Humberto Mauro

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Humberto Duarte Mauro (born April 30, 1897 in Volta Grande , Minas Gerais ; † November 5, 1983 ibid) was a Brazilian film director .

Life

Humberto Duarte Mauro was born the son of an Italian immigrant and a local. After finishing school in Belo Horizonte , he lived with his parents in the city of Cataguases . He made a living installing electrics on local farms. From 1916 to 1920 he worked as an electrician in Rio de Janeiro , where he met and married his wife Dona Bebê (Maria Vilela de Almeida). His interest in photography brought Mauro together with the photographer Pedro Cornello in 1923 when he bought a Kodak camera. Because of their shared passion for the cinema, they bought a 9.5 mm home camera from Pathé in 1925 and shot a 5-minute adventure comedy with it. After showing the film, they were able to win over the local dealer Homero Cortes Domingues to invest in film equipment and bought a 35 mm camera and hundreds of meters of film material. Their first professional project remained unfinished, but in the same year they received additional support from businessman Agenor Cortes de Barros and founded the film production company Phebo Sul America Film in Cataguases. Mauro's first feature film was Na Primavera da Vida (1926), in which Cornello's daughter Eva Nil took the lead role. Since the beginning of his career, Humberto Mauro has not only directed, but was also frequently involved in the script, setting and lighting of his films and appeared in small roles or stood behind the camera himself.

His second feature film Thesouro Perdido (1927), in which Mauro's wife had her only film appearance under the pseudonym Lola Lys, was named the best Brazilian film of the year after successful screenings in Rio de Janeiro. The melodramatic adventure story was based on the style of American productions of the time. The success of the film brought new supporters and Mauro's society expanded and renamed Phebo Brazil Film. With the next film Braza Dormida , a jealous drama about the daughter of a sugar mill owner, Mauro developed his ability to cinematographically express emotion and tension. Cinematographer Edgar Brazil shot symbolic scenes against a naturalistic background, using close-up and the possibilities of film editing . Braza Dormida premiered in 1929, was distributed by Universal Pictures in Brazil, and was very successful commercially with its leading actors Luiz Soroa and Nita Ney . Mauro's last film for Phebo was released in the same year: Sangue Mineiro , a love triangle about the leading actress and co-producer Carmen Santos , is already considered an artistically mature work by Mauro because of its movable camera and natural landscape as well as its figure-based narrative style.

Despite his success for the Phebo company, it did not have the financial means to adapt its technology to the requirements of the emerging sound film . Mauro went to Rio de Janeiro to join producer Adhemar Gonzaga's newly founded film company Cinédia , where he shot Lábios sem Beijos , his last silent film, in 1930 , starring Lelita Rosa and Paulo Morano . The film is a romantic comedy about the relationship between a rich young woman and a poor "Don Juan". The magazine "Jornal do Brasil" voted him the best Brazilian film of 1930.

After Mauro worked as a cameraman for Octavio Gabus Mendes ' film Mulher (1931) and also took on a small acting role in it, he began producing Ganga bruta based on a story by Mendes at the end of 1931 . The film, completed in 1933, is considered to be of the best quality in all of Mauro's oeuvre and one of the best Brazilian films. He turned it to mute and added audio and dialogues that were recorded afterwards; some of the written dialogues are integrated into the film image. The main character of the film is the rich engineer Dr. Marcos, who killed his wife on their wedding night out of jealousy for her infidelity. After his release, Marcos falls in love with the young Sonia, who, however, is already engaged to another man. An affair develops between the two. When Sonia's fiancé finds out about this, he is furious and confronts Marcos in a fight in which he dies. Marcos marries Sonia. When it was released, the film went unnoticed by audiences and critics. Like Mário Peixoto's Limite two years earlier , Ganga Bruta with his narrative and film-technical innovations was not understood and ahead of his time, it was only more than two decades later that it was recognized as a masterpiece.

Mauro's last film for Cinédia was A Voz do Carnaval , a large-scale carnival musical. It was created in Koregie with Adhemar Gonzaga and shows, among many other artists, the singer Carmen Miranda in her first film appearance. In 1934 he went to Brasil Vita Films, the studio of Carmen Santos , and made a few documentaries and the two feature films Favela dos Meus Amores (1935) and Cidade Mulher (1936) with Santos in the lead role.

In 1936 Mauro followed Edgar Roquette-Pinto's call to the newly founded Instituto de Nacional do Cinema Educativo (INCE), where he made a total of 357 short educational and science films over the next few decades . During his time at INCE, he only made three feature films under his direction. The Brazilian national composer Heitor Villa-Lobos composed the film music for the historical epic O Descobrimento do Brasil, written in 1937, about Pedro Álvares Cabral's trip to South America in 1500 and his discovery of Brazil . After the romantic drama Argila (1940) with Carmen Santos in the lead role, the last major work was Mauros O Canto da Saudade (1952). He filmed it in his hometown and took on a leading role himself. Mauro's last documentary was made in 1974.

For filmmakers of the Cinema Novo such as Glauber Rocha and Nelson Pereira dos Santos , Humberto Mauro was regarded as a pioneer of their film movement. In particular, he worked for directors of the new Brazilian film in the 1970s. Mauro appeared in David Neves ' Memória de Helena (1969), wrote dialogues for Pereira dos Santos' Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês (1971) and Paulo Cesar Saracenis Anchieto, José do Brasil (1978) and was co-author of Alex Viany's A Noiva da Cidade (1979).

Mauro was a member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1938.

His granddaughter Cláudia Mauro is an actress.

Filmography

Humberto Mauro has directed the following films:

  • 1926: Na Primavera da Vida
  • 1927: Thesouro Perdido
  • 1929: Braza Dormida
  • 1929: Sangue Mineiro
  • 1930: Lábios sem Beijos
  • 1933: Ganga bruta
  • 1933: A Voz do Carnaval
  • 1935: Favela dos Meus Amores
  • 1936: Cidade Mulher
  • 1937: O Descobrimento do Brasil
  • 1940: Argila
  • 1952: O Canto da Saudade

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:187998 and http://www.gildasattic.com/mauro.html
  2. ↑ http://www.brazzil.com/pages/p12oct98.htm
  3. ↑ http://abcine.org.br/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=107&Itemid=133&limit=1&limitstart=1
  4. ↑ http://educacao.uol.com.br/biografias/ult1789u653.jhtm
personal data
SURNAME Mauro, Humberto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mauro, Humberto Duarte (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian film director
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Volta Grande , Minas Gerais
DATE OF DEATH 5th November 1983
Place of death Volta Grande , Minas Gerais