António Lopes Ribeiro

1908 - 1995

Director, journalist, and producer, António Lopes Ribeiro (1908-1995) was a central name in the history of Portuguese cinema in the first half of the 20th century. Movie critic since the late 1920s, he supported the European cinematographic avant-gardes and the aesthetical and technical renewal of Portuguese cinema. He directed his first film, Bailando ao sol, in 1928 and took part in the shooting of J. Leitão de Barros film’s Nazaré, praia de pescadores (1929), Lisboa, Crónica Anedótica and Maria do Mar (1930). Shortly before that, he undertook a long journey to the great movie studios of Paris, Berlin and Moscow, where he became up to speed with the most recent techniques and tendencies, and where he also met Clair, Renoir, Lang, Pabst, Eisenstein and Vertov. His first sound film was Gado Bravo (1934), made with several Jewish film actors and technicians that had just escaped from Hitler’s Germany. Ribeiro’s first big propaganda film for the New State was A Revolução de Maio (The May Revolution, 1937), whose script he wrote with António Ferro, the founder and director of the Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional (National Propaganda Office/SPN). The following year, he accompanied the head of the state, President Óscar Carmona, in a trip to the Portuguese colonies in Africa, shooting topical footage that would be used in several documentaries, as well as in his second propaganda feature film, Feitiço do Império (1940). Also in 1938, Ribeiro began producing for SPN the New State’s first newsreel, Jornal Português, which would last until 1951. With his production and distribution company Sociedade Portuguesa de Actualidades Cinematográficas (SPAC), he produced and directed many propaganda documentaries commissioned by the New State, thus earning the reputation of the regime’s official filmmaker and reinforcing his influence in the State-sponsored Sindicato Nacional dos Profissionais de Cinema (National Union of Cinema Professionals). In 1941, he founded Produções António Lopes Ribeiro, a production company that released famous comedies such as O Pai Tirano (1941), O Pátio das Cantigas (1942, directed by his brother, Francisco Ribeiro), or A Vizinha do Lado (1945); Manoel de Oliveira’s first feature film, Aniki-Bóbó (1942); or historical dramas such as Amor de Perdição (1943), Frei Luis de Sousa (1950) and O Primo Basílio (1959). Until 1974, Ribeiro produced or directed dozens of propaganda documentaries and newsreels. Between 1957 and 1974 he was also the author and host of a very popular TV show about the history of cinema titled “O Museu do Cinema” (“The Cinema Museum”).

Фильмы

O Cortejo Histórico de Lisboa

Commemorative procession celebrating the eighth centenary of the inbreak of Lisbon from the Moors in 1147 by the forces of D. Afonso Henriques with the help of the Crusaders en route to the Holy Land.

O Cortejo Histórico de Lisboa

1947

Португалия, документальный

O Pai Tirano

António Lopes Ribeiro

Vasco Santana, Francisco Ribeiro

While rehearsing the annual play, a clerk tries to regain the attention of his beloved, in a comedy of equivoques.

The Tyrannical Father

7.8 ⚠️ 1941

Португалия, комедия

Fantasia Lusitana

João Canijo

António de Oliveira Salazar, Américo Tomás

Images and sounds expose the duality of Portugal during the days of WW2: a peaceful, god-loving, rural country, providing an escape route for over one hundred thousand European refugees to the Americas; and a political and cultural elite that disguised their Nazi inclinations just enough to play its neutral role in international politics.

Lusitanian Illusion

7.3 ⚠️ 2010

Португалия, документальный

A Vizinha do Lado

António Lopes Ribeiro

Nascimento Fernandes, António Vilar

The story of how the conflicting relationship of Eduardo and vaudeville actress Isabel is affected by the passion he feels for their neighbor, Mariana, a young overprotected, and the unexpected visit of his uncle Plácido, a moral teacher.

A Vizinha do Lado

6.6 ⚠️ 1945

Португалия, комедия

Amor de Perdição

António Lopes Ribeiro

António Vilar, Carmen Dolores

The fatalism caught up and the amorous tragedy between Teresa de Albuquerque and Simão Botelho, who survives the intolerant litigation of her noble families.

Doomed Love

6.5 ⚠️ 1943

Португалия, драма

Gado Bravo

Max Nosseck, António Lopes Ribeiro

Nita Brandao, Olly Gebauer

A love triangle set in Lisbon between German singer Nina, bullfighter Garrido and local girl Branca.

Gado Bravo

6.2 ⚠️ 1934

Lisboa de Hoje e de Amanhã

António Lopes Ribeiro

Recent population growth in the capital leads to an ambitious development plan, involving public and private initiative as documented here, pinpointing over 60 locations (streets, roads, parks, schools) being modernized or built anew. The narrative and soundtrack are grandiloquent, in the propaganda style required by the Producer (the Municipal Council of Lisbon, then directly dependent of the national government), but the images and data are now of historical relevance.

Lisboa de Hoje e de Amanhã

6.2 ⚠️ 1948

документальный

O Primo Basílio

António Lopes Ribeiro

António Vilar, Danik Patisson

Jorge, a successful engineer and employee of a ministry and Luísa, a romantic and dreamy girl, star as the typical bourgeois couple of the Lisbon society of the 19th century.

O Primo Basílio

6.1 ⚠️ 1960

Португалия, драма

Frei Luís de Sousa

António Lopes Ribeiro

Maria Sampaio, Raul de Carvalho

The tragedy of a woman who - after seven years of vain searches - gave up hope of finding her husband, a knight lost in battle in Marroc with Sebastião, king of Portugal. She marries, has a daughter by her second husband, and endures the silent reproach of an aid, Telmo Pais, the only who kept his hope that his master shall return, as well as the king... One day, a mysterious pilgrim arrives at the mansion.

Frei Luís de Sousa

6.1 ⚠️ 1950

Португалия, драма

Feitiço do Império

António Lopes Ribeiro

Luís de Campos, Alves da Cunha

Luís immigrated to the USA and intends to become an American. But after his father invites him on a journey to the Portuguese territories in Africa, he will find true love, and also learn to value his country and its colonial grandeur.

The Spell of the Empire

5.9 ⚠️ 1940

драма

A Viagem Presidencial ao Brasil

António Lopes Ribeiro

Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira

The film documents the official visit of the President of the Portuguese Republic, Craveiro Lopes, to Brazil, and his meeting with the President of the Republic of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek, in June 20, 1957.

The Presidential Journey to Brazil

3.7 ⚠️ 1957

Португалия, документальный

A Revolução de Maio

António Lopes Ribeiro

Alexandre de Azevedo, Clemente Pinto

The most well-known fascist propaganda film in Portugal. A communist man falls in love with a woman of Salazarian beliefs and changes his way of looking at things.

A Revolução de Maio

1937

Португалия, драма