Portugal's Global Cinema

Portuguese cinema has become increasingly prominent on the international film festival circuit, proving the country's size belies its cultural impact. From the prestige of directors Manoel de Oliveira, Pedro Costa and Miguel Gomes, to box-office hit La Cage Doree, aspects of Portuguese national cinema are widely visible although the output is comparatively small compared to European players like the UK, Germany and France. Considering this strange discrepancy prompts the question: how can Portuguese cinema be characterised and thought about in a global context? Accumulating expertise from an international group of scholars, this book investigates the shifting significance of the nation, Europe and the globe for the way in which Portuguese film is managed on the international stage. Chapters argue that film industry professionals and artisans must navigate complex globalised systems that inform their filmmaking decisions. Expectations from multi-cultural audiences, as well as demands from business investors and the criteria for critical accolades put pressure on Portuguese cinema to negotiate, for example, how far to retain national identities on screen and how to interact with `popular' and `art' film tropes and labels. Exploring themes typical of Portuguese visual culture - including social exclusion and unemployment, issues of realism and authenticity, and addressing Portugal's postcolonial status - this book is a valuable study of interest to the ever-growing number of scholars looking outside the usual canons of European cinema, and those researching the ongoing implications of national cinema's global networks.

Mariana Liz is a Research Fellow at ICS-ULisboa, in Portugal. She is the author of Euro-Visions: Europe in Contemporary Cinema (2016) and co-editor of Women's Cinema in Contemporary Portugal (2020) and The Europeanness of European Cinema: Identity, Meaning, Globalization (2015).

Introduction: Framing the Global Appeal of Contemporary Portuguese Cinema - Mariana Liz 1. Filming Narratives Becoming Events: Documentary and the 'Emplotments' of the Carnation Revolution - Luís Trindade 2. Our Beloved Month of August: Between the Filming of the Real and the Reality of Filming - Rui Gonçalves Miranda 3. Political Oliveira - Randal Johnson 4. Portugal, Europe and the World: Geopolitics and the Human Condition in Manoel de Oliveira's Films - Carolin Overhoff Ferreira 5. Amália: Stories of a Singer and Tales of a National Cinema - Anthony de Melo 6. La Cage dorée: a Franco-Portuguese Comedy of Integration - Ginette Vincendeau 7. Portugal and Europe: Cinema and the City in a Postcolonial Context - Mariana Liz 8. Contextualizing Pedro Costa's Digital Filmmaking - Nuno Barradas Jorge 9. Broken Links: The Cinema of Teresa Villaverde - Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin 10. Mysteries of Raúl Ruiz's Portugal: Territory, Littoral and Memory Bridge - Michael Goddard 11. White Faces / Black Masks: The White Woman's Burden in Pedro Costa's Down to Earth - Hilary Owen 12. Light Drops: Portugal Critically Reviewing the Colonial Past? - Paul Melo e Castro 13. Colonialism as Fantastic Realism in Tabu - Lúcia Nagib 14. Luso-Brazilian Co-Productions: Rescue and Expansion - Natália Pinazza