Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He 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. So, in 1920 he 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 he 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. Much of his 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 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 he worked as a producer for Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz; the company eventually became insolvent. After being blacklisted as a communist in Brazil, he decided to move back to Europe in 1954. He eventually settled in France, where he continued his work in television. He died in Paris in 1982 at the age of 85.
Fotos
Filmes (99)
La visite de la vieille dame
2026 · Director
Cavalcanti
2026 · Self (archive footage)
Birth of a Nation
1997 · Self
Brasília, segundo roteiro de Alberto Cavalcanti
1982 · Screenplay
Le Voyageur du silence
1978 · Director
Um Homem e o Cinema
1976 · Self, Director
Grierson
1973 · Self
Lettres de Stalingrad
1972 · Astronomer
Alberto Cavalcanti
1970 · Self
The Monster of Highgate Ponds
1961 · Director
Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti
1960 · Director, Screenplay
Venetian Honeymoon
1959 · Director
The Wind Rose
1957 · Director, Screenplay
A Real Woman
1955 · Director, Idea
Song of the Sea
1953 · Director, Producer, Screenplay
Simon the One-Eyed
1952 · Director, Writer
Volta Redonda
1952 · Producer
Angela
1951 · Writer
Santuário
1951 · Producer
Terra é Sempre Terra
1951 · Producer
Painel
1951 · Producer
Caiçara
1950 · Producer, Screenplay
For Them That Trespass
1949 · Director
The First Gentleman
1948 · Director
They Made Me a Fugitive
1947 · Director
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
1947 · Director
Dead of Night
1945 · Director
Champagne Charlie
1944 · Director
Three Songs of Resistance
1944 · Director
Greek Testament
1943 · Producer
The Sky’s the Limit
1943 · Director
Went the Day Well?
1942 · Director
The Foreman Went to France
1942 · Associate Producer
Alice in Switzerland
1942 · Director
Film and Reality
1942 · Director
Find, Fix and Strike
1942 · Producer
Yellow Caesar
1941 · Director
Mastery of the Sea
1940 · Director
Young Veteran
1940 · Director, Producer
Sea Fort
1940 · Producer
La Cause Commune
1940 · Director
French Communique
1940 · Director
Salvage with a Smile
1940 · Associate Producer
A Midsummer Day's Work
1939 · Director
Cargoes
1939 · Producer
Men of the Alps
1939 · Director
The Chiltern Country
1939 · Director
The First Days
1939 · Producer
Spare Time
1939 · Producer
Men in Danger
1939 · Producer
Health of a Nation
1939 · Director, Producer
Night Mail
1938 · Sound Director, Editor
North Sea
1938 · Producer
N or NW
1938 · Supervising Producer
Speaking from America
1938 · Producer
Mony a Pickle
1938 · Director
Happy in the Morning: A Film Fantasy
1938 · Director, Producer, Script
We Live in Two Worlds
1937 · Director
Line to the Tschierva Hut
1937 · Director, Writer
Daily Round
1937 · Producer
Who Writes to Switzerland?
1937 · Director
Rainbow Dance
1936 · Producer
Message from Geneva
1936 · Director
BBC: The Voice of Britain
1935 · Producer
The King's Stamp
1935 · Producer
Coal Face
1935 · Director, Writer
The Song of Ceylon
1934 · Sound Supervisor
Granton Trawler
1934 · Sound Designer
The Glorious Sixth of June
1934 · Director
Coralie and Company
1934 · Director
Pett and Pott: A Fairy Story of the Suburbs
1934 · J. Leviticus (uncredited), Writer, Editor, Director, Sound Designer
Montmartre qui tourne
1934 · Director
New Rates
1934 · Director
Le mari garçon
1933 · Director
Plaisirs défendus
1933 · Director
The Brazilian Thing
1932 · Director, Screenplay
Tour of Song
1932 · Director
Halfway Up the Sky
1931 · Director
The Devil's Holiday
1931 · Director
In a lost island
1931 · Director
Toute sa vie
1930 · Director
Little Red Riding Hood
1930 · Director, Adaptation, Editor
A Canção do Berço
1930 · Director
Paris Cinéma
1929 · Self
Captain Fracasse
1929 · Director
Train Without Eyes
1929 · Director
Yvette
1927 · Director, Writer
Sea Fever
1927 · Director, Screenplay, Editor
La P’tite Lili
1927 · Director, Producer, Screenplay, Editor
The Little People
1927 · Production Design
La jalousie du barbouillé
1927 · Director, Editor, Screenplay
Nothing But Time
1926 · Director, Editor, Writer
Essais d'acteurs : Ève Francis
1926 · Director
The Late Mathias Pascal
1925 · Art Direction, Assistant Director
The Inhuman Woman
1924 · Art Direction
The Gallery of Monsters
1924 · Assistant Director
The Flood
1924 · Production Designer
Résurrection
1923 · Production Design
El Dorado
1921 · Costume Design