The Cinema of Portugal started with the birth of the medium in the late 19th century. Cinema was introduced in Portugal in 1896 with the screening of foreign films and the first Portuguese film was Saída do Pessoal Operário da Fábrica Confiança, made in the same year. The first movie theater opened in 1904 and the first scripted Portuguese film was O Rapto de Uma Actriz (1907). The first all-talking sound film, A Severa, was made in 1931. Starting in 1933, with A Canção de Lisboa, the Golden Age would last the next two decades, with films such as O Pátio das Cantigas (1942) and A Menina da Rádio (1944). Aniki-Bóbó (1942), Manoel de Oliveira's first feature film, marked a milestone, with a realist style predating Italian neorealism by a few years. In the 1950s the industry stagnated. The early 1960s saw the birth of the Cinema Novo (literally "New Cinema") movement, showing realism in film, in the vein of Italian neorealism and the French New Wave, with films like Dom Roberto (1962) and Os Verdes Anos (1963). The movement became particularly relevant after the Carnation Revolution of 1974. In 1989, João César Monteiro's Recordações da Casa Amarela won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and in 2009, João Salaviza's Arena won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Several other Portuguese films have been in competition for major film awards like the Palme d'Or and the Golden Bear. João Sete Sete (2006) was the first Portuguese animated feature film. Portuguese cinema is significantly supported by the State, with the government's Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual giving films financial support.
Silent films Portuguese film history began on 18 June 1896, at the Real Colyseu da Rua da Palma nº 288, in Lisbon, when Edwin Rousby presented Robert William Paul's Animatograph, using a Teatrograph projector. This places the debut of film in Portugal around six months after the Lumière brothers' inaugural presentation in Paris.
Early days
The Portuguese audience was familiar with photographic projection, first from cycloramas, dioramas and stereoscopic views and, later, from the magic lantern, with the projection of transparent photographs through a glass plate then coloured. On 28 December 1894, the German photographer Carlos Eisenlohr opened his "Imperial Exhibition" at the galleries of the Avenida Palace Hotel. He presented a novelty to this already knowledgeable Lisbon audience: the live photograph – shown not through an Edison Kinetograph, as announced at the time, but by the Elektrotachyscop or Schnellseher, also called the Electro-Tachiscópio Eisenlohr, an invention by Ottomar Anschutz. The device projected images of actions, of a dog passing by or the galloping of a horse, contained in small disks that produced moving images of extremely short periods.
In the beginning of 1895, the tobacco shop Tabacaria Neves presented Edison's Kinetoscope (in fact, a copy of said invention, built in London by Robert William Paul, ordered by the Greek George Georgiades, who presented the machine in Lisbon). Unlike preceding inventions, the Kinestoscope allowed individual viewing and a film made up of 1,380 photographs enabling a 20-second projection of 20 seconds.
The machine that was used for movies at the Real Colyseu was not the Lumiére brothers' Cinematograph, but a competitor, the Theatrograph, by Robert W. Paul. The machine projected behind the screen, allowing life-size images to appear for about a minute. The first presentation of it was well-received and in the following months, many of the same machines swirled in the cinemas of Lisbon, vying for the favour of movie audiences.
At the Real Colyseu of the Rua da Palma of António Santos Júnior, on 18 June 1896, Edwin Rousby showed films by Robert William Paul's production house, for whom Rousby worked. About a minute in length each, these "animated views" were shot by operators who worked for the British producer: "Parisian balls", "The Pont Neuf in Paris", "The Train", "The Serpentine Dance", "A Barber and Shoeshine Store in Washington".
Rousby then met Manuel Maria da Costa Veiga, a photographer with electrical and mechanical skills, who assisted him in preparing his sessions. Costa Veiga himself began acting as an exhibitor, acquiring a projectoscope from Edison that same year and showing films in Lisbon venues.
Robert W. Paul also sent his operator Henry Short to southern Europe, to record the animated views of landscapes for use by the English producing house. Short passed through Portugal, registering several views that, although destined to be shown in London, would be integrated into Rousby's program at his Portuguese sessions in 1897.
His success is overwhelming, and he prolonged his stays in Portugal and increased the sessions. However, when Rousby proceeded with his tour to the Teatro-Circo Príncipe Real, in Porto, the animated photograph also gained a professional who would go on to found Portuguese cinema: Aurélio da Paz dos Reis.
From July to August, Rousby presented his films at the Teatro do Príncipe Real (now the Teatro Sá da Bandeira), without achieving, however, the level of success in Lisbon.
Pioneers and the producing houses
Three years after beginning his exhibition business, Costa Veiga purchased a movie camera and made first film, Aspectos da Praia de Cascais ("Views of the Cascais beach"), with images of King D. Carlos bathing in Cascais. He began recording official visits and other relevant national political events. He founded the first Portuguese production house, Portugal Film, headquartered close to his home in Algés.
In 1909, Portugália Film, made up of João Freire Correia and Manuel Cardoso, was established in Lisbon, financed by D. Nuno de Almada, and the "Empresa Cinematográfica Ideal," Júlio Costa. Freire Correia, a photographer, bought a projector for the opening of the Salão Ideal ao Loreto in 1904, the first Portuguese cinema. He founded his production company five years later, for which he'd make several films, including Batalha de Flores ("Battle of Flowers") that garnered vast success. He was also the cinematographer of O Rapto de Uma Actriz ("The kidnapping of an Actress"), the first scripted Portuguese film, directed by Lino Ferreira in 1907.
Freire Correia directed two documentaries of significant success in 1909: A Cavalaria Portuguesa ("The Portuguese Cavalry") and the O Terramoto de Benavente ("The Earthquake of Benavente"). The first already showed some technique of image capturing, displaying the prowess of Portuguese cavalry in such a way to create a sense of danger, however fictitious, to the audience. The earthquake was filmed in April, and shown two days later – a remarkable speed – and 22 copies were exported abroad. He would also be responsible for the production of two versions of Os Crimes de Diogo Alves ("The Crimes of Diogo Alves"), whose direction he entrusted first to Lino Ferreira in 1909 but that remained incomplete, and a second with João Tavares directing one in 1911.
Early notable attempts at sound films include the incomplete Grisette (1908) directed by Freire Correia used adaptations of the Gaumont method by which he attempted to synchronise image and sound. Portugália also produced the first film adaptation of a literary work: Carlota Ângela was based in the work of the same name by Camilo Castelo Branco and was directed by João Tavares, in 1912.
Júlio Costa, partnering with João Almeida, acquired the Salão Ideal from Freire Correia and Nuno Almada in 1908 and started the Empresa Cinematográfica Ideal production and distribution house. Remodelled and appropriately refitted, the Salão Ideal presented a predecessor of the talkies, the "Animatógrafo Falado" (Spoken Animatograph), where a group of people read the script and produced sound in synch with the film's projection. The group was made up of volunteer firefighters of Ajuda, of which not only Júlio Costa but also António Silva, the actor of the Portuguese Golden Age comedies, were members.
While waiting for the construction of his studio at Rua Marquês Ponte de Lima, Júlio Costa began filming "views". He begins filming features with Chantecler Atraiçoado ("Chantecler Betrayed") and then with Rainha depois de Morta ("Queen After Dead"), by Carlos Santos, the first Portuguese film with a historic motif. Júlio Costa's company pioneered grouping, production, distribution and exhibition, together for the first time. The company would halt activity after a suspicious fire.
In 1918, Lusitânia Film was founded, a production company with an ambitious outlook, led by Celestino Soares and Luís Reis Santos. They remodelled the old Portugália Film studio, in São Bento, and began filming documentaries. The same year, two short films are made outdoors by Costa Veigam, directed by the young Leitão de Barros: Malmequer ("Daisy") and Mal de Espanha ("Evil From Spain"). The shooting of O Homem dos Olhos Tortos ("The Man with the Twisted Eyes") began, the story based on a Reinaldo Ferreira police serial and directed by Leitão de Barros. However, due to financial pressures, the film was never completed. A well-organized conspiracy would close down the company that intended to film A Severa as its next production.
After the closing of the "cycle of Lisbon", the first Porto production house was founded, which ensured for some years the continuous production of cinema in the country.
Foreign cinematographers
After founding a production company bearing his name in 1910, the Porto exhibitor Nunes de Mattos, added Invicta Film to its corporate name two years later. The company filmed current events and documentaries, among them O Naufrágio do Silurian ("The Sinking of the Silurian"), of which 108 copies were shipped to Europe. In November 1917, de Mattos founded the second "Invicta Film, Lda", increasing the number of partners and equity. Henrique Alegria took over art direction and they acquired the Quinta da Prelada, in Porto, where the studios and laboratories of the producer were built.
In 1918 they left for Paris, and brought back a technical team from the Pathé studios led by Georges Pallu, a director who would author virtually all the feature films of the Porto producing house. Also in the team were André Lecointe, architect-decorator; Albert Durot, camera operator and Georges and Valentine Coutable – the couple who would be, respectively, the chief lab and chief editor. Durot would later be replaced by Maurice Laumann, also from Pathé.
For six years, Invicta Film produced several films and documentaries, enriching the Portuguese film landscape. In 1924, however, the company experienced severe financial distress, leading to the laying off all its personnel and continuing only lab work. They shut down in 1928.
Rino Lupo, another milestone of cinematography, showed up on the scene through Pallu, who approved his direction of Mulheres da Beira ("Women from Beira"), after a tale by Abel Botelho, with photography by Artur Costa de Macedo. Though the financial disagreements and the unfulfilment of deadlines forced his removal from the company, Lupo still directed Os Lobos ("The Wolves"), another pearl of the Portuguese silent cinema. He directed others, but without the quality of his earlier works.
Three other companies are set up in the '20s to fill in the studios gap: Caldevilla Film, Fortuna Film and Pátria Film. These also follow the Portuguese pattern, hiring foreign technicians for their experience in Portuguese productions. Although the directors brought from French production houses were presented as recognised stars in their countries, in fact, they often built their careers without having the claimed background.