Buket Hamarat

Cinema Novo stands for “New Cinema” in Portuguese. It reflects the ample and aggravating emotions of political and social events that take place in Latin America. It reflects the realm of reality in an enraged yet aesthetic manner. The increasing political attitude in Latin American cinema in the 1960s was enduring and more pronounced, especially in Brazil.

The Cinema Novo movement, which started in Brazil in the 1950s and continued to exist until the 70s, came to life within the framework of elemental materials such as class conflict, repressive regime and justice-injustice in order to instill awareness amongst the people of Brazil regarding their exploitation.

The guiding principle of Cinema Novo aesthetics was to make your movie, screening life as it really is. In this sense, it was heavily influenced by Italian Neorealism. Similarly, the production process involved the use of non-actors and 16mm cameras as an attempt to keep movies grounded in reality. The worldwide popularity of Samba and bossa nova music, and the construction of the modernist capital of Brasilia as an expres- sion of an energetic, moderniz- ing country supplementing the promotion of Cinema Novo.

The films in the first stage (1960- 1964) were seriously evaluated in tone, by dealing with societal ills that affect the working class such as hunger, violence, reli- gious alienation and economic exploitation.

In the second stage (1964-1968), Cinema Novo tried to address the pain and surprise that Brazilians felt after Goulart was ignored. The third stage (1968- 1972) is called the “cannibal-tropicalist phase” or just the “tropicalist” phase. Film historians express cannibalism, both literally and figuratively.

Cinema Novos’ platform extended the country to foreign eyes due to its extensive praise and popularity among intellec- tuals and film critics.