By AFRANIO CATANI*
Commentary on industrial cinema in São Paulo in the 1950s
1.
Cinema also participated in the cultural and artistic effervescence observed in the city of São Paulo after 1945, when we saw the birth of two art museums, a high-level theater company, the multiplication of concerts, art schools, conferences, seminars, exhibitions, magazines for the dissemination of art and culture, the creation of a film library, the construction of a modern entertainment venue and the inauguration of an international biennial of visual arts.
The emergence of the Vera Cruz Cinematographic Company in 1949, supported by the financial elite of São Paulo and with the interest of the intellectuals of the time, led to the creation of two other large companies, the Maristela Cinematographic Company and Multifilmes (Kino Filmes, in its short life, used Maristela's studios), in addition to allowing and encouraging the emergence of several so-called “independent” producers.
It is also worth mentioning the development, in the 1950s, of an entire apparatus of legitimization and cultural diffusion in the cinematographic area, highlighting, among others, film clubs, competitions, awards, festivals, congresses, legislation, commissions and working groups, specialized publications, critics and class associations.
2.
Led by the Audrá family (industrialists, landowners, transport companies, etc.), the Companhia Cinematográfica Maristela (Ltda. and, later, SA) emerged in 1950 on the trails opened by Vera Cruz a little less than a year earlier, trying to imitate it. A large production apparatus was set up and almost 30 million cruzeiros were spent.
Large studios were set up in the distant neighborhood of Jaçanã, a considerable permanent staff was hired (around one hundred and fifty actors and technicians, many of whom were of foreign origin), intense social activity was carried out with journalists, critics, filmmakers and producers (both national and foreign), a reasonable propaganda machine was set up and four or five films were produced: these were the main characteristics of the first phase of the work developed by the Audrá family and Mário Civelli (1923-1973) – evidently, with less brilliance, worldliness, pomp and fanfare than Vera Cruz.
The return on capital was not as expected and the situation was resolved by the company's management with the dismissal of more than a hundred employees: the first phase of Maristela's activities came to an end (late 1950 to mid-1951), having produced in its studios Presence of Anita (1951) Suzana and the President (1951) The Buyer of Farms (1951) and My Destiny is to Sin (1952), in addition to renting equipment to filmmakers The meat (1952)
In the second phase (late 1951 and part of 1952) only Simon the One-Eyed (1952), directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, was produced by Maristela. In addition to him, gravel (1952) and the bag (1953) also ended with equipment rented from the Jaçanã studios. Despite not having made a loss, the box office reached with Simão was far from the minimum necessary to amortize the losses accumulated in the first phase.
Thus, the Audrá family decided to sell their studios and equipment to a new company that was being formed, Kino Filmes, headed by filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti and a group of capitalists. However, Kino also failed to go much further: Cavalcanti directed only two films, The Song of the Sea (1953) and Real Woman (1954), failing commercially in both. The Kino board of directors, unable to continue paying the installments stipulated in the contract signed with the former owners of Maristela, returned the property and its other assets. This phase covered the end of 1952, the whole of 1953 and some months of 1954.
1954: Marinho Audrá (1921-2004), the youngest son of the Audrá family and the one who launched them into the film business, finally manages to manage Maristela without interference from his relatives. This was the most dynamic phase of the company, in which seven films were produced or co-produced in 1954, 1955 and 1956 – Green Magic (1955) Carnival in A Major (1955) Bloody Hands (1955) Who Killed Anabela? (1956), Getulio, Glory and Drama of a People (1956) D. Estela's Pension (1956) and Five Songs (1955), in addition to Leonora of the Seven Seas (1955) and The Three Prospectors (1955), from “independent” producers.
This third phase was a true “anything goes” situation, as international films were co-produced, and in most cases Maristela did not pay any money, participating with its assets and technical staff. Another significant change was also observed: Marinho allied himself with Columbia, handing over the distribution of his films to them, as the alternatives for producers to reach movie theaters were practically nonexistent, since Columbia, Universal and UCB, the latter owned by Severiano Ribeiro Jr. (also involved in the trusts) dominated the market.
Closer contact with Columbia led to a co-production contract being signed in 1957 for four films, of which only two – I married a Xavante (1958) and I'll tell you (1958) – came to fruition. Apart from these, Red Macaw (1957) Rio North Zone (1957) and The Big Moment (1958) had a small participation by Maristela.
Maristela, which began its activities as a shadow of Vera Cruz, gradually followed its own path, which it fully achieved in the third phase, mentioned in the previous lines. Quick and cheap comedies, national and international co-productions (the latter with a guaranteed market, so that the costs were recovered in the short or medium term), commissioned films and the rental of studios and equipment can be characterized as the tone of this path.
The deal ends up failing after a certain point, among other reasons, due to the policy that the cinematographic trusts developed in the country, fighting for the freezing of ticket prices for years on end, sending their profits abroad at the official dollar exchange rate – quoted at Cr$ 18,80, while the dollar on the parallel exchange rate was close to Cr$ 100,00.
Therefore, it was unthinkable for any production company that operated in the “traditional” format (with studios to be maintained and preserved; cast and exclusive technicians, who received salaries whether they worked or not), survive, counting almost exclusively on the domestic market to obtain the return on the capital employed. Symptomatically, an “independent production”, as The Big Moment, was completed in 1958 (the year in which Maristela closed its activities) and Nélson Pereira dos Santos was its main producer, renting studios, paying the actors based on their box office share and arranging with others some necessary equipment. Paradoxically, Marinho Audrá was one of the film's producers.
In fact, the “losses” accumulated by Maristela over the years were much smaller than those faced by Franco Zampari at Vera Cruz and Anthony Assunção at Multifilmes. In 1958, when he terminated the co-production contract that tied him to Columbia, Marinho sold the land in Jaçanã and continued working as a cultural producer: part of his company’s sound equipment was used in the creation, together with some friends, of Grava-Som, a pioneering company in the dubbing of films for television – later, Grava-Som joined forces with a subsidiary of Columbia, becoming known as AIC. He also set up the first laboratory to work in color in Brazil, called Policrom, which was later sold to Líder. In the early 1960s, he lived in Spain with his wife Ana Esmeralda, an actress and dancer, unsuccessfully trying to get an international co-production of yerma, by Garcia Lorca.
3.
Multifilmes SA came into being thanks to the seduction and smooth talk shown by Mário Civelli, a former producer in the first phase of Cinematográfica Maristela, to Anthony Assunção, in mid-1952. At the time of the creation of Multifilmes, Assunção was 51 years old, a farmer, vice-president of an automobile assembly plant, owner of a radio and soft drink industry, a chain of home appliance stores and a large real estate holding.
From 1952 to 1954, Multifilmes produced the following films: Model 19 (1952) Destiny in Trouble (1953) Fatality (1953) The Parrot Man (1953) A Life for Two (1953) The Crack (1954) The mother-in-law (1954) Flames in the Coffee Plantation (1954) and the co-production with Atlântida, The other side of Man (1954)
In 1952, Multifilmes acquired filming equipment, began producing films whose box office grossed less than the investment, and, in July 1952, began construction of the Mairiporã studios. By mid-1953, with a declared capital of 15 million cruzeiros, the company had already invested almost twice as much in facilities, equipment, and production. In July 1953, “The Great City of Cinema” already had around 200 employees, 25 buildings, and boasted of being “the only company in Brazil that had modern machinery for color filming.”
Following the example of Vera Cruz, Multifilmes aims to be a “school for filmmakers”, producing, in addition to commercial feature films, “non-profit cultural documentaries”, which will serve as an initiation for future Brazilian filmmakers, “constituting opportunities for our teams to continually improve their technical capabilities”.
O cast The film industry brought together, among others, Procópio Ferreira, Paulo Autran, Beatriz Consuelo, Hélio Souto, Orlando Vilar, Jaime Barcelos, Luigi Picchi, Ludy Veloso, Armando Couto, Elísio de Albuquerque and Inezita Barroso.
After a series of box office failures, Multifilmes' financial situation was delicate at the beginning of 1954. The company underwent successive restructurings, but the results continued to be unfavorable. At this time, the company launched Flames in the Coffee Plantation, a drama directed by José Carlos Burle (cast: Angelika Hauff, Guido Lazarini, Luigi Picchi, Áurea Cardoso). The production dragged on well beyond the scheduled deadline, doing nothing to improve the situation of Multifilmes.
Anthony Assunção personally assumes all the company's debts, despite it being a public limited company, selling a farm, several buildings in the city center and getting rid of other businesses. From that moment on, Multifilmes abandons independent production and, like Maristela, tries to survive by renting studios and equipment and also participating in co-productions that do not involve spending money. Thus, several co-productions are announced, but the only one that is carried out is The Other Face of Man (1954), co-produced with Atlântida from Rio de Janeiro and directed by JB Tanko (cast: Renato Restier, Eliana Macedo, John Herbert, Carlos Tovar).
Multifilmes is slowly dying. There are no mass layoffs, but artists and technicians are being laid off as their contracts expire. The equipment is being sold in small batches and the company's activities suffer long periods of inactivity, until they come to a complete standstill. However, Anthony Assunção (as well as the Audrás) saw their land in Mairiporã increase in value.[1]
*Afrânio Catani He is a retired professor at the Faculty of Education at USP and is currently a senior professor at the same institution. Visiting professor at the Faculty of Education at UERJ (Duque de Caxias campus).
References
BERNARDET, Jean-Claude. The enemy brothers. The 50s. In: GALVÃO, Maria Rita & BERNARDET, Jean-Claude. Cinema. Repercussions in the box and ideological echo (the ideas of “national” and “popular” in Brazilian cinematic thought). New York: Embrafilme, 1983.
CATANI, Afranio Mendes. The shadow of the other: Cinematográfica Maristela and cinema industrialist from São Paulo in the 50s. New York: Routledge, 2002.
CATANI, Afrânio Mendes. Industrial adventure and São Paulo cinema (1930-1955). In: RAMOS, Fernao (Org.). History of Brazilian Cinema. São Paulo: Art Editora, 1987, p. 189-297.
DUARTE, B.J. In the dull light of the rising day (v.1). Image hunters (v. 2). Sciatic lamp: flirtations with medicine (v. 3) – Chronicles of Memory. New York: Routledge, 1982.
DUARTE, B.J. Cinema in Sao Paulo (1946-1956). Typed, n/a.
GALVÃO, Maria Rita. Vera Cruz Cinematographic Company: the dream factory (A study on industrial film production in São Paulo). (Doctoral Thesis). São Paulo, FFLCH/USP; 5 v., 1975.
GALVÃO, Maria Rita. Bourgeoisie and cinema: the Vera Cruz case. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization/Embrafilme, 1981.
VIANY, Alex. Introduction to Brazilian cinema. New York: Routledge, 1959.
Note
[1] Originally published in DO Reading (São Paulo, Imprensa Oficial do Estado, 19 (111), August 1991, p. 11. The text is a recovery of the lecture given on July 28, 1989 in the course “Formação do Cinema Brasileiro”, promoted by the State Secretariat of Culture, under the coordination of the Cinemateca Brasileira. I would like to thank Rudá de Andrade (1930-2009) for the invitation made on that occasion. Republished in Afrânio Mendes Catani. History of Brazilian Cinema: 4 essays. New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 90-96.
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