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 Brazilian actor, screenwriter and filmmaker Anselmo Duarte died at dawn this Saturday (November 7), in São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil, at the age of 89, from complications of a stroke. Duarte had been admitted to the General Hospital in São Paulo (Hospital das Clínicas) in the beginning of the month and had been in a coma for several days.
In August, Duarte had already suffered a moderate myocardial infarction. His body was to be taken back to Salto, the small town in the interior of São Paulo where he was born on April 21st, 1920. The filmmaker's wake was held a the Monumental Hall at the São Paulo state's Legislative Assembly. His body was to be laid to rest at Cemitério da Saudade (Longing Cemetery) in Salto, 60 miles from São Paulo city.
In 1962 he became the only Brazilian ever to win a Golden Palm in the Cannes Film Festival with his movie Pagador de Promessas (Keeper of Promises), which he directed. The film tells the story of Zé do Burro (Donkey's Jack), a man who tries to pay a promise to give away his land to the poor and carry a cross to distant church after his esteemed animal gets cured of a grave disease.
Pagador de Promessas won against three monster movie directors: Luis Buñuel, Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Bresson. The movie was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
As filmmaker Duarte directed other Brazilian film classics like Absolutamente Certo and Vereda da Salvação. Vereda da Salvação was nominated for Berlin Festival's Golden Bear award in 1964. However, he was never accepted by the dominating force in movies in Brazil, namely, Cinema Novo and he never became a great name like Gláuber Rocha or Nelson Pereira dos Santos.
The youngest of seven siblings Anselmo Duarte Bento as a child and a young man worked as shoe shiner, barber assistant, typist and dancer. Duarte started at the movies when he was 10, but his role then was screen wetter. He had to throw water at the film rolls behind the screen to prevent the projector to catch fire.
It was as a dancer that he went to Urca's Casino in Rio where he met the young and already legendary director of Citizen Kane, American filmmaker Orson Welles. It seems that their short friendship didn't end up well after Welles hit Duarte's lover and tried to separate them.
His debut as actor happened in the 1942 Orson Welles's never finished semi-documentary film It's all true. His first work as director would come in the comedy Absolutamente Certo from 1957.
He worked in several movies from Rio's Atlântida Cinematográfica and São Paulo's Vera Cruz studio, the Brazilian answer to Hollywood, in the early 1940s. He acted in movies like Aviso aos Navegantes and Carnaval no Fogo and worked among others with famous interpreters like Tônia Carrero, with whom he made Tico Tico no Fubá.
He accepted to act in Carnaval no Fogo for director Watson Macedo at Atlântida with the condition that he would be able to also be a screenwriter. He ended up directing two musical scenes. His success with the public especially women would consolidate his career.
The actor-director made the documentary Fazendo Cinema and went to Paris to study cinema at the prestigious film school IDHEC (Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques - Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies). That's when he went to the Cannes Festival for the first time and the visit to the coastal French city gave him ideas, like getting his own Palm D'Or.
His first feature movie was the "chanchada" (B movie) Absolutamente Certo! from 1957. He then got interested in the work by playwright Dias Gomes and bought the rights to adapt the play to the big screen. Gomes didn't like the changes he made to the text though. He also had a dispute with the associate producer Anibal Massaini who wanted popular comedian Mazaropi to star as Zé do Burro. Duarte's choice prevailed and he was able to cast Leonardo Villar, for the role. The same Villar who had played Zé do Burro on stage.
Duarte became Brazil's heartthrob in a time TV hadn't appeared yet. He was a model of attractive, clean-cut, successful male. His success in Cannes instead of making him an admired figure in Brazil turned him into the target of bitter criticism from envious colleagues and grudging journalists. This reaction would make him bitter for the rest of his life. Only recently after being recognized and paid homage by Mostra do Cinema did he mellow a little.
The Cinema Novistas couldn't swallow the fact that someone not belonging to their clique would get the prestigious film award. Many stories were created to diminish his victory like the one that the jurors were so overwhelmed by all the other names in competition (Buñuel, Bresson Antonioni) that they decided to choose the Brazilian director as a compromise.
Duarte grew bitter, participated as an actor in a few more movies and left people waiting for a glorious comeback that never happened. He became isolated and went back to his native Salto.
When he directed another movie, Quelé do Pageú, in 1969, it was not a hit. His irregular work for many years was, according to his detractors, the proof that the Golden Palm had been a mistake.
Filmography:
Brasa Adormecida (1987)
Tensão no Rio (1982)
O Caçador de Esmeraldas (1979)
Os Trombadinhas (1979)
Embalos Alucinantes (1978)
Paranóia (1977)
O Crime do Zé Bigorna (1977)
Já Não Se Faz Amor como Antigamente (1976)
Ninguém Segura Essas Mulheres (1976)
A Casa das Tentações (1975)
A Noiva da Noite (1974)
O Marginal (1974)
O Descarte (1973)
Independência ou Morte (1972)
Um Certo Capitão Rodrigo (1971)
O Impossível Acontece (1969)
Quelé do Pajeú (1969)
A Madona de Cedro (1968)
Juventude e Ternura (1968)
O Caso dos Irmãos Naves (1967)
A Espiã Que Entrou em Fria (1967)
Vereda de Salvação (1964)
O Pagador de Promessas (1962)
As Pupilas do Senhor Reitor (1961)
Un rayo de luz (1960)
O Cantor e o Milionário (1958)
Absolutamente Certo (1957)
Arara Vermelha (1957)
Depois Eu Conto (1956)
O Diamante (1956)
Carnaval em Marte (1955)
Sinfonia Carioca (1955)
Sinhá Moça (1953)
Veneno (1952)
Apassionata (1952)
Tico-Tico no Fubá (1952)
Amei um Bicheiro (1952)
Maior Que o Ódio (1951)
Aviso aos Navegantes (1950)
A Sombra da Outra (1950)
Pinguinho de Gente (1949)
O Caçula do Barulho (1949)
Carnaval no Fogo (1949)
Terra Violenta (1948)
Inconfidência Mineira (1948)
Querida Susana (1947)
Não Me Digas Adeus (1947)
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