Alberto Cavalcanti

Alberto Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer who spent much of his career in Europe. He was a pioneer of documentary, experimental and avant-garde cinema, as well as a prominent figure in the British film industry during World War II. He also contributed to the development of Brazilian cinema in the 1950s. 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. 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. He directed two films for Vera Cruz, O Canto do Mar (1953) and Simão, o Caolho (1953), both of which were poorly received by critics and audiences. He also directed a documentary about the city of São Paulo, called Esta é a Nossa Cidade (1954). Cavalcanti left Brazil in 1954 and moved back to Europe, where he worked as a film consultant and lecturer. He died in Paris in 1982, of a heart attack.