Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Shape of History in Portuguese Contemporary Cinema: War, Mythology, and the Memory of Struggles

2023; Taylor & Francis; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10509208.2023.2285683

1543-5326

Tiago Vieira da Silva, Isabel Moreira Macedo,

History, Culture, and Society

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size AcknowledgmentsThis article was developed in the context of the project ‘Migra Media Acts – Migrations, media and activism in Portuguese: decolonising media landscapes and imagining alternative futures’ (PTDC/COM-CSS/3121/2021), funded by the FCT: Foundation for Science and Technology.Notes1 Lusotropicalism is a term and ‘theory’ developed by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre who supported the distinctive character of Portuguese colonialism, considering it softer than other imperialisms (Freyre Citation1942). However, this ‘theory’ was not initially accepted by the New State, due to its focus on the process of miscegenation as the cause of Portuguese-speaking people's strength and abilities. The regime's position would later change as part of a strategic decision to face growing anti-colonial pressures from abroad after the Second World War and mostly after the beginning of the Portuguese Colonial War in 1961.2 Early legislative elections were held on January 30, 2022, in Portugal to elect members of the Portuguese Parliament to the 15th Legislature after the majority of the members rejected the budget proposed by the Socialist minority government.3 By the time we finished writing this article, Portugal’s President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa dissolved the Parliament and called for early elections after Prime Minister António Costa resigned. The next legislative elections will take place on 10 March 2024, meaning that the composition of the Assembly of Portuguese Republic will likely change.4 In the closing speech of the IV National Congress of Chega!, the leader, André Ventura, adapted an infamous motto from António de Oliveira Salazar (God, Homeland and Family) by adding the word “Work” to the end.5 For example, in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, this party proposed special confinement measures for Roma people.6 The New Cinema (Novo Cinema) was a Portuguese cinematographic movement that proposed new approaches to film from the beginning of the 1960s to the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Its films rejected the previous Portuguese cinema, severely marked by the regime's censorship. They were deeply influenced by European film movements such as Nouvelle Vague – mainly in what concerned the firm defence of the politique des auteurs, which privileged the filmmaker as the main author of the film, freed from production pressures.7 This layout is translated from the following chapter titles: Poets in close-up: Bocage, Camões and the Heroes of the Regime; Rurality in Cinema: The Apology of a Natural Society; The Miracle of Salazarism: Reason and Religion in Fátima, Land of Faith; The Fado of Lost Women: Gender Stereotypes in Cinema; The Empire as Fetish: Spell of the Empire and the Colonial Spell; The Spirit of the Empire in Chaimite.8 In the early 1960s, military operations began in Angola. The Portuguese government sent armed forces to the former colony, initiating a conflict that spread to Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.9 International Monetary Fund.10 These themes that characterised 1990s cinema kept resurging in the following years, especially during the years that followed the 2007-2008 economic crisis.11 Manoel de Oliveira’s last film was released in 2015, the year of his death. João Botelho is still in activity.12 António Vieira (1608-1697) was a priest, philosopher and orator deeply unsettled by Spanish rule of Portugal between 1580 and 1640. His idea of the Fifth Empire sought to respond to a general concern regarding Portugal's future after this event, seeking hope in its national destiny. This belief strongly shaped the collective memory, strengthening the idea of the Fifth Empire as Portugal's illustrious destiny after the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. António Vieira's theory of the Fifth Empire is inspired by the prophecy of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, but also by the prophecies of Gonçalo Annes Bandarra; however, Bandarra did not speak of the return of Sebastian I, but of the resurrection of King John IV, who had died in 1656. Nevertheless, what is important to note is that all of these authors converged in the idea of a general messianism that sought to find hope through historical myths.13 According to Miguel Real, the Portuguese cultural and philosophical thought of the 20th century was based on two frames: the “mythical, providential and messianic visions” and the “positivist, rationalist, modernist and postmodernist theses” (Real Citation2017, 202). As the Portuguese 20th century has drifted between these two worldviews, more specifically, the messianic providentialism of the Church and the State and the European rationalism and empiricism, it is comprehensible that the first one was strongly underwritten by the New State – and even after the Carnation Revolution it did not lose its strength in the Portuguese idea of national identity.14 First king of Portugal.15 The police force of the state during the New State regime: The State Surveillance and Defense Police (PVDE) (1933-1945), The International and State Defense Police (PIDE) (1945-1969), and General Directorate of Security (DGS) (1969-1974).Additional informationNotes on contributorsTiago Vieira da SilvaTiago Vieira da Silva is a researcher at the Arnaldo Araújo Studies Center (CEAA/ESAP) and at the Communication and Society Research Center (CECS/UMINHO). Visiting professor at the Higher School of Arts of Porto (Escola Superior Artística do Porto). He holds a PhD in Communication Sciences at the University of Minho, a master’s degree in Communication, Art and Culture, also from the University of Minho (2016) and a bachelor in Film Studies at the aforementioned Escola Superior Artística do Porto (2013). He took part in the international project ‘Memories, Cultures and Identities: How the past weights on the present-day intercultural relations between Mozambique and Portugal’, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology and the Aga Khan Development Network (2018–2022), and collaborated on the national project ‘Mapping and Critical Senses of the Photographic Archive of the Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (Diamang)’ (2020). Currently, he is also a researcher on the project ‘Migrations, media and activisms in Portuguese language: decolonizing mediascapes and imagining alternative futures’ (MediaMigraActs, FCT, 2022–2026, PTDC/COM-CSS/3121/2021) and content manager of the Virtual Museum of Lusophony, current Cultural Unit of the University of Minho.Isabel MacedoIsabel Macedo is an Assistant Researcher at the Communication and Society Research Center, University of Minho. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies, and an undergraduate and a master’s degree in Educational Sciences. Her current research critically engages in intercultural communication and decolonial perspectives to explore the challenges of contemporary migrations and the representations conveyed by cinema. She was a member of national and international research projects: “Social psychological dynamics of historical representations in the enlarged European Union” (COST Action IS 1205; 2013–2016); “Memories, cultures, and identities: how the past weighs on the present-day intercultural relations in Mozambique and Portugal?” (Cultures Past & Present, FCT-Aga Khan; 2018–2022); and is Co-PI of the project “Migrations, media and activisms in Portuguese language: decolonizing mediascapes and imagining alternative futures” (MediaMigraActs, FCT, 2022–2026) (PTDC/COM-CSS/3121/2021). She was the Intercultural Communication Group coordinator at the Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences (Sopcom, 2017–2021) and Associate Editor of Vista Journal. She co-edited three books and five journal issues on communication, cinema, cultural memory, migrations, and intercultural relations in the last five years. Currently, she is director of the Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies.