Cinema of Portugal

At the end of the roaring twenties, the "young Turks" begin the regency of the cinema estates, with the return of Leitão de Barros and the emergence of young António Lopes Ribeiro (who would soon launch Manoel de Oliveira), Jorge Brum do Canto, Chianca de Garcia and Arthur Duarte.

Their agenda is to move away from the previous productions, taking inspiration in the esthetic designs of the French, German and Russian cinemas. The casts also support this disruptive move, bringing to the screen the stars of the Revista, by contrast to the spoken theatre. Stars such as Eduardo Brazão, Brunilde Júdice, António Pinheiro or Pato Moniz fade, and a new school begins with the presence of Vasco Santana, António Silva, Maria Matos, Ribeirinho or Maria Olguim.

At the same time, the relationship of the State with cinema was also to change from the end of the 20s. The installed powers understood these youngsters dominated the cinema press and influenced masses with the perspectives and the way the conveyed their messages, a privileged means of propaganda for the new regime.

António Lopes Ribeiro launches his career benefiting from the 100 metres Law. He films Uma Batida em Malpique ("A huntin Malpique") and Bailando ao Sol ("Dancing in the Sun") (1928), the latter with photography by Aníbal Contreiras. He will later depart with Leitão de Barros in a visit through the European studios, where he'll meet Dziga Vertov and Eiseinstein.

Leitão de Barros, who screens at Lopes Ribeiro's home the 9,5 mm film he had made with his brother-in-law in Nazaré, is spurred and returns to filming with Nazaré, Praia de Pescadores ("Nazaré, Beach of Fishermen"). Again in Nazaré, Leitão de Barros films Maria do Mar ("Mary of the Sea"), the second ethnofiction in the history of cinema, a milestone for the bleak portuguese cinematography esthetics. He also directs Lisboa, Crónica Anedótica ("Lisbon, an Anectodal Chronicle") (1929), where in a gathering of multiple city scenes, he displays Chaby Pinheiro, repeaters Adelina Abranches and Alves da Cunha, Nascimento Fernandes, and the unforgettable Vasco Santana and Beatriz Costa.

Inspired by Marcel l'Herbier, Jorge Brum do Canto opens with A Dança dos Paroxismos ("The Dance of the Paroxisms") (1928), with his own script and where he plays the main role. It opens with a private session in 1930, and will only be seen again in 1984.

Manoel de Oliveira shoots Douro, Faina Fluvial ("Douro, River Works"), and António Lopes Ribeiro persuades him to take it to the V International Critics Congress, where it receives the praise of Pirandello.

But will again be Leitão de Barros who will leave a print in movie history, with A Severa, based upon the work by Júlio Dantas, with the direction of the first Portuguese talkie. A new era of Portuguese cinema was to begin.

The Portuguese sound films

Comedy

The Portuguese film genre of Comédia à portuguesa began in 1933, the year the Estado Novo was promulgated, with the release of A Canção de Lisboa. It dominated the country for the next two decades, trailing away during the late 1950s and eventually giving way to Cinema Novo in the 1960s.

Cinema Novo

The term Cinema Novo or Novo Cinema (New Cinema), in its early phase, refers to Portuguese cinema made between 1963 and the revolution in 1974 by directors such as Fernando Lopes, Paulo Rocha or António da Cunha Telles, amongst others. Like other new waves of the period, the influence of Italian Neo-Realism and the burgeoning ideas of the Nouvelle Vague can be felt keenly.

The term Novo Cinema is now used to avoid confusion with the Brazilian movement of the same name. This movement gains particular relevance after the Carnation Revolution, pursuing certain experiences of the French New Wave, both in the field of visual anthropology and of political cinema. The generation of the seventies, taking advantage of the new liberties, explores realism and legend, politics and ethnography, until the late eighties, in conjunction with some directors of the liberated colonies, such as Flora Gomes. Portugal has a notable tradition in the field of docufiction and ethnofiction since Leitão de Barros, a contemporary to Robert Flaherty.

2000s

In 2005, there were 13 Portuguese feature films released, one of them an animation co-produced with Spain, Midsummer Dream. The most successful film this year was O CRIME DO PADRE AMARO, with more than 300 000 viewers, grossing more than 1.3 million euros. The following year, 22 feature films were release, five of them documentaries. The most successful film this year was FILME DA TRETA, with more than 270 000 viewers, grossing more than 1 million euros.