José Álvaro Morais

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José Álvaro Morais (born September 2, 1943 in Coimbra , † January 30, 2004 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese film director .

Career

He broke off his medical studies in Lisbon to devote himself entirely to cinema. He was active as a student in the film club movement, as a member of the CCUL ( Cineclube Universitário de Lisboa ). He switched to the active side of cinema as an assistant to António-Pedro Vasconcelos when he turned to directing in 1967. Morais went to Belgium from 1969 to 1974, where he studied film at the Institut Nationale Supérieur des Arts du Spéctacle (INSAS). He shot his first short films there.

After the Carnation Revolution , he returned to Portugal in 1975, where he worked for the state television network RTP . In 1976 he joined the Centro Português de Cinema .

With his first full feature film O Bobo (Eng: "The Fool"), about the last days of rehearsal of a theater performance of Alexandre Herculano 's play of the same name, he won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 1987 . After an excessively long production period from 1979 to 1987, the film was only released in Portuguese cinemas in 1991 due to distribution problems.

His last film was Quaresma ("Lent"), with Beatriz Batarda , Filipe Cary and Rita Durão in the leading roles. Produced by Paulo Branco and with music by Bernardo Sassetti , it was shot in Denmark and Portugal and was featured in the 2003 Cannes Film Festival program .

In 2004 Morais died after a long illness.

reception

The central theme at Morais was the human being, trapped in his environment. The film critic Luís Miguel Oliveira wrote in his dossier on the Quaresma film in Cannes 2003: "And the question, the big question in all of José Álvaro Morais' films, always remains one: what kind of country is it that people with such a people Strength and want to let them flee at the same time? " ( "E a pergunta, a grande pergunta de todos os filmes de José Álvaro de Morais mantém-se: que país é este, que agarra as pessoas com tanta força ao mesmo tempo que lhes dá vontade de fugir?" ). Torn people in an environment that was captivating in every respect were increasingly the hallmarks of his work. His films O Bobo and Zéfiro made people sit up and take notice , Peixe Lua ( Festival des Filmes du Monde in Montreal) and most recently Quaresma (Cannes) aroused hopes among friends of the sophisticated film for a future author of multi-layered cinematographic works of art. His early death prevented this.

Filmography

  • 2003: Quaresma
  • 2000: Peixe Lua
  • 1999: Os 25 Anos do Teatro da Cornucópia (documentary)
  • 1993: Zéfiro
  • 1987: O Bobo
  • 1976: Ma Femme Chamada Bicho (documentary)
  • 1975: Cantigamente Nº3 (TV)
  • 1975: Domus de Bragança (documentary)
  • 1972: El Dia Que me Quieras (short film)
  • 1972: The upper room (short film)

literature

  • A.Murtinheira & I. Metzeltin “History of Portuguese Cinema” 1st edition, Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2010 ISBN 978-3-7069-0590-9
  • Jorge Leitao Ramos "Dicionário do cinema portugués 1962 - 1988" 1st edition, Editorial Caminho, Lisbon 1989 (page 268)

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A.Murtinheira & I. Metzeltin "History of Portuguese Cinema" 1st edition, Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2010, page 122
  2. ↑ http://www.commeaucinema.com/showbiz/le-realisateur-portugais-jose-alvaro-morais-est-decede,26817
personal data
SURNAME Morais, José Álvaro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Álvaro de Morais, José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese film director
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Coimbra
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 2004
Place of death Lisbon