O movie theaterBrazilian established itself in the late nineteenth century, when the first session of movie theater was held in Rio de Janeiro. The first film productions date back to 1897 and 1898, and the first fiction productions date back to the first half of the 20th century. Throughout the history of Brazilian cinema, one of the prominent genres was cinema novo.
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First movie showing in Brazil
Cinema appeared in 1895, when the Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph, a device that allowed the projection of animated images onto a screen or wall. This invention did not take long to reach Brazil, and on July 8, 1896, it was first movie session in the history of our country.
This exhibition was held at Rua do Ouvidor, 57, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and was widely publicized at the time. It featured short films showing different images of European cities. It was an elite event, as an exhibition of this type was considerably expensive.
The first fixed movie theater was established in our country the following year, 1897, also in Rio de Janeiro. It was also located on Rua do Ouvidor, named after Paris News Salon and having as owners Pascoal Segreto and José Roberto Cunha Salles. Films obtained in Europe and the United States were exhibited in it.
The acquisition of these films was in charge of Alphonsussecret, brother of Pascoal. He was responsible for bringing a film camera to Brazil, recording the first images of Bayah from Guanabara, in June 1898. The Segreto brothers also captured other scenes from Rio de Janeiro.
Another important cameraman of the period was the Italian Vittorio of May, which captured images of the country in the late 1890s. He was responsible for the first legitimately Brazilian recording, with his film, from 1897, called Children's ballet at school, in Andaraí.
The first four national productions, including the filming of Vittorio di Maio, are all from the period 1897-1898. Are they:
Fisherman's anchorage in Guanabara Bay
Train arrival in Petropolis
Children's ballet at school, in Andaraí
An artist working on the Politeama trapeze
All these productions were in black and white, being silent and produced as short documentaries.
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cinema growth
In the first decade of the 20th century, cinema in Brazil gained a strong boost with the improvement in the country's energy system. As a result, in 1907, there were more than 20 cinematographers fixed in Rio de Janeiro, three of which were large cinemas stood out in the period: the Grande Cinematograph Rio Branco, the Cinematograph Pathé and the Cinema Palace|1|.
During this period, the first fictional productions of our cinema began to be filmed and released, highlighting the short film You andstranglers, 1908, and Nhô Anastácio arrived from a trip, a comedy short film released in 1908. Both films were followed by the media, and the You andstranglers it had more than 800 screenings in about two months.
During this period, the first productions of filmssungOs. This genre was characterized by showing the silent film, but with live dubbing. Peace and Themor was a production of this genre considered as one of the most successful in the first two decades of the 20th century.
strength of foreign cinema
The 1910s saw the weakening of films produced in Brazil, especially after the First World War. The conflict weakened European productions and paved the way for Hollywood, in the United States, to consolidate itself as the world's largest film producer. Soon the Brazilian cinema was flooded by North American productions, which, technically, were much superior to the Brazilian ones.
The influence of North American cinema gained strength in our country, especially from the decade of 1930, when film producers in the United States began to invest heavily in the market Brazilian. Many cinemas began to give priority to showing Hollywood films, which harmed national cinema.
One of the most controversial measures of the period refers to the facilities given by Getulio Vargas to foreign film productions. The Brazilian government considerably reduced the fees levied on imported films, and also forced cinemas to reproduce the cinematographic newspapers made by the new state.
read more: Press and Propaganda Department (DIP) – spread the Estado Novo ideology via political propaganda
Chanchadas
Even with the growth of foreign productions, Brazilian cinema resisted and continued producing. A demonstration of this was the emergence of Cinédia, a film company founded in 1930. This production company was very important in the development of national cinema.
Cinédia was known for producing productions that explored musicals and popular culture themes, such as Carnival. Through these productions, an important figure in our cinema emerged: crimsonno Miranda. The actress and singer participated in films such as Hello, Thelo carnival, 1936.
Many experts believe that these films produced by Cinédia, in the 1930s, are of a format that gave rise to one of the first successful genres of national cinema: the çslash. Some scholars of national cinema understand that chanchadas emerged in the 1930s, while others point out that it emerged in the following decade, the 1940s, reaching its peak in the 1950s.
The chanchadas were productions marked for being low budget and for mix mood and drama with musical. The chanchada explored a lot of themes related to the Brazilian Carnival, being a success with the public, but quite questioned by the specialized critics. The development of chanchada coincided with the emergence of talking movies.
Many specialists in Brazilian cinema understand that the 1930s chanchada productions were made by Cinédia, and that, from the 1940s onwards, these productions were made by Companhia Atlântida Cinematographic.
Among the successful productions of this genre, the following stand out:
Tambourine (1947)
Notice to mariners (1950)
Neither Samson nor Delilah (1954)
the man from sputnik (1959)
new cinema
Cinema novo was one of the main cinematographic movements in Brazil, emerging in the 1950s and extending into the 1960s. This cinematographic current began to question the influence of Hollywood cinema on national productions and had as its starting point the production river, 40 degrees.
The new cinema was strongly inspired by the noeorrealismItalian and on noouvellevwaterfrench, and focused on social and political approaches, promoting scathing criticisms of the social inequality existing in Brazil. The new cinema was part of an entire intellectual movement that I tried to think about and question the reality of Brazilian society.
Regarding cinema novo, historian Rosangela de Oliveira Dias points out the following|2|:
The city of Rio de Janeiro will appear in a different way in these films, the cheerful tone of the chanchadas is abandoned, the migration, slums, unemployment and the precariousness of urban services will be analyzed as desperate and unfair. There is no luck of inheritance to appease misery; the lack of a job is not perceived as a trickery by someone who wants nothing, it now translates into hunger and lack of perspective. The police are no longer seen as an element to ease small conflicts, but rather as an oppressor of the poorest. The tourist areas are placed in the background, giving rise to the favela, its shacks threatened with collapse and the marginality that hides there, terrifying the residents.
One of the big names in new cinema was GlauberRock, filmmaker who produced films like God and the diabo in twrong sOthere and land in transe. To learn more about this pioneering movement in Brazilian cinema, read: Çinema noegg.
other genres
As we have seen, the history of Brazilian cinema has been in existence for over a hundred years and has undergone countless transformations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. After the chanchada and cinema novo, Brazilian cinema was under strict control of the military during the Military dictatorship.
During this period, the Pornochanchadas, a film genre that mixed erotic situations with humor. This genre was very influential in the 1970s, and many of its films were funded by Embrafilm, Empresa Brasileira de Filmes, the state-owned company that financed national film productions.
The country's political context has also given rise to a genre known as udigrudi or movie theatermarginal, who had more radical positions and was responsible for several experimental film productions, such as the classic bang Bang. This genre was severely repressed by military censorship.
With the end of the Military Dictatorship and the incentives that emerged for audiovisual production in Brazil, from the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, many started talking about a resumed cinema, severely weakened by the crisis in the Brazilian economy that began in the 1980s.
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Main Brazilian cinema productions
![Fernanda Montenegro, one of the greatest actresses in national cinema, having acted in films such as Central do Brasil and Auto da Compadecida.[1]](/f/42bb8f6de4085f9a166d27bb059fc884.jpg)
Brazilian cinema is very rich and has several works of national and international prominence. Among some of the most important works of our cinema, the following stand out:
Film |
Year |
God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun |
1964 |
Goat Marked to Die |
1984 |
God's city |
2002 |
Central do Brasil |
1998 |
Pixote, the Law of the Weakest |
1980 |
Archaic Crop |
2001 |
Forward, Brazil |
1982 |
Compadecida's Report |
2000 |
Spider Woman's Kiss |
1985 |
bang bang |
1971 |
Brazilian Cinema Day
Brazilian cinema has a commemorative date that serves to enhance the rich cinematographic production of our country. This date is celebrated annually on June 19th, referring to the filming of Guanabara Bay by Afonso Segreto, when he returned from Europe, on June 19, 1898.
|1| SOUZA, Carlos Roberto de. Roots of Brazilian cinema. To access, click on here.
|2| DAYS, Rosangela de Oliveira. Representations of the city of Rio de Janeiro: chanchada and cinema novo. To access, click on here.
Image credits
[1] André Luiz Moreira and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves Silva
History teacher
