Cinema

Rio 40º (1955)

The daily life of Rio de Janeiro captured through the eyes of neorealism. Five boys who earn their living with street stalls serve as the link for various intertwined stories, against the backdrop of the football stadium of Maracanã, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Copacabana beach, the Quinta da Boa Vista and a shanty-town. With this simple and generous chronicle, openly influenced by postwar Italian cinema, Nelson Pereira dos Santos proved that it was possible to produce more home grown films, more cheaply, in Brazil. It is not for nothing that he is considered to be the precursor of the Cinema Novo (New Wave Cinema).

(Production, direction and script: Nelson Pereira dos Santos. Photography: Hélio Silva. Music: Radamés Gnatalli. Cast: Jece Valadão, Glauce Rocha, Roberto Batalin, Claudia Moreno, Antonio Novais, Ana Beatriz, Modesto de Souza, Jackson de Souza, Zé Kéti, Sady Cabral. Length: 105 minutes.