''The Art of Amália'' is a documentary by

Bruno de Almeida Bruno de Almeida (11 March 1965) is an independent filmmaker whose body of work navigates between fiction and documentaries. He is also a composer. He is New York City and Lisbon-based. Biography Bruno de Almeida was born in Paris of Portuguese ...

on the artistic career of

Amália Rodrigues Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues GCSE, GCIH (23 July 1920 – 6 October 1999), better known as Amália Rodrigues () or popularly as Amália, was a Portuguese '' fadista'' (fado singer) and actress. Known as the 'Rainha do Fado' ("Queen ...

(1920–1999), the celebrated Fado singer from Portugal. The 90-minute film is based on a previous five-hour made-for-television mini-series on the singer that dealt with her life and career; it was also de Almeida’s fourth cinematic project celebrating Rodrigues’ career. The film opens with an on-screen introduction by

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

, who praises the singer for “singing in these fado songs about the sadness of the universe, not only about a personal sadness or a tragedy in her own life or in the writer's life, but she was expressing the sadness of existence."Nitrate Online review of the film
/ref> ''The Art of Amália'' mixes rare film, television and concert footage from different periods of Rodrigues’ career. The film also presents a previously thought lost clip of a rare appearance (billed only as “Amália”) on U.S. television in 1953, where she performed her hit song "Coimbra" (better known to U.S. audiences in the English-language version " April in Portugal"). ''The Art of Amália'' also includes the last filmed interview by Rodrigues, who died one week before production was completed. The film had its U.S. premiere in March 2000 at a United Nations benefit, and its theatrical premiere in New York in December 2000. A DVD was released 2004.

References

External links

* * http://www.arcofilms.com/ - production company * https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/03/movies/film-the-queen-of-fado-portugal-s-soul-lives-again.html - New York Times article by Jon Pareles {{DEFAULTSORT:Art Of Amalia, The 2000 films Portuguese-language films Portuguese documentary films Fado Documentary films about singers 2000 documentary films Films directed by Bruno de Almeida Documentary films about women in music 2000s English-language films