At a lecture last Friday evening on Cinema Nova, Udigrudi and Tropicalia, NYU Professor Robert Stam mentioned that Criterion will be releasing Macunaíma, the 1969 Cinema Novo classic by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade. He showed clips from a beautifully restored DVD copy of the film that he said was given to him by the family of the filmmaker.

Stam is a reliable source as he has provided commentaries for the Criterion edition of Contempt and an interview for Jules and Jim. He mentioned that every time he's worked with Criterion he's pressured them to release Macunaíma, and it looks as if they've come around.

Stam has also written two of the authoritative books on Brazilian cinema, Brazilian Cinema (w/ Randal Johnson) and Tropical Multiculturalism.

That said, I can't believe this will be the first Brazilian film in the collection.

Fantastic news. Cinema Novo is an extremely rich and underappreciated movement, and a Criterion release will help give those films some long-overdue profile. Here's hoping they're also looking into some Rocha.

FUCKING GREAT NEWS! I can't believe Criterion is releasing this! Talk about a dream come true!

Brazilian Cinema Novo truly deserves better recognition. This release will be tremendous! Now I can only hope for an eventual Criterion DVD of Anselmo Duarte's The Given Word.

Oh, and did somebody mention GLAUBER FUCKING ROCHA?

edit: zedz beat me to a few seconds!

The Rocha films are currently being released one by one in excellent editions by Rocha's family in Brazil. The films have undergone meticulous restorations.

"Black God, White Devil" was released last year, "Land In Anguish" this year (including the short "Maranhão 66)", "Antonio Das Mortes" is scheduled for next year.

From what I heard, they own the rights and are holding off on licensing them in hopes of increasing sales of their editions. You can order them from Amazon. I would encourage everyone to do so in hopes that they'll eventually get to "The Lion Has Seven Heads."

I did know about that (I own the brazilian edition of Black God, White Devil and plan on buying Land in Anguish sometime in the near future) but I did not know about Antonio das Mortes -- that is some great news!

As for international releases, France recently had a retrospective of Rocha's films in July of this year so I expect that its current distibutor there, Films Sans Frontieres, will eventually come around to releasing them on DVD too. Link to official site.

And I can confirm that Cameo in Spain will be releasing Rocha's better know films starting next year. Link to news.

So I guess it's only a matter of time before they begin surfacing on R1. Hopefully Criterion is already way ahead of us all on that one.

The Black God, White Devil disc is beautiful, but no subs on the copious extras. Der leone have sept cabecas (sorry, just wanted to type that!) is reportedly a wonderful film, but I've never had the chance to see it.

As far as I know, New Yorker's decent disc of dos Santos' Vidas Secas is the only readily available R1 Cinema Novo title. It's a good place to start.

Ok, already did some quick searching and found that The Given Word is already out on DVD in Brazil. No english subs but that is ok with me. What bugs me is that absolutely no extras were compiled for this Cannes Palm d'Or winner.

One other surprise is that Macunaima is getting a DVD release in Brazil this month! And with english subs! How's that?

By the way, this link here for the Land in Anguish DVD says that the extras are also subtitled in english, which is fantastic for all of you out there who don't speak the language of Camões.

I'm happy about Macunaima. I have not seen this, but read a lot of great things about the Brazilian Nova movement. I'm glad Criterion is looking into negleged latin cinema.

The Given Word is a fucking masterpiece. That's all.

Lino (or anyone), is that the same 2-disc set you can buy from Amazon here? The covers look a little different, so it would be nice if someone could verify. I'd like to take the plunge with Rocha, but since I know very little about the Nova movement, some English-subbed extras that help contextualize the film would be most welcome.

Yes, that's the one though that Amazon price is prohibitive! I'm sure you'll find better prices elsewhere. Oh, and please don't say "Nova" movement -- it's Cinema Novo.

Here's what Wikipedia says about Macunaíma. I actually have the book this film was based on. It was written by Mário de Andrade and it employs a very inovative kind of writing, mixing all sorts of languages and inventing new words while doing that. The closest thing in english literature you can find is Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. Fortunately, they both included a glossary at the end of their books!

That's what I get for rushing to make an 8:00 movie on TV.

Many thanks for the info, Lino. Will try to locate a cheaper price so as to wallow in "Cinema Novo."

I have to thank you for mentioning his book because I had it on my to-buy list for ages and I finally got it. It's a fantastic book and probably the most authorative and indispensable piece of writing on Brazil's Cinema Novo movement and ideologies. In fact, it's so rich in information that I'm taking notes as I'm reading it.

In short, it sort of justifies my personal feeling that Cinema Novo was a much more exciting cinematic experiment than the Nouvelle Vague and Free Cinema (or any other 60's film movement, for that matter) ever were. Brazil has really got some amazing films in its filmography just waiting to be rediscovered by the DVD generation.

Hey, I think I almost agree with you (but the Japanese New Wave trumps them all). Hopefully we're at the start of a period when all of these great, overlooked movements come out of the digital closet and can be properly reassessed.

Meanwhile, Carlotta Films in France has released last year The Complete Works of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade and in the review here you can see that ALL the movies come with English subs on them! So, if you're tired of waiting for an eventual Criterion edition of Macunaíma, why not spring for the whole set and save some substantial bucks?

Consider yourself warned.

Assessment is what is needed. I'd love to see more films from all these movements and Japanese and Latin are on the top of my list. Let's hope that the 'start' of the digital closet's doors opening open a little faster.

It's depressing to see that that comment was posted the year before last.

I wonder if this is him (http://cinema.tisch.nyu.edu/object/StamR.html) and if contacted (the e-mail listed) he can tell us what happened to this (if he is still in touch with Criterion).



Add 4 more years to that.

Yes, that's him. He's written a fair amount on Brazilian Cinema.

Thanks. I'm just curious if that e-mail could be used for a question like this, as it seems to be his school e-mail. Would be kind of weird.