"BRAZILIAN
FILM DICTIONARY"
PIONEER
INITIATIVE RESCUES THE MEMORY OF CINEMA IN BRAZIL
The
publishing market has given Brazilian cinema a new
and impressive encyclopedic project. It is "Dicionário
de Filmes Brasileiros" for features made from
1908 on. It brings 3.883 entries with the rare register
of films since the first silent movies, and including
unfinished projects and some that were being produced
until the closing of the edition. The author of this
great un-supported and un-sponsored deed is Antônio
Leão da Silva Neto.
A
most remarkable fact in Leão's book is the
careful detailing of the technical features of each
film and a synopsis always presenting elegant impartial
texts. With no prejudice of genders, regions or creative
periods in Brazilian cinema, the book is an encyclopedia-making
lesson. An equal treatment privileges just as much
rough pornographic productions such as "O Bacanal
na Ilha da Fantasia", by Hércules Breseguelo,
an explicit sex 1982 production, as "Central
Station", by Walter Salles, the greatest success
of Brazilian cinema in the 90's. He adds, when existent,
national and international awards and comments taken
off other publications. And at the end allows a classification
of the films produced in Brazil year by year.
The
foreword written by the critic Rubens Ewald Filho
says "Thanks God there are cinema fans! "And
Rubens Ewald continues: "If it wasn't for them,
the memory of movies and the History of Cinema itself
would be infinitely poorer… This book you will
see is, absurd as it might seem, a unique case in
the history of our Brazilian research."
"Sounds
amazing, but up to now there wasn't in Brazil a register
of titles of films produced and shown here… Antônio
Leão da Silva Neto's work is unique, pioneer
and has the most remarkable importance."
And
beware all of you interested in Leão's very
important dictionary. Its first edition, comprising
944 pages, had a modest publishing of only one thousand
copies. Run not to miss it. It can be ordered at the
site www.2001video.com.br.
Fred Botelho, one of the 2001's owners, is involved
in the project of the book since its maturing phase
and highlights the importance of the release at a
moment when we celebrate the rebirth and improvement
of cinema in Brazil, also with a good international
repercussion. Contacts with the authors, that come
to greet him, by the e-mail: leao.n@terra.com.br
Leon
Cakoff, for 'Jornal
da Mostra
O
cinema brasileiro ganha no mercado editorial um projeto enciclopédico
de impressionante fôlego. É o "Dicionário
de Filmes Brasileiros" para longas-metragens realizados a
partir de 1908. São 3.883 verbetes com o raro registro
de filmes desde os pioneiros mudos, incluindo ainda projetos inacabados
ou ainda em produção até o fechamento da
sua edição. O autor desta façanha sem qualquer
suporte financeiro ou patrocínios é Antônio
Leão da Silva Neto.
