Roberto Santos

Directing

Roberto Santos

Born 1928-04-15 · São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Roberto Santos Pinhanez (1928–1987) was a Brazilian film director, known for films like Matraga (A Hora e Vez de Augusto Matraga) and The Great Moment (O Grande Momento). Santos was born in a working-class suburb of São Paulo in 1928. He started his cinema activities around 1952, in the first big studio built in Brazil, the Vera Cruz Studio. In 1956, Santos made his first movie, O Grande Momento (The Great Moment), the first neo-realistic movie made in Brazil. In 1965, Roberto Santos adapted a short novel by Guimaraes Rosa, A Hora e Vez de Augusto Matraga (Matraga), the only successful adaptation to cinema of a work by Guimaraes Rosa, the most important name in Brazilian literature in this century. The film was shown at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. During the late 1960s and 1970s, his career was marked by problems with censorship. Nevertheless, he directed six more movies, among them, two experimental movies; Vozes do Medo (Voices of Fear) — a movie with the structure of a magazine — and As Tres Mortes de Solano (The Three Deaths of Solano), an experiment where the same plot is told three times, first in the fantastic realm, then as a realistic plot, and finally as a circus pantomime. Meanwhile, he worked in television and directed commercials. The success of an adaptation for TV of another Guimaraes Rosa's story prompted him to write a screenplay for the short novel Campo Geral, about a kid growing in the back-country of Brazil. After months of trouble to obtain the rights, the project was abandoned, and he decided to tackle another myth of Brazilian literature, Machado de Assis. His last movie, Quincas Borba, recreated Machado de Assis's fin-de-siecle universe in the troubled 1980s. Roberto Santos died of a heart attack at the São Paulo airport in 1987, just after returning from the Festival of Gramado, where Quincas Borba was shown and heavily criticized by a clique of critics.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Erotic Stories poster
6.5

Comedy in 4 segments. In "Arroz e Feijão" (Rice and Beans), owner of a boarding-house seduces her young countryboy tenant. In "As Três Virgens" (The Three Virgins) three spinsters are influenced by the behaviour of their teenager niece, whom they are lodging. In "O Arremate" (The Purchase) a colonist turns his virgin daughter in to a landowner, to have his debts forgiven. And, finally, in "Vereda Tropical" (Tropical Trail), a man becomes sexually obsessed by a watermelon, to the point of having sexual intercourse with it. The stories are based on prize-winner short stories, from a Playboy contest.

Erotic Stories

1980

Chick Fowle, Faixa Preta de Cinema poster
5.0

About English photographer Chick Fowle. Statements by Anselmo Duarte, Leonardo Vilar, Marlene França, Vanja Orico. A film about directors, actors and teams that Chick Fowle worked and works with, also showing the possibility of renewal that Brazilian cinema can and must have.

Chick Fowle, Faixa Preta de Cinema

1981

Chick Fowle, Faixa Preta de Cinema poster
5.0

About English photographer Chick Fowle. Statements by Anselmo Duarte, Leonardo Vilar, Marlene França, Vanja Orico. A film about directors, actors and teams that Chick Fowle worked and works with, also showing the possibility of renewal that Brazilian cinema can and must have.

Chick Fowle, Faixa Preta de Cinema

1981

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Primeira Chance

1963

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Primeira Chance

1963

Embu poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Embu

1968

Embu poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Embu

1968

Vozes do Medo poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Vozes do Medo

1972

A João Guimarães Rosa poster
NR

Images of the Minas Gerais backlands (human types, geographical aspects, domestic chores) with texts by Guimarães Rosa, extracted from Grande Sertão: Veredas.

A João Guimarães Rosa

1968

Lost Love Juliana poster
7.0

A beautiful young woman living in an isolated fishing community on an island falls in love with an outsider, a train machinist. But her father, a violent religious fanatic interferes.

Lost Love Juliana

1970

The Hour and Turn of Augusto Matraga poster
7.8

Augusto Matraga is a violent agressive farmer who, after being betrayed by his wife and trapped by several enemies, is beaten up and left for dead, being rescued by a couple of humble small farmers who nurse him for a long time until he is well again. Influenced by the couple, Matraga starts a long penitent life while waiting for his hour and chance to payback, starting a fight between his violent nature, his hidden desire of vengeance and the mysticism and goodness which is also part of him.

The Hour and Turn of Augusto Matraga

1965

The Hour and Turn of Augusto Matraga poster
7.8

Augusto Matraga is a violent agressive farmer who, after being betrayed by his wife and trapped by several enemies, is beaten up and left for dead, being rescued by a couple of humble small farmers who nurse him for a long time until he is well again. Influenced by the couple, Matraga starts a long penitent life while waiting for his hour and chance to payback, starting a fight between his violent nature, his hidden desire of vengeance and the mysticism and goodness which is also part of him.

The Hour and Turn of Augusto Matraga

1965

No artwork available
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Gimba, Presidente dos Valentes

1963

Nasce uma Mulher poster
8.0

On Jo's birthday, her mother, and later, her father, discover that she is not a virgin anymore - she is taking pills. The birthday party turns into a complete mess, since Jo's mother can not hold herself and accuses her daughter in front of all guests of not being a child that everyone thought she still was. Jo rebels and leaves the house, and discovers that her boyfriend listened to everything and did not help her. She decides to leave him, and to start her life again. As a woman, now.

Nasce uma Mulher

1983

Nasce uma Mulher poster
8.0

On Jo's birthday, her mother, and later, her father, discover that she is not a virgin anymore - she is taking pills. The birthday party turns into a complete mess, since Jo's mother can not hold herself and accuses her daughter in front of all guests of not being a child that everyone thought she still was. Jo rebels and leaves the house, and discovers that her boyfriend listened to everything and did not help her. She decides to leave him, and to start her life again. As a woman, now.

Nasce uma Mulher

1983

The Naked Man poster
5.9

A man gets locked naked outside of his apartment.

The Naked Man

1968

The Naked Man poster
5.9

A man gets locked naked outside of his apartment.

The Naked Man

1968

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Ponto Final

1975

The Grand Moment poster
6.0

On the day of his wedding, young man from a family of immigrants faces some problems to get the money needed for the last arrangements. The family do what they can in order to honour the great event, selling personal belongings and buying enough supplies for a decent party.

The Grand Moment

1958

The Grand Moment poster
6.0

On the day of his wedding, young man from a family of immigrants faces some problems to get the money needed for the last arrangements. The family do what they can in order to honour the great event, selling personal belongings and buying enough supplies for a decent party.

The Grand Moment

1958

The Grand Moment poster
6.0

On the day of his wedding, young man from a family of immigrants faces some problems to get the money needed for the last arrangements. The family do what they can in order to honour the great event, selling personal belongings and buying enough supplies for a decent party.

The Grand Moment

1958

No artwork available
10.0

A curious story: it rains whenever a couple of lovers meet. Against the weather forecast, it rains all over the city. And as the love grows, the stronger becomes the rain. Found by a television crew, they receive the title of "Rain Lovers", and their dates become public spectacles.

Rain Lovers

1979

No artwork available
10.0

A curious story: it rains whenever a couple of lovers meet. Against the weather forecast, it rains all over the city. And as the love grows, the stronger becomes the rain. Found by a television crew, they receive the title of "Rain Lovers", and their dates become public spectacles.

Rain Lovers

1979

Quincas Borba poster
5.0

Based on a book by Machado de Assis (1839-1908) and adapted to the present time. After the death of the philosopher Quincas Borba, his friend and disciple Rubiao inherits all he possessed: his fortune, his dog, his philosophy and the germ of his madness. Rubiao's passion for Sofia, a friend's wife, places him at the center of a game in which she is the main piece while he is the only one who ignores the rules. The story of a dreamer and delirious man facing a reality to which he is not prepared.

Quincas Borba

1988