In 1930, still the era of the silent movie in Brazil, Mario Peixoto's film Limit (Limite) was made. Limite is a surrealistic work dealing with the conflicts raised by the human condition and how life conspires to prevent total fulfillment. It is considered a landmark film in Brazilian cinema history. In 1933 Cinédia produced The Voice of Carnival, the first film with Carmen Miranda. This film ushered in the chanchada which dominated Brazilian cinema for many years. Chanchadas are slapstick comedies, generally filled with musical numbers, and thoroughly appreciated by the public.
By the end of the 1940's Brazilian film making was becoming an industry. The Vera Cruz Film Company was created in São Paulo with the goal of producing films of international quality. It hired technicians from abroad and brought back from Europe Alberto Cavalcanti, a Brazilian filmmaker with an international reputation, to head the company. Vera Cruz produced some important films before it closed in 1954, among them the epic The Brigand (O Cangaceiro) which won the "Best Adventure Film" award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953. In the 1950's, Brazilian cinema radically changed the way it made films. In his 1955 film, Rio 40 Degrees (Rio 40 Graus), director Nelson Pereira dos Santos employed the filmmaking techniques of Italian neorealism by using ordinary people as his actors and by going to the streets to shoot his low budget film. Nelson Pereira dos Santos would become one of the most important Brazilian filmmakers of all time, and it is he who set the stage for the Brazilian cinema novo movement. Other directors went outdoors to shoot, and production of films increased. In 1962, The Payer of Vows (O Pagador de Promessas) by Anselmo Duarte won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. By this time cinema novo had established a new concept in Brazilian filmmaking - an idea in mind and a camera in the hands. The cinema novo films dealt with themes related to acute national problems, from conflicts in rural areas to human problems in the large cities, as well as film versions of important Brazilian novels. Barren Lives (Vidas Secas), directed by Pereira dos Santos, is based on a novel by Graciliano Ramos. It tells the story of a northeastern family chased from their home by drought. God and The Devil in the Land of the Sun (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol) by director Glauber Rocha deals in an allegorical way with religious and political fanaticism in Brazil's northeast. Empty Night (Noite Vazia), goes back to urban, intimate themes depicting the anguish of lonely people living in industrial São Paulo. At the end of the 1960's, the Tropicalist movement had taken hold of the music, theatre, and art scenes in Brazil. It emphasized the need to transform all foreign influences into a national product. Cinema also came under its spell; allegory was its means of expression. The most representative film of the Tropicalist movement is Macunaíma, by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, a metaphorical analysis of the Brazilian character as expressed in the tale of a native Indian who leaves the Amazon jungle and goes to the big city. The film is based on Mario de Andrade's 1922 novel of the same name.
Working at the same time as the Tropicalists, another group of directors emerged in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro who also made low cost films. This movement - cinema marginal - produced films with themes that refer to a marginal society. Their films were considered "difficult". Noteworthy among these films are Rio Babylon (Rio Babilônia) by Neville d'Almeida, He Killed the Family and Went to the Movies (Matou a Família e foi ao Cimema) by Júlio Bressane, and The Red Light Bandit (O Bandido da Luz Vermelha) by Rogério Sganzerla.
The Government film agency, EMBRAFILME, created in 1969, was responsible for the co-production, financing, and distribution of a large percentage of films in the 1970's and 1980's. (EMBRAFILME ceased operations in 1990.) EMBRAFILME added a commercial dimension to the film industry and made it possible for it to move on to more ambitious projects. Among the acclaimed films of the mid 1970's were Pereira do Santos's Ogum's Amulet (Amuleto de Ogum) about candomblé and Joaquim Pedro de Andrade's Connubial War (Guerra Conjugal). In a series of sketches, Connubial War, based on a short story by Dalton Trevisan, relates the humor and travails of married life. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Dona Flor e seus Dois Maridos), directed by Bruno Barreto, was an international success. Based on the novel by Jorge Amado, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands is a delightful story about a widow living a triangular affair with her second husband and her deceased husband's spirit.
In the 1980's movies were not well attended. This was due in part to the popularity of television. Many theatres closed their doors, especially in the interior of the country. Nevertheless, some important films were made. Many were concerned with political questions: They Don't Wear Black-Tie (Eles não Usam Black-Tie), 1981, directed by Leon Hirzman, tells the story of a strike in the industrial area of São Paulo; Memories of Prison (Memórias do Cárcere), 1984, by Nelson Pereira dos Santos and based on a book by Graciliano Ramos, portrays the life of political prisoners. One of the most outstanding films of the 1980's was The Hour of the Star (A Hora da Estrela), 1985, directed by Susana Amaral and based on a novel by Clarice Lispector. It relates the poignant story of an immigrant girl from the northeast in a big metropolis. Today many contemporary Brazilian films are being shown on television and in movie theatres all over the world.