Popular cinema in Brazil, 1930-2001 / Stephanie Dennison and Lisa Shaw.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dennison, Stephanie, author.

Shaw, Lisa, 1966- author.

Series:

Manchester Film Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Brazil--History.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Social aspects--Brazil.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 253 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2016.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This book provides a chronological study of popular cinema in Brazil since the introduction of sound at the beginning of the 1930s. It begins the study with a brief discussion of how people understand the term 'popular cinema', particularly within a Latin American context. The focus is on films that have intentionally engaged with 'low-brow' cultural products, whose origins lie in pre-industrial traditions, and which have been enjoyed by wide sectors of the population, chiefly at the lower end of the social hierarchy. Perhaps the most important contribution of the chanchada of the 1950s was to render visible a social class within Brazil's socio-cultural landscape, and to champion the underdog, who succeeds in triumphing, through malandragem, over more powerful opponents. Brazilian popular cinema, at least until the 1980s, can be seen as a direct descendant of other shared cultural experiences. Popular film in Brazil is littered with examples of carnivalesque inversions of societal norms and established hierarchies. The 1930s witnessed the rise of the radio, the record industry and the talking cinema. The first half of the 1940s witnessed a continuation of Getúlio Vargas's quest for economic expansion based on the creation of a dignified workforce, rewarded for its efforts by improvements in the welfare system. The book also looks at three very popular cinematic sub-genres which provided a continuation of the chanchada tradition in Brazilian filmmaking: the films of Amacio Mazzaropi; those of the comedic quartet known as the Trapalhoes; and the so-called pornochanchada series of films.

Contents:

List of figures

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

1. The cultural origins of popular cinema in Brazil

2. The 1930s

3. The 1940s

4. The 1950s

5. The 1960s

6. The 1970s

7. The 1980s

8. The 1990s

Conclusion

Filmography

Select bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Originally published in 2004 by Manchester University Press.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Jul 2026).

Includes bibliographical references, filmography and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-5261-4172-8

OCLC:

1149149797