Humberto Mauro (1)

For decades, the French film historian Georges Sadoul was one of the few non-Brazilians to speak of the importance of Humberto Mauro. In his 1965 Dictionnaire des Cinéastes (translated, edited, and updated to English by Peter Morris and published by University of California Press in 1972), Sadoul writes:

"A pioneer of Brazilian cinema and an important film maker with a profoundly cinematic vision, ingenuous but not naive, whose work is unfortunately little known outside Brazil. As a self-taught former electrician, he was drawn to the cinema by his delight in westerns, serials, and the films of Stroheim and as an amateur made his first film, Valdiao o Cratera (25) in tribute to them. He was soon discovered and supported by the film society movement in Brazil and directed a series of unique features that are indebted to no one: Tesouro Perdido (28), Braza Dormida (28), and Sangue Mineiro (28). Though the plots of his society films are often clichéd, he had a remarkable feeling for images and backgrounds, a highly original conception of filmic space, and an impassioned feeling for people and the landscapes of his country. Ganga Bruta (33) is his best film and a landmark in the history of the Brazilian cinema. Mauro's use of erotic symbolism in the film earned him the name 'the suburban Freud.' Argila (40) was his last major work: the difficulties of the Brazilian film industry forced him after that to restrict his activities mainly to directing short documentaries. He is, nevertheless, a great film maker who will inevitably one day receive the international reputation he deserves."