Latin American cinema

Latin American cinema refers collectively to the film output and film industries of Latin America. Latin American film is both rich and diverse, but the main centers of production have been Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Latin American cinema flourished after the introduction of sound, which added a linguistic barrier to the export of Hollywood film south of the border.

History

The origins of early filmmaking is generally associated with Salvador Toscano Barragán. In 1898 Toscano made Mexico's first film with a plot, titled Don Juan Tenorio. During the Mexican Revolution, Toscano recorded several clips of the battles, which would become a full-length documentary in 1950, assembled by his daughter. Other short films were either created or influenced from French film-makers. Mexican movies from the Golden Era in the 1940s and 1950s are significant examples of Latin American cinema. Mexican movies were exported and exhibited in all Latin America and Europe. The film Maria Candelaria (1944) by Emilio Fernández, won the Palme D'Or in Cannes Film Festival. Famous actors and actresses from this period include María Félix, Pedro Infante, Dolores del Río, Jorge Negrete and comedian Cantinflas.

The 1950s and 1960s saw a movement towards Third Cinema, led by the Argentine filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino.

In Brazil, the Cinema Novo movement created a particular way of making movies with critical and intellectual screenplays, a clearer photography related to the light of the outdoors in a tropical landscape, and a political message. The film The Given Word / Keeper of Promises (1962) by Anselmo Duarte, won the Palme d'Or at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival,^[1] becoming the first (and to date the only) Brazilian film to achieve that feat. A year later, it also became the first Brazilian and South American film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Director Glauber Rocha was the key figure of the Brazilian Cinema Novo movement, famous for his trilogy of political films: Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol, Terra em Transe (1967) and O Dragão da Maldade Contra o Santo Guerreiro (1969), for which he won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.

In Colombia, Carlos Mayolo, Luis Ospina and Andrés Caicedo led an alternative movement that was to have lasting influence, founding the Grupo de Cali, which they called Caliwood and producing some films as leading exponents of the "New Latin American Cinema" of the 1960s and 1970s, including Oiga, Vea, Agarrando pueblo. Pura sangre (Ospina) and Carne de tu carne (Mayolo) were produced in the 1980s and belong to a different aesthetics.^[2]

Cuban cinema has enjoyed much official support since the Cuban revolution, and important film-makers include Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.

In Argentina, after a series of military governments that shackled culture in general, the industry re-emerged after the 1976–1983 military dictatorship to produce The Official Story in 1985, becoming the first of only two Latin American movies to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Other nominees for Argentina were The Truce (1974), Camila (1984), Tango (1998), Son of the Bride (2001), The Secret In Their Eyes (2009, which also won the award) and Wild Tales (2014).

More recently, a new style of directing and stories filmed has been tagged as "New Latin American Cinema," although this label was also used in the 1960s and 1970s.

In Mexico movies such as Como agua para chocolate (1992), Cronos (1993), Amores perros (2000), Y tu mamá también (2001), Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Babel (2006) have been successful in creating universal stories about contemporary subjects, and were internationally recognised, as in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Mexican directors Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Guillermo del Toro and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga have gone on to Hollywood success, with Cuaron and González Iñárritu becoming the only Latin Americans to win both the Academy Award and the Directors Guild of America award for Best Director.

The Argentine economic crisis affected the production of films in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but many Argentine movies produced during those years were internationally acclaimed, including El abrazo partido (2004), Roma (2004) and Nueve reinas (2000), which was the basis for the 2004 American remake Criminal.

The modern Brazilian film industry has become more profitable inside the country, and some of its productions have received prizes and recognition in Europe and the United States. The comedy film O Auto da Compadecida (2000) is considered a classic of Brazilian cinema and was a box-office hit in the country. Movies like Central Station (1998), City of God (2002) and Elite Squad (2007) have fans around the world, and its directors Walter Salles, Fernando Meirelles and José Padilha, have taken part in American and European film projects. Central Station was nominated for 2 Academy Awards in 1999: Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress for Fernanda Montenegro, who became the first (and to date the only) Brazilian, the first (and to date the only) Portuguese-speaking and the first Latin-American to be nominated for Best Actress. In 2003, City of God was nominated for 4 Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, it was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Elite Squad won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival.

There is a movement in the US geared towards promoting and exposing audiences to Latin American filmmakers. The New England Festival of Ibero American Cinema - which takes place in Providence, Rhode Island, is a good example.

See also

References

Bibliography

• Julianne Burton (ed.): Cinema and Social Change in Latin America. Conversations with Filmmakers, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986
• Julia

Further reading

• Paul A. Schroeder Rodriguez. Latin American Cinema: A Comparative History (University of California Press; 2016) 376 pages; readings of 50 films to examine the region's cinema since the silent era.
• Isabel Maurer Queipo (ed.): "Directory of World Cinema: Latin America", intellectbooks, Bristol 2013, ISBN 9781841506180

External links

• New England Festival of Ibero American Cinema
• Top 100 Ibero-American movies of all time
• Latin American Cinema, Centro Virtual Cervantes
• Latineos - Latin America, Caribbean, arts and culture
• Brazilian Director Walter Salles talks about his career
• Guide to Spanish Language Movies