O 'princípio esperança' no novo cinema português

  • Carolin Overhoff Ferreira Universidade Federal de São Paulo
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21471/jls.v2i1.155
Keywords: Portuguese cinema, Ernst Bloch, Estado Novo, hope, politics and aesthetics

Abstract

Film scholars and historians mostly agree that Novo Cinema films made during the Portuguese dictatorship are fatalistic and not particularly political. However, using Ernst Bloch's "principle of hope," I argue in this essay that some of these films do in fact search for a hopeful future or change for Portuguese society. To prove my point, I will first engage with the historical context and scholarly discussions of Novo Cinema before moving on to examine its key features films. Through a discussion of their main characters and aesthetics, I foreground the ways in which they call on their audience to question the status quo.

Author Biography

Carolin Overhoff Ferreira, Universidade Federal de São Paulo
Carolin Overhoff Ferreira is adjunct professor of Contemporary Cinema at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Campus Guarulhos. She holds a PhD in Theater from the Freie Universität Berlin (1997). Her research and teaching focus on the relation between art and politics in contemporary cinema, national and transnational identity, colonial and post-colonial relations, literary adaptation, and contemporary theater.
Published
2017-06-03
Issue
Vol 2 No 1 (2017): Special Dossier on Portuguese Cinema
Section
Special Dossier

Copyright (c) 2017 Carolin Overhoff Ferreira

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