Am Cio Mazzaropi In The Film And Culture Of Brazil

Amácio Mazzaropi's work is a unique instance in Brazilian culture - as an artist not connected with the subsidized film industry, he developed a singular voice and represents a segment of the population usually either ignored or viewed with contempt by the established, experimental filmmakers.

This book is a discussion of the work of Brazilian filmmaker Amacio Mazzaropi (1927 - 1980), who acted in, produced, and directed 32 films. Although at first they hailed him as a Brazilian Chaplin, as soon as his films became very popular, cultural critics ignored Mazzaropi (in contrast with the treatment given to more experimental Cinema Novo filmmakers). This book starts with an analysis of the placement of Mazzaropi's work in the context of Brazilian film industry, and offers some possible explanations for its critical reception. The succeeding chapters discuss both how the films approach issues facing a country that was changing and becoming more urban, how ex-centric Brazilians ('caipiras') resolved their position in this new society, and how they fit in the politics and in the history of the country. The book will be important for anyone interested in popular culture, cultural studies, and Latin American culture in general.

This work provides an entertaining introduction to popular film in Brazil, situating major box-office successes such as Central Station, in their socio-historical context.

DIVAnalyzes the experiences of a generation of Japanese-Brazilians in Sao Paulo during the most authoritarian period of military rule in order to ask questions about ethnicity, the nature of diasporic identity, and Brazilian culture. /div

Bossa nova is one of the most popular musical genres in the world. Songs such as “The Girl from Ipanema” (the fifth most frequently played song in the world), “The Waters of March,” and “Desafinado” are known around the world. Bossa Nova—a number-one bestseller when originally published in Brazil as Chega de Saudade—is a definitive history of this seductive music. Based on extensive interviews with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jo+o Gilberto, and all the major musicians and their friends, Bossa Nova explains how a handful of Rio de Janeiro teenagers changed the face of popular culture around the world. Now, in this outstanding translation, the full flavor of Ruy Castro’s wisecracking, chatty Portuguese comes through in a feast of detail. Along the way he introduces a cast of unforgettable characters who turned Gilberto’s singular vision into the sound of a generation.

Lucia Nagib presents a comprehensive critical survey of Brazilian film production since the mid 1990s, which has become known as the "renaissance of Brazilian cinema". Besides explaining the recent boom, this book elaborates on the new aesthetic tendencies of recent productions, as well as their relationships to earlier traditions of Brazilian cinema. Internationally acclaimed films, such as "Central Station", "Seven Days in September" and "Orpheus", are analysed alongside daringly experimental works, such as "Chronically Unfeasible", "Starry Sky" and "Perfumed Ball". Contributors include Carlos Diegues, Robert Stam, Laura Mulvey and Jose Carlos Avellar.

Focusing on the representations of multicultural themes involving Euro- and Afro-Brazilians, other immigrants, and indigenous peoples, in the rich tradition of the Brazilian fictional feature film, Robert Stam provides a major study of race in Brazilian culture through a critical analysis of Brazilian cinema. 136 photos.