Cinema in Latin America

WFH III

General features• Domestic production has emerged very slowly• Hollywood and eventually television have been

formidable competitors• European art house cinema has severd both as a

model and as a threat – middle class bourgeois cinema• Politically radical new cinemas emerge in the 1960s• Having to function under a variety of dictatorships• Catastrophic economic conditions• Treating the traumatic past• Recognizing and respecting ethnic diversity

New Latin American cinema• Political-ideological background: post

colonialism, neo colonialism, exploitation, military dictatorships

• The ideal of ”third cinema” independent both of Hollywood and European art cinema

• The ideals of the Cuban revolution• Aiming to ”emphasize the interaction between

the film and the audience in essay-like documentaries which will spur people into political activity”

• The ideal of ”dual commitment”: social change and artistic innovation

• Separate tendencies such Imperfect cinema,

Cinema of hunger, • The notion of Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano was

launced at a conference held in Chile in 1967• Thinking about the role of Latin American cinema

as a whole – the dream of a collective movement spanning the entire continent

• Ideas were spread through film clubs, magazines and festivals

• Duet to various military coups these developed into diasporic activities

Mexico• After a slow beginning emerged as the leading Latin

American film industry• Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernández: La isla de la pasión (1942)

is praised also abroad• Luis Buñuel direct some 20 films from1946 to 1960 • García Ascot’s En el balcón vacío (1961) wins a price as

Locarno Festival• In the 1960s ever more melodrama and exploitation• Films and literature are censored as political

opposition is being suppressed

• In the 1970s infrastructure is stregthened and

Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica film school as well as Cineteca National are founded

• Alejandro Galindo’s El juicio de Martín Cortés (1973) as a sharp analysis of racism

• During the economic recession of the 1980s mainly exploitation with a number of notable exceptions

• A promising new start in the 1990s – there is even talk about renaissance of art cinema

• BUÑUEL, Luis: El (1952)• BUÑUEL, El: ángel exterminado (1962)

• LEDUC, Paul: Frida (1986)• IÑÁRRITU, Alejandro González: Amores

perros (2000) • CUARÓN, ALFONSO: Y tu mama tambien

(2001)

Cuba• Film culture remains for long rependent on

imports mainly from the USA• Exotic location shooting of foreign films• “Tropical” musicals, comedies, melodramas and

detective stories the 1950s• After the revolution cinema in under the

protection and surveillance of the state• Instituto Cubano del arte y Industria

Cinematográficos (ICAIC) defines as its aim to use cinema as a way of increasing peoples awareness as opposed to serving as a means of hypnosis – “demystifying cinema”

• “Imperfect cinema”: overcoming the limitations

of resources by creative solutions• ICAIC becomes more active in the 1970s • Modernism is to a significant degree abandoned

in favour of more classical narration

• TOMÁS GUITIÉRREZ ALEA: El Megano (1955), Memorias del susbdesarollo (1968), Muerte de un burocrate (1966), La última cena (1976)

• SOTTO, Arturo: Amor Vertical (Hissillä hekumaan 1997)

Brazil• Early attempts at creating sound cinema – singers

and speakers behind the screen• At first cheapies are produced in Rio for an

audience which prefers them to foreign imports• Hollywood nevertheless gradually conquers the

markets and becomes almost synonymous with cinema

• The introduction of sound gives domestic cinema a temporary advantage, but the industry can hardly manage the necessary investments

• Vera Cruz Films (1949), led by Alberto Cavalcanti, seeks to produce quality films

• Instituto Nacional de Cinema (INC) is founded in 1966 to distribute quality subsidies and publish film literature

• Cinema Novo movement seeks transform cinema into a weapon in the struggle against neo colonialism and poverty – ”camera in hand, idea in the head”

• 1964 military coupe leads to confiscating and banning films which are thought to promote left wing ideas

• Social criticism is given allegorical forms: aesthetics of hunger and violence, “cannibalism”

• Economic difficulties after the restoration of civilian government

• LIMA BARRETTO: O Cangaceiro (1953)• NELSON PEREIRA DOS SANTOS: Vidas secas (1963),

Como era gostoso meu frances (1971) O amuleto de Ogum (1974)

• CARLOS DIEGUES: Ganga Zumba (1963)• GLAUBER ROCHA: Terra em transe (1967), Antonio das

Mortes (1969)

• CAMUS, Marcel: Orfeu Negro (1959)• BABENCO, Hector: Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)• BARRETO, Bruno: O Que É Isso, Companheiro? (1997)• NEIRELLES, Fernando: City of God (2002)

Agentina• Film industry gets really started in 1915 • Introduction of sound helped in finding markest in

other Latin American countries particularly in the form of comedies and musicals → the biggest film industry of the continent.

• Artistically ambitious socio-folkloristic experiments• After the military coup of 1939 production diminishes

and during the Second World War Mexico surpasses as the dominant Spanish language cinema

• Inspired by Neorealism Fernando Birri calls for a cinema that would be neither insignificant main stream nor self-sufficient elitism

• Cine-clubistas generation wanted to make not only socially critical but also idiosyncratic experimental films

• Cine Liberación movement emphasized the special quality of Third World cinema in respect of other main lines

• During the military rule stern and random censorship made investing in cinema very risky

• ´The idea of continuous revolution – in practice, most film makers made quite commercial films and supported Juan Peron’s return to power in 1973

• After the restoration of democracy film industry was resuscitated, but the working class audience was lost

• SOFFICI, Mario: Prisoneros de la tierra (1939)• SOLANAS, Fernando: La hora de los hornos (1968),

Memoria del saqueo (2004)

• SANTIAGO, Alvarez: 79 Primaveras (1969)• PEREIRA, Miguel: deuda interna, La (1977) • BECHIS, Marco: Garage Olimpo - kidutuskammio

(1999) • CHAVARRI, Jaime: Sus ojos se cerraron y el mundo

sigue andando (1997)• CHARLONE, César & FERNÁNDEZ, Enrique: El baño del

Papa (2007)• SAURA, Carlos: Tango (1998)