O cinema novo na conjuntura do golpe de 1964: do projeto nacional-popular à autocrítica (1954-1968).

Abstract

This research aims to problematize how the 1964 Coup d'état affected filmmakers linked to Cinema Novo, comparing the decade preceding April 1964 and the first years of the dictatorship, up until the establishment of AI-5 in December 1968. To this end, we investigated the bibliographic production of the filmmakers involved, especially publi-cations from the Revista Civilização Brasileira, interpreted according to Tânia Regina de Luca's methodological guidelines on the use of periodicals in historical research. Since our main source is not film production, but rather written sources that help us un-derstand the political and aesthetic positions of Cinema Novo, we mention films from the period based on aesthetic analyses by other authors, such as Ismail Xavier. Based on the research, developed according to Raymond Williams' theoretical formulations on the application of a materialist perspective to cultural studies and articulated with Marcelo Ridenti's conceptions on the self-criticism of the left after the Coup, we were able to conclude that 1954 to 1964 corresponds to a period in which the so-called "national-popular project" predominated among the left, characterized by an emphasis on national development and overcoming foreign imperialism. Engaged filmmakers, close to left-wing activism, even before the emergence of Cinema Novo as an artistic movement in the late 1950s, echoed the ideals of this project in their works until 1964. After the 1964 Coup, however, the national-popular project entered into crisis and a process of self-criticism began among the left, including the artistic dimension of activism. In general, the critical assessment drawn up by some filmmakers highlights the contributions of Cinema Novo to the development of the national film industry, but when it comes to evaluating the consequences of the dialogue with the national-popular project, with its strategies of intervention in society and mobilization of the public, more severe criticisms were made, generally directed at the unachieved objectives of the works.