Alberto Cavalcanti

Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti".

Early life

Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. He was a precociously intelligent child and, by the age of 15, was studying law at university, but was expelled following an argument with a professor. His father sent him to Geneva, Switzerland, on condition that he did not study law or politics. Cavalcanti chose to study architecture instead. At 18, he moved to Paris to work for an architect, later switching to working in interior design. After a visit to Brazil, he took up a position at the Brazilian consulate in Liverpool, England.

Cavalcanti corresponded with Marcel L'Herbier, a leading light in France's avant-garde film movement, which led to a job offer from L'Herbier for Cavalcanti to work as a set designer.

Film career

In 1920, Cavalcanti left his job at the consulate and moved back to France to work for L'Herbier. Directing his first film in 1926, he was involved in the making of numerous others, the most notable being ''L'Inhumaine''. Cavalcanti was soon making his own films, the first being a 1926 experimental documentary, ''Rien que les heures'' (''Nothing But Time''), showing a day in the life of Paris and its citizens. After the advent of talkies, he took a job at the French studios of Paramount Pictures, but found himself making more commercial films, which did not hold his interest, so he left Paramount in 1933.

The following year, Cavalcanti returned to England to work for the GPO Film Unit, headed by John Grierson. Cavalcanti spent seven years there, involved in many capacities, from production to sound engineer, working on many projects, most notably: ''Coal Face'' (1935), ''Night Mail'' (1936), ''Message to Geneva'' (1937), ''Four Barriers'' (1937), and ''Spare Time'' (1939). Although much of his work at the GPO was uncredited, he acted as a mentor to many new film makers. In 1937, he was appointed acting head of the GPO Film Unit when Grierson left for Canada. Told that the only way the position could become permanent was for him to become a naturalized British citizen, Cavalcanti decided to leave the unit.

In 1940, Cavalcanti joined Ealing Studios, under the leadership of producer Michael Balcon. He worked as an art editor, producer and director, and his most notable works of this period (many of them propaganda films) were '' Yellow Caesar'' (1941), ''Went the Day Well?'' (1942), ''Three Songs of Resistance'' (1943), '' Champagne Charlie'' (1944), ''Dead of Night'' (as co-director) (1945) and ''Nicholas Nickleby'' (1947). In 1946, Cavalcanti left Ealing after a dispute about money. He went on to direct three more films in the UK, before returning to Brazil in 1950.

In Brazil, Cavalcanti became head of production for Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz, though the company eventually became insolvent. After being blacklisted in Brazil as a communist, he moved back to Europe, spending much of the 1960s and 1970s working as an itinerant film maker in various countries, including East Germany, France and Israel.

Cavalcanti died in Paris at the age of 85.

Filmography as director

France

*1926 ''Rien que les heures''
*1927 ''Le train sans yeux''
*1927 '
*1927 ''En rade''
*1928 ''Yvette''
*1928 ''La jalousie du barbouille''
*1928 '' Captain Fracasse''
*1929 ''Le petit chaperon rouge''
*1929 ''Vous verrez la semaine prochaine''
*1930 ''Toute sa vie''
*1930 ''A canção do berço''
*1930 ''À mi-chemin du ciel''
*1931 ''The Devil's Holiday''
*1931 ''Dans une ile perdue''
*1932 ''En lisant le journal''
*1932 ''Le jour du frotteur''
*1932 ''Revue Montmartroise''
*1932 ''Nous ne ferrons jamais du cinéma''
*1932 ''Le truc du brésilien''
*1933 ''Le mari garon''
*1933 ''Plaisirs défendus''
*1933 ''Coralie et Cie''
*1933 ''Tour de chant''

GPO & Crown Film Units

*1934 '' Pett and Pott: A fairy story of the suburbs''
*1934 ''The glorious Sixth of June: New rates''
*1935 ''The King's Stamp''
*1935 ''Coal Face''
*1936 ''Message from Geneva''
*1937 ''Line to Tcherva Hut''
*1937 ''Men of the Alps'' (co-prod with Switzerland)
*1937 ''Roadways''
*1937 '' We Live In Two Worlds''
*1937 ''Who writes to Switzerland?''
*1937 ''Four barriers''
*1938 ''Mony a pickle''
*1938 ''Happy in the morning: A film fantasy''
*1939 ''Mid-summer day's work''
*1939 ''The Chiltern country''
*1940 ''Alice in Switzerland''
*1940 ''La cause commune''
*1940 ''Factory front''
*1940 ''Mastery of the sea''

Ealing and UK

*1941 ''Yellow Caesar'' (short)
*1942 ''Went the Day Well?''
*1943 ''Watertight'' (short)
*1943 ''Three Songs of Resistance''
*1944 '' Champagne Charlie''
*1945 ''Dead of Night'' ('Christmas party' & 'ventriloquist' episodes)
*1947 ''Nicholas Nickleby''
*1947 ''They Made Me a Fugitive''
*1947 ''The First Gentleman''
*1949 ''For Them That Trespass''
*1961 ''The Monster of Highgate Ponds''

Brazil and others

*1950 ''Caiçara'' (Brazil)
*1952 ''Simão, o caolho'' (Brazil)
*1952 ''Song of the Sea'' (Brazil)
*1955 ''Mulher de verdade'' (Brazil)
*1955/60 '' Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti'' (Austria/East Germany)
*1957 ''Die Windrose'' (East Germany)
*1959 ''Venetian Honeymoon'' (France/Italy)
*1967 ''Thus Spoke Theodore Herzl'' (Israel)
*1969 ''Les empailles'' (France)
*1971 ''La visite de la vieille dame'' (France)
*1976 ''Le voyageur du silence'' (France)
*1976 ''Um homem e o cinema'' (Brazil)

References

External links

*
Alberto Cavalcanti biography and filmography
at the BFI's Screenonline

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavalcanti, Alberto
1897 births
1982 deaths
Brazilian film producers
Brazilian film directors
Propaganda film directors
Alberto
Brazilian people of Italian descent
Brazilian expatriates in France
Brazilian expatriates in the United Kingdom