DiedAugust 23, 1982, Paris, France MoviesDead of Night, Rien que les heures, Went the Day Well?, They Made Me a Fugitive, Song of the Sea Similar PeopleRobert Hamer, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Mervyn Johns, Michael Balcon
La p tite lili alberto cavalcanti 1927 avec catherine hessling et jean renoir
Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer.
Cinéconcert Alberto Cavalcanti - Rien que les heures, 1926 (extrait)
Early life
Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. He was a precociously intelligent child, and by the age of 15 was studying law at university. Following an argument with a professor he was expelled. His father sent him to Geneva, Switzerland on condition that he did not study law or politics. Cavalcanti chose to study architecture instead. At 18 he moved to Paris to work for an architect, later switching to working on interior design. After a visit back to Brazil he took up a position at the Brazilian consulate in Liverpool, England.
Cavalcanti corresponded with Marcel L'Herbier, a leading light in France's avant-garde film movement. This led to a job offer from L'Herbier for Cavalcanti to work as a set designer.
Film career
In 1920 Cavalcanti left his job at the Consulate and moved back to France to work for L'Herbier; he was to be involved in the making of numerous films, the most notable being L'Inhumaine. He was soon making his own films, in 1926 directing his first, Rien Que les Heures (Nothing But Time) — a day in the life of Paris and its citizens. In 1927 he collaborated with Walter Ruttmann on a similar project set in Berlin, called Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (Berlin: Symphony of a Big City). Cavalcanti took a job with Paramount's French studios after the talkies came in, but he found himself making more commercial films which could not hold his interest and left Paramount in 1933.
In the same year Cavalcanti returned to England to work for John Grierson's GPO Film Unit. He was involved in many capacities, from production to sound engineer. He was to spend seven years at the GPO Film Unit, working on many projects, most notably; Coal Face (1935), Night Mail (1936), Message to Geneva (1937), Four Barriers (1937), and Spare Time (1939). Much of Cavalcanti's work at the GPO was uncredited, he acted as a mentor to many new film makers, but in 1937 he was appointed acting head of the GPO Film Unit when Grierson left for Canada. When Cavalcanti was told that the only way the position could become permanent was to become a naturalized British citizen, he decided to leave the unit.
In 1940 Cavalcanti joined Ealing Studios, under the leadership of producer Michael Balcon. He worked as an art editor, producer and director. His most notable works of this period (many of them propaganda films) were Yellow Caesar (1941), Went the Day Well? (1942), Three Songs of Resistance (1943), Champagne Charlie (1944), Dead of Night (as co-director) (1945) and Nicholas Nickleby (1947). In 1946 Cavalcanti left Ealing over a dispute about money. He went on to direct three more films in the UK, before returning to Brazil in 1950.
In Brazil Cavalcanti worked as a producer for Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz; the company eventually became insolvent. After being blacklisted as a communist in Brazil, he moved back to Europe. He spent much of the 1960s and 1970s working as an itinerant film maker in various countries, including East Germany, France and Israel.
Cavalcanti died in Paris at the age of 85.
France
1926 Rien que les heures
1927 Le train sans yeux
1927 La P'tite Lili
1927 En rade
1927 Yvette
1928 La jalousie du barbouille
1928 Captain Fracasse
1929 Le petit chaperon rouge
1929 Vous verrez la semaine prochaine
1930 Toute sa vie
1930 A canção do berço
1930 À mi-chemin du ciel
1931 The Devil's Holiday
1931 Dans une ile perdue
1932 En lisant le journal
1932 Le jour du frotteur
1932 Revue Montmartroise
1932 Nous ne ferrons jamais du cinéma
1932 Le truc du brésilien
1933 Le mari garon
1933 Plaisirs défendus
1933 Coralie et Cie
1933 Tour de chant
GPO & Crown Film Units
1934 Pett and Pott: A fairy story of the suburbs
1934 The glorious Sixth of June: New rates
1935 The King's Stamp
1935 Coal Face
1936 Message from Geneva
1937 Line to Tcherva Hut
1937 Men of the Alps (co-prod with Switzerland)
1937 We live in two worlds
1937 Who writes to Switzerland?
1937 Four barriers
1938 Mony a pickle
1938 Happy in the morning: A film fantasy
1939 Mid-summer day's work
1939 The Chiltern country
1940 Alice in Switzerland
1940 La cause commune
1940 Factory front
1940 Mastery of the sea
Ealing and UK
1941 Yellow Caesar (short)
1942 Went the Day Well?
1943 Watertight (short)
1944 Champagne Charlie
1945 Dead of Night (episode)
1947 Nicholas Nickleby
1947 They Made Me a Fugitive
1947 The First Gentleman
1949 For Them That Trespass
1961 The Monster of Highgate Ponds
Brazil and others
1950 Caiçara (Brazil)
1952 Simão, o caolho (Brazil)
1952 Song of the Sea (Brazil)
1955 Mulher de verdade (Brazil)
1955/60 Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti (Austria/East Germany)