José Fonseca e Costa
José da Fonseca Costa (born June 27, 1933 in Vila Robert Williams , Angola , † November 1, 2015 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese film director .
Career
He grew up in Angola and came to Lisbon when he was 11 . Even as a teenager he was interested in the cinema and was active in film clubs early on , especially in the Cineclube Imagem , of which he became a member. He broke off his law studies in order to devote himself entirely to cinema. He also became politically active from the late 1950s after he got to know the underground independence movements of the Portuguese colonies . In 1957 he was briefly detained by the PIDE secret police . In 1958 he was involved in the election campaign for the candidacy of the opposition Humberto Delgado . At about the same time he applied for a position as assistant director for the state television broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). He passed the recruitment test but was not recruited after PIDE intervention.
As a result, he stayed more often in Paris , where he made friends with young film critics, including Claude Chabrol , Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and other editors of the Cahiers du cinéma . He worked for the Portuguese publishing house Arcádia , for which he translated, among others, Cesare Pavese and Eisenstein . In 1961 he went to Italy to assist Michelangelo Antonioni with the filming of Liebe 1962 (in the orig. "L'Eclisse"). He then returned to Portugal, where he worked as a commercial filmmaker and made his first short films.
In 1969 he co-founded the film collective Centro Português de Cinema , for which he was able to shoot his first feature film with O Recado (Eng .: “The Message”). After the Carnation Revolution in 1974 he shot a documentary for the RTP about Georges Moustaki's visit to Portugal to celebrate the coup, but still without being employed by the RTP. In 1975 he made his second feature film, Os Demónios de Alcácer Quibir (Eng: "The Demons of Ksar-el-Kebir "), a political work in the style of the Portuguese Novo Cinemas .
With the onset of disillusionment after the Carnation Revolution, the discussion among Portuguese filmmakers about “cinema as entertainment” or “cinema as art with a social mission” intensified. The filmmakers freed from censorship were, contrary to expectations, unable to inspire a wide audience with their committed works after the revolution. The one defined cinema henceforth as a means of expression of the avant-garde . For the others, the film had to serve as entertainment as well as food for thought and was never allowed to separate itself from the audience of its own country. Fonseca e Costa took this route and landed a great audience success in 1981 with his action- and humor-laden film Kilas, o Mau da Fita .
His 1983 film Sem Sombra de Pecado (German: “Without a shadow of sin”), based on the story E aos costumes disse nada by David Mourão-Ferreira , caused a sensation, especially through the work of the cameraman Eduardo Serra , who subsequently became his international career strengthened. Fonseca e Costa made another film with Serra in 1988, A Mulher do Próximo (Eng: "The Wife of the Neighbor"), which won an award at the Huelva Film Festival .
1996 filmed Fonseca e Costa with Cinco Dias, Cinco Noites (Engl .: "Five days, five nights') the novel of the same name by Manuel Tiago, one in 1995 resolved literary pseudonym of Alvaro Cunhal , the resistance fighter and longtime chairman of the Portuguese Communist Party ( PCP). The Franco-Portuguese co-production ran at various festivals (including Toronto IFF ) and received various awards, including a. for the music of António Pinho Vargas . With his Brazilian-Portuguese production Viuva Rica Solteira Não Fica (German: "rich widowed does not stay alone for long") he once again won the audience's approval. In March 2012, the film is still among the 40 most-watched Portuguese films since 2003. Most recently, he filmed Os Mistérios de Lisboa or What the Tourist Should See, the Lisbon travel guide of the same name by Fernando Pessoa from 1925 , which was only discovered in 1988 and written in English With speakers in 7 different audio tracks (including Peter Coyote and Imanol Arias , German by Guilherme Dutschke ) and an exclusive Fado by Duarte , he shows the places described at that time in today's Lisbon in elaborate aerial and close-up shots. The film was made under the patronage of President Aníbal Cavaco Silva .
In 2007 Fonseca e Costa staged the play Pequenos Crimes Conjugais (German: "Small crimes in marriage") at the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II for the first time at the theater . In spring 2012 he staged again at the theater, this time O Libertino by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt (orig .: “Le Libertin”, German: “The Free Spirit”) at the Teatro da Trindade in Lisbon, with lighting by Eduardo Serra.
reception
Together with names such as António-Pedro Vasconcelos , António da Cunha Telles or Luís Galvão Teles , Fonseca e Costa opted for a cinema that only continued the themes of the Novo Cinema, but made it easier for the general public to access in terms of visual language and structure. The sometimes great success in the Portuguese cinemas proved Fonseca e Costa right, but comparable international successes were denied him.
In terms of its audience orientation, the narrative and cinematic innovation remained limited compared to directors who received more international awards. However, he offered good pictures and placed value on a good script with a relevant topic in his films. So he stayed true to the ideals of Novo Cinema in this regard. His work earned him respect from the cineastes of his country. In 2009 he was honored at the Fantasporto film festival for his life's work, but also for his critical spirit.
Filmography
|
|
literature
- Jorge Leitão Ramos : Dicionário de Cinema Português 1962–1988. Editorial Caminho, Lisbon 1989, ISBN 972-21-0446-2 .
- Jorge Leitão Ramos: Dicionário de Cinema Português 1989-2003. Editorial Caminho, Lisbon 2006, ISBN 972-21-1763-7 .
Web links
- José Fonseca e Costa in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- File (as of 2008) from José Fonseca e Costa at the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores (SPA) (PDF; 170 kB)
- Detailed interview with José Fonseca e Costa (port.)
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Morreu este domingo José Fonseca e Costa
- ↑ A. Murtinheira, I. Metzeltin: "History of Portuguese Cinema". 1st edition, Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2010, page 116.
- ↑ IMDb
- ↑ ica-ip.pt ( Memento of the original from July 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 237 kB)
- ↑ dn.pt ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Supplement to the DVD edition of the film Os Mistérios de Lisboa / What the Tourist Should See , JFC Films 2009.
- ↑ canelaehortela.com or Jorge Leitão Ramos: Dicionário de Cinema Português 1962–1988. Editorial Caminho, Lisbon 1989, page 106ff.
- ↑ Jorge Leitão Ramos Dicionário de Cinema Português 1989–2003 Editorial Caminho, Lisbon 2006, page 169f. or biography on movies.nytimes.com
- ↑ jpn.icicom.up.pt ( Memento of the original from August 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fonseca e Costa, José |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fonseca Costa, José da (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese film director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 27, 1933 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vila Robert Williams , Angola |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 1, 2015 |
| Place of death | Lisbon |