António Lopes Ribeiro

Directing

António Lopes Ribeiro

Born 1908-04-16 · Lisbon, Portugal

Director, journalist, and producer, António Lopes Ribeiro (1908-1995) was a central name in the history of Portuguese cinema in the first half of the 20th century. Movie critic since the late 1920s, he supported the European cinematographic avant-gardes and the aesthetical and technical renewal of Portuguese cinema. He directed his first film, Bailando ao sol, in 1928 and took part in the shooting of J. Leitão de Barros film’s Nazaré, praia de pescadores (1929), Lisboa, Crónica Anedótica and Maria do Mar (1930). Shortly before that, he undertook a long journey to the great movie studios of Paris, Berlin and Moscow, where he became up to speed with the most recent techniques and tendencies, and where he also met Clair, Renoir, Lang, Pabst, Eisenstein and Vertov. His first sound film was Gado Bravo (1934), made with several Jewish film actors and technicians that had just escaped from Hitler’s Germany. Ribeiro’s first big propaganda film for the New State was A Revolução de Maio (The May Revolution, 1937), whose script he wrote with António Ferro, the founder and director of the Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional (National Propaganda Office/SPN). The following year, he accompanied the head of the state, President Óscar Carmona, in a trip to the Portuguese colonies in Africa, shooting topical footage that would be used in several documentaries, as well as in his second propaganda feature film, Feitiço do Império (1940). Also in 1938, Ribeiro began producing for SPN the New State’s first newsreel, Jornal Português, which would last until 1951. With his production and distribution company Sociedade Portuguesa de Actualidades Cinematográficas (SPAC), he produced and directed many propaganda documentaries commissioned by the New State, thus earning the reputation of the regime’s official filmmaker and reinforcing his influence in the State-sponsored Sindicato Nacional dos Profissionais de Cinema (National Union of Cinema Professionals). In 1941, he founded Produções António Lopes Ribeiro, a production company that released famous comedies such as O Pai Tirano (1941), O Pátio das Cantigas (1942, directed by his brother, Francisco Ribeiro), or A Vizinha do Lado (1945); Manoel de Oliveira’s first feature film, Aniki-Bóbó (1942); or historical dramas such as Amor de Perdição (1943), Frei Luis de Sousa (1950) and O Primo Basílio (1959). Until 1974, Ribeiro produced or directed dozens of propaganda documentaries and newsreels. Between 1957 and 1974 he was also the author and host of a very popular TV show about the history of cinema titled “O Museu do Cinema” (“The Cinema Museum”).

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Camões poster
6.8

The adventurous life of Portugal's epic poet, Luis de Camões.

Camões

1946

Camões poster
6.8

The adventurous life of Portugal's epic poet, Luis de Camões.

Camões

1946

O Primo Basílio poster
6.8

Jorge, a successful engineer and employee of a ministry and Luísa, a romantic and dreamy girl, star as the typical bourgeois couple of the Lisbon society of the 19th century.

O Primo Basílio

1959

O Primo Basílio poster
6.8

Jorge, a successful engineer and employee of a ministry and Luísa, a romantic and dreamy girl, star as the typical bourgeois couple of the Lisbon society of the 19th century.

O Primo Basílio

1959

Frei Luís de Sousa poster
6.4

Seven years after the disastrous Battle of Alcácer Quibir, where King Sebastian and the nobleman Dom João disappeared, the latter's wife Dona Madalena de Vilhena finally gives up hope that he'll return and marries the knight Dom Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, with whom she has a daughter, who is afflicted by a fatal illness. Now only the tutor Telmo Pais retains the hope that the lost husband is alive, a premonition that may be confirmed after two decades, with the arrival of a mysterious pilgrim...

Frei Luís de Sousa

1950

Frei Luís de Sousa poster
6.4

Seven years after the disastrous Battle of Alcácer Quibir, where King Sebastian and the nobleman Dom João disappeared, the latter's wife Dona Madalena de Vilhena finally gives up hope that he'll return and marries the knight Dom Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, with whom she has a daughter, who is afflicted by a fatal illness. Now only the tutor Telmo Pais retains the hope that the lost husband is alive, a premonition that may be confirmed after two decades, with the arrival of a mysterious pilgrim...

Frei Luís de Sousa

1950

A Revolução de Maio poster
7.0

The most well-known fascist propaganda film in Portugal. A communist man falls in love with a woman of Salazarian beliefs and changes his way of looking at things.

A Revolução de Maio

1937

A Revolução de Maio poster
7.0

The most well-known fascist propaganda film in Portugal. A communist man falls in love with a woman of Salazarian beliefs and changes his way of looking at things.

A Revolução de Maio

1937

The Girl Next Door poster
8.0

The story of how the conflicting relationship of Eduardo and vaudeville actress Isabel is affected by the passion he feels for their neighbor, Mariana, a young overprotected, and the unexpected visit of his uncle Plácido, a moral teacher.

The Girl Next Door

1945

The Girl Next Door poster
8.0

The story of how the conflicting relationship of Eduardo and vaudeville actress Isabel is affected by the passion he feels for their neighbor, Mariana, a young overprotected, and the unexpected visit of his uncle Plácido, a moral teacher.

The Girl Next Door

1945

Aniki-Bóbó poster
7.6

Two schoolboys, Carlitos and Eduardo, fight for the affection of a girl, Teresinha.

Aniki-Bóbó

1942

No artwork available
9.0

Commemorative procession celebrating the eighth centenary of the inbreak of Lisbon from the Moors in 1147 by the forces of D. Afonso Henriques with the help of the Crusaders en route to the Holy Land.

O Cortejo Histórico de Lisboa

1947

The Spell of the Empire poster
7.5

Luís immigrated to the USA and intends to become an American. But after his father invites him on a journey to the Portuguese territories in Africa, he will find true love, and also learn to value his country and its colonial grandeur.

The Spell of the Empire

1940

The Spell of the Empire poster
7.5

Luís immigrated to the USA and intends to become an American. But after his father invites him on a journey to the Portuguese territories in Africa, he will find true love, and also learn to value his country and its colonial grandeur.

The Spell of the Empire

1940

Maria of the Sea poster
6.4

Falacha is the captain of a fishing boat, who loses his men in a shipwreck. Among them was the husband of Aurélia, who holds Falacha responsible for the tragedy. Maria, Falacha's daughter, falls in love with Manuel, Aurélia's son, a situation that their mothers refuse to accept.

Maria of the Sea

1930

Doomed Love poster
6.3

The fatalism caught up and the amorous tragedy between Teresa de Albuquerque and Simão Botelho, who survives the intolerant litigation of her noble families.

Doomed Love

1943

As Rodas de Lisboa poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

As Rodas de Lisboa

1951

No artwork available
8.0

The film documents the official visit of the President of the Portuguese Republic, Craveiro Lopes, to Brazil, and his meeting with the President of the Republic of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek, in June 20, 1957.

The Presidential Journey to Brazil

1957

The Tyrannical Father poster
7.9

While rehearsing the annual play, a clerk tries to regain the attention of his beloved, in a comedy of equivoques.

The Tyrannical Father

1941

The Tyrannical Father poster
7.9

While rehearsing the annual play, a clerk tries to regain the attention of his beloved, in a comedy of equivoques.

The Tyrannical Father

1941

The Tyrannical Father poster
7.9

While rehearsing the annual play, a clerk tries to regain the attention of his beloved, in a comedy of equivoques.

The Tyrannical Father

1941

The Courtyard of the Ballads poster
8.7

A portrait of the relations between neighbours in a Lisbon courtyard. A story made of small episodes of humour, friendship, rivalry, love.

The Courtyard of the Ballads

1942

The Courtyard of the Ballads poster
8.7

A portrait of the relations between neighbours in a Lisbon courtyard. A story made of small episodes of humour, friendship, rivalry, love.

The Courtyard of the Ballads

1942

No artwork available
NR

This documentary, produced in 1946 on the occasion of the half-century of Portuguese presence in Guinea-Bissau, reveals interesting contradictions. The activities and customs of the Guineans are filmed with a lot of attention and sometimes of proximity. Their resistance to colonization is even evoked, cleverly recovered by the comment which claims that they are all Portuguese. But the colonists are very few present: some dressed in a sparkling white costume and two very poor. The Africans, proud, talented, imposing, occupy the whole film.

Guinea-Bissau, Cradle of the Empire

1946