The New Brazilian Cinema

Since the mid-1990s, Brazil has produced nearly 200 feature length films. Many of these have been received enthusiastically by audiences and critics and released worldwide. This passionately argued and illuminating book provides the first comprehensive critical account of what is known as the ‘Renaissance of Brazilian cinema’ and demonstrates just how thought-provoking and inspiring Brazilian cinema has become. The book looks at the broader political and policy-making issues for this dynamic new cinema. It also offers close analyses of internationally acclaimed films like Central Station, Seven Days in September, Orfeu and Me You Them and investigates daringly experimental works, such as Chronically Unfeasible, Starry Sky and Perfumed Ball. It examines common factors across a great variety of films, including film makers’ engagement with national identity, a major concern for the Cinema Novo of the 1960s, which has emerged in contemporary films with new relevance in a globalized world. The contributors include film and cultural policy-makers who have participated in the Brazilian film revival as well as film scholars and journalists, giving a variety of readings of films, movements or filmmakers, stimulating debate and presenting throughout contrasting, even opposing viewpoints. The beauty of Nagib's book makes readers want to seek out the films being described...a valuable collection. - Film International