the biennial arts exhibition in São Paulo – are reflections of that interest. Since 1994, events like this have attracted the attention of more than two million people, leaving behind the traditional perception that credited only the more erudite sections of the public with interest in the plastic forms of language. In fact, these examples of extraordinary beauty and value have become mass displays of culture, especially on the part of younger members of the public, showing that there is a capacity for similar new initiatives.

Obviously, there are other interesting and innovative displays taking place within Brazilian culture but what has been described here is enough to put up for discussion another important and innovative aspect. It concerns the issue of financing culture. Since the middle of 1995 the Federal Government has been implementing in the cultural area an active policy of partnership between the Brazilian State, the cultural producers and private initiative. This policy supports artistic and cultural activities by means of fiscal incentive legislation enabling private investors to deduct, in the case of cinema, 100% of their investment and, in the case of other cultural areas, between 66% and 76%, depending on the nature of the companies. This concession can increase to 100% in relation to the scenic arts, learned and instrumental music, art books, museum collections, touring exhibitions of fine arts and public library stocks. It is a generous and fitting policy since, as a result of the acknowledged fiscal deficit of the Brazilian State and the enormous lack of resources for priority areas, private companies are being invited to become associated with the Federal Government and cultural producers in order to safeguard cultural development.

In fact, following major reforms introduced in 1995 and 1996 in legislation covering fiscal incentives to culture – and, at federal level, only where the incentive takes the form of deductions from the income tax of private sponsors – the Government has attracted investments that have exceeded 180 million reals during their first two years in office. The current policy for the financing of culture is far from being restricted solely to promoting private investment in the area. The Federal Government acknowledges that it also has a fundamental role to play in financing culture without any return, particularly in relation to activities that, because of their very nature, are not attractive to the market. Because of this, for the first time in many decades, the budget of the Ministry of Culture increased by more than 100% year by year, climbing from R$ 104 million in 1995 to R$ 212 million in 1996.

In addition, by means of budgetary supplements and an unheard of agreement with the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), by the end of a four year period in 1998, the Federal Government will have invested almost 300 million dollars in the restoration of historical sites and the refurbishment of urban areas in several Brazilian states where there is strong interaction between culture and parts of the urban fabric that have either decayed or are decaying. In addition, by means of direct investment, the Ministry of Culture has given support to the restoration of public records, encouraged productions in the area of the theatrical arts, stimulated the renovation and consolidation of symphony orchestras as well as supported modifications to museums, theatres and cultural venues of various kinds. These are all indications that the State and society have an increasing understanding of the importance of culture for the quality of the life of the people.

Is this financing policy appropriate for present day Brazilian culture? There are several reasons that we could bring forward in order to justify it. Brazil is a country that is endowed with an extremely rich and varied culture which has its origins in the particular way in which Brazilian society was formed; since its birth in the 16th century, it has been the recipient of a generous contribution from widely differing peoples such as aboriginal Indians, Portuguese discoverers and African slaves followed by French, Spanish, Dutch, Italians, Japanese, Arabs and many others who came as invaders or adventurers, leaving their cultural mark on Brazil and bringing new values to those brought by land-clearing pioneers.

All this has contributed to making Brazilian culture a curious kaleidoscope in which races are mixed together and many different ways of life mingle to create an enormous variety of influences. What is most interesting, however, is that, contrary to the situation in some societies, this diversity does not lead to conflict or exclusion of any kind in relation to differences or to those expressing different cultural identities. On the contrary, one of the most extraordinary features of Brazilian culture is its welcoming and integrating character. It is an indication that in Brazil, the different origins of the Brazilian people serve to integrate them rather than to exclude or divide them.

For the same reason, it is essential that there is a vigorous cultural financing policy in Brazil that will drive its development whilst, at the same time, one that is able to guarantee the full realization of the richness and diversity of its origins. In fact, the financing of culture in multicultural nations like Brazil requires various sources of financing: the State, cultural producers and private companies. This will ensure both the preservation of public and civil interest by means of State action, and also society’s involvement in the artistic creative process, by means of its projects and investments.

The policy of partnership is the basis of present day cultural policy that has its roots in the very essence of Brazilian culture, that is, its richness and diversity.