Nelson Pereira dos Santos

Nelson Pereira dos Santos (b. 22 October 1928 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian movie director. He directed movies such as Vidas Secas (Barren Lives), based on the book with the same name by Brazilian writer Graciliano Ramos. He also directed Rio 40°(his first feature film) which was released in 1955. The film is a chronicle of life in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and it influenced several other directors, spurring the Cinema Novo moment.

His most well-known film outside of Brazil is Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês (How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, 1971). It was entered into the 21st Berlin International Film Festival.^[1] The film takes place in the sixteenth century and details the alleged cannibalistic practices of the (now extinct) indigenous Tupinamba warrior tribe against the French and Portuguese colonizers of the Brazilian littoral. The film is something of a black comedy about European colonialism—one that makes satirical use of the Brazilian modernist trope of Antropofagia ("cultural cannibalism"), then recently revived by the Tropicalismo movement of the 1960s—as well as a bitter commentary on the historical genocide of the indigenous tribes in Latin America and the gradual destruction of their civilization.

Recently, dos Santos has started production on a movie called Brasília 18%, which explores some of the darker aspects of contemporary Brazilian politics such as political corruption, the murder of trial witnesses, and money laundering.

Santos belongs to the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2006.

Selected filmography

• Rio 40 Graus (1955)
• Barren Lives (1963)
• Hunger for Love (1968)
• The Alienist (1970)
• How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (1971)
• The Amulet of Ogum (1974)
• Tenda dos Milagres (1977)
• Memórias do Cárcere (1984)

Bibliography

• Darlene J. Sadlier: Nelson Pereira dos Santos (Contemporary Film Directors), University of Illinois Press, 2003, ISBN 0252071123

References

1. ^ "IMDB.com: Awards for How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman". imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066936/awards. Retrieved 2010-03-13. 

External links

• Nelson Pereira dos Santos Bio-Filmography at Senses of Cinema by Hudson Moura
• Nelson Pereira dos Santos at the Internet Movie Database
• Description of dos Santos by Ephraim Katz

Preceded by Sérgio Correia da Costa

Brazilian Academy of Letters - Occupant of the 7th chair 2006 — present

Succeeded by TBD

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Name	Santos, Nelson Pereira dos
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Date of birth	1928-10-22
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