The history of South American cinema began, more or less, at about the same time as in other countries, at the turn of twentieth centuries, with the prevalence of cinematography the world over.
For the few first years, during the silent movie era, the home grown cinematography was completely overshadowed by Hollywood. During this time little was produced and even that was only for the home market, the primary output being mainly documentary type movies showing ordinary people living their lives. The most worthy of note amongst them however were the Colombian nature films and the Mexican noticiario (scenes from Mexico) films. This was a regular film production that once had been started by a Mexican cameramen wandering across the country and trying to film ordinary people.
The boom of some of the Latin American cinematographies began at the time that sound was first used in film. It was then that Mexico, Brazil and Argentina became the biggest film producers on the continent. The film company Vera Cruz was founded in Brazil, with the film director Alberto Cavalcanti, already then famous worldwide, being appointed as its chief executive. Whereas Mexico was playing host to Sergei Eisenstein, who was shooting his movie Quo viva Mexico! (1933). This co-operation with him ended up with the evolution of the social cinema and the growth of film production overall. In Argentina film production was striving to reach its peak in the late 1930’s. The best known directors of that time were Manuel Romero and Mario Soffici.
The 1940’s and 1950’s are regarded as the golden age of the Mexican cinema when, opposite the commercial productions clearly modeled on the most successful Hollywood genres, movies of high artistic level also were made (i.e. a series of Indian bucolics by E. Fernandeza, B. Alazrakiego, R. Gavaldona). At the same time Luis Bunuel shot his movies in Mexico. In 1940 the Argentinean film company Ducrane Films was founded. Its productions were very popular amongst the Argentineans. It was at about this time when Latin cinema reached out beyond the continent and gained worldwide recognition. As a result in 1944 Maria Calendaria, directed by Mexican director Emilio Fernandez, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival.
In the 1960’s the protesting filmmakers were allowed to work and voice their own opinions. A new approach toward film making and the turning away from the schematic cinema, a la Hollywood, was proposed. The most significant phenomenon of that period was called The Third Cinema. The name The Third Cinema was supposed to symbolize the opposition to the cinema of The First World – Hollywood. It was also to symbolize the separate conception of filmmaking against the art cinema of New Wave.
The Argentinean Third Cinema was created from the filmmakers’ movement centred around Grupo Cine Liberacion, founded in the late 1960’s by Fernando Solanas, Octavo Genino and Gerardo Vallejo.
In Brazil The Third Cinema took the form of cinema novo. Similarly to the first years of cinema development young filmmakers wanted to make movies about the casual problems of casual people, related either to the political situation (South America is after all the continent of the dictatorships and their malicious leaders) or to the ordinary life of the inhabitants. Formally cinema novo was paying homage to the French New Wave. The main representatives of that movement were Nelson Pereira dos Santos (considered a father of the whole movement), Glauber Rocha, Luis Carlos Barreto, Carlos (Caca’) Dieges.
Equally with cinema novo in Brazil the so called Tropicalism developed. Its creators thought the most important was the making of nationalistic movies. The best known movie of that movement is Macunaima (1969) directed by Jaquima Pedro de Andrade.
Meanwhile Alejandro Jodorowsky, who was considered a legendary filmmaker, was living in Mexico that the time and made two aesthetically exceptional movies, El Topo (1971) and The Holy Mountain (1973). Also known worldwide is the Mexican director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, creator of Amorres Perros (2000) and Babel (2006). It is thanks to appearances in his movies that Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal became famous.
Another important phase in the South America cinema’s history started in the 1990’s. After the fall of the dictatorship in Argentina, in 1983, independent filmmakers making their movies consistently in the spirit of poetic naturalism came into prominence. Poetic naturalism is a formally frugal, frankly minimalistic trend, in which the figures derailed, living in poverty and with no future are portrayed. Its most important pictures are: Pizza, birra, faso (1998) directed by Adrian Caetano and Bruno Staganro, Mundo grua (1999) by Pablo Trapero or Historia minima (2002) by Carlos Sorin. Amongst the filmmakers who grew from it and used its style are: Alejando Agresti, Fabian Bielinski, Marcelo Pineyro, Martin Rejtman, Lisandro Alonso, Lukretia Martel and above mentioned Pablo Trapero and Adrian Caetano.
The same thing happened in Brazil. The change in the cultural policy and democratic elections caused Brazilian cinema to be reborn. All movies made thereafter boil down to one common denominator - retomada. This name includes the movies varied in their style and the subject. It’s the term bonding certain generations of filmmakers so it doesn’t aspire to be called the school or the trend. A swallow heralding the rebirth of the Brazilian cinema, after a five-years pause, during which time no movies were made, was Carlota Joaquina, Princess of Brazil (1995) by Carla Camurati. After her debut retomada gathered momentum, can still be felt today. The most famous Brazilian movies of the last few years are: Cidade de Deus (2002) by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund which won world acclaim and 48 awards, Carandiru (2003) by Hector Babenco and Central do Brasil (1998) by Walter Salles who won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
