Cinema Novo in dispute: pages of the Rio de Janeiro press in 1962

Abstract

In 1962, in the Rio de Janeiro press, euphoria took over film criticism. In view of the new national films in production, which was focused on social themes, it was believed that overcoming a precariousness existing in Brazilian cinema. Enthusiastic about the process of cultural renewal, film critics started calling it Cinema Novo, suggesting that such a concept encompassed the most varied films as opposed to the chanchada’s gender. From a generalist perspective, they would spread an elastic notion of Cinema Novo to include a wide range of aesthetic experiences. However, for a young generation of politically engaged filmmakers, looking for an independent and authorial creative project, the generic notion of renewal meant a loss of substance. In their conception, antagonistic to the position that was growing in the press, Cinema Novo meant exclusively a formal and political revolutionary movement. Also acting in the journalistic criticism, they would install a fierce dispute against common sense. At the epicenter of the conflict, which had Glauber Rocha as one of its protagonists, were the initial definitions of a concept that would become central to Brazilian cultural history.