Portuguese Film, 1930-1960

This book is a major achievement, but it is difficult. Most readers will be intimidated: they will not know the films; the films are not very good ('too heavily invested in disseminating the values of the regime'); and few readers have the history of Portugal at their fingertips. Vieira (Georgetown) puts Salazar in the Mussolini/Hitler category. Hideous aspects of cruel tyranny mark every regime-approved film. Salazar, the ruler of Portugal's so-called New State, wanted to combat lies, error, slander, and ignorance. See the film A Revolução de Maio, or The May Revolution (1937). He believed that good rural life, agriculture, is humanity's call (A Canção de Terra, or The Song from the Earth, 1938). Virtuous women (i.e., women obedient to men) are the foundation of society. The Portuguese are spiritual (Fátima Terra de Fé, Fatima, Land of Faith, 1943). What about colonies?They are necessary, democratic, and Christian (Feitiço do Império, Spell of Empire, 1940). Colonizing is spiritual, protective, civilizing (Chaimite, 1953). The best supplement to this intensity study is not a history of Portuguese movies, but a consideration of propaganda, like Toby Clark's Art and Propaganda in the Twentieth Century: The Political Image in the Age of Mass Culture (1997). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.-- -- P.H. Stacy * CHOICE *
With an interesting sociological approach, Vieira intelligently applies the works of Kracauer, Freud and Weber to the study of a basic, yet relatively unknown, aspect of Salazar's regime: propaganda ... A concise and well-researched text. -- Javier Jurado, Universite Paris X, France * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *
This extremely well-researched book gives the reader, for the first time, a thorough understanding of how the ideology of the New State pervaded, in varying degrees, three decades of Portuguese film production. Patricia Vieira deserves applause for the rigour and balance of her approach, but also for her unflinching commitment to a political cause. -- Lucia Nagib, Professor of Film, University of Reading, UK
This meticulously-researched and well-written book represents a major contribution to Portuguese film historiography. Drawing from a broad range of official documents, critical reviews, and a diverse array of films - ranging from comedy and folkloric films to overt propaganda - it offers a theoretically sophisticated, in-depth analysis of the relationship between cinema and the fascist New State in the period between 1930 and 1960 as well as a model for the discussion of film and politics. -- Randal Johnson, Distinguished Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, UCLA, US
Salazar's New State and his nationalistic and imperialistic 'Portuguese-style fascism' figure heavily in Portuguese cinema from the 1930s to the 1950s. In her fascinating book, Vieira brings this staging into sharper focus and provides us with a valuable new contribution to the field. -- Luís Reis Torgal, University of Coimbra, Portugal, and editor of O Cinema sob o Olhar de Salazar