Alberto Cavalcanti

Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti".

Early life Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. but was expelled following an argument with a professor. His father sent him to Geneva, Switzerland, on condition that he did not study law or politics. Cavalcanti chose to study architecture instead. At 18, he moved to Paris to work for an architect, later switching to working in interior design.

Cavalcanti corresponded with Marcel L'Herbier, a leading light in France's avant-garde film movement, which led to a job offer from L'Herbier for Cavalcanti to work as a set designer.

Film career In 1920, Cavalcanti left his job at the consulate and moved back to France to work for L'Herbier. Directing his first film in 1926, he was involved in the making of numerous others, the most notable being L'Inhumaine. He worked as an art editor, producer and director, and his most notable works of this period (many of them propaganda films) were Yellow Caesar (1941), Went the Day Well? (1942), Three Songs of Resistance (1943), Champagne Charlie (1944), Dead of Night (as co-director) (1945) and Nicholas Nickleby (1947). After being blacklisted in Brazil as a communist, he moved back to Europe, spending much of the 1960s and 1970s working as an itinerant film maker in various countries, including East Germany, France and Israel.

Cavalcanti died in Paris at the age of 85.

Filmography as director France 1926 Rien que les heures 1927 Le train sans yeux 1927 1927 En rade 1928 Yvette 1928 La jalousie du barbouille 1928 Captain Fracasse 1929 Le petit chaperon rouge 1929 Vous verrez la semaine prochaine 1930 Toute sa vie 1930 A canção do berço 1930 À mi-chemin du ciel 1931 The Devil's Holiday 1931 Dans une ile perdue 1932 En lisant le journal 1932 Le jour du frotteur 1932 Revue Montmartroise 1932 Nous ne ferrons jamais du cinéma 1932 Le truc du brésilien 1933 Le mari garon 1933 Plaisirs défendus 1933 Tour de chant 1934 Coralie and Company

GPO & Crown Film Units 1934 Pett and Pott: A fairy story of the suburbs 1934 The glorious Sixth of June: New rates 1935 The King's Stamp 1935 Coal Face 1936 Message from Geneva 1937 Line to Tcherva Hut 1937 Men of the Alps (co-prod with Switzerland) 1937 Roadways 1937 We Live In Two Worlds 1937 Who writes to Switzerland? 1937 Four barriers 1938 Mony a pickle 1938 Happy in the morning: A film fantasy 1939 Mid-summer day's work 1939 The Chiltern country 1940 Alice in Switzerland 1940 La cause commune 1940 Factory front 1940 Mastery of the sea

Ealing and UK 1941 Yellow Caesar (short) 1942 Went the Day Well? 1943 Watertight (short) 1943 Three Songs of Resistance 1944 Champagne Charlie 1945 Dead of Night ('Christmas party' & 'ventriloquist' episodes) 1947 Nicholas Nickleby 1947 They Made Me a Fugitive 1947 The First Gentleman 1949 For Them That Trespass 1961 The Monster of Highgate Ponds

Brazil and others 1950 Caiçara (Brazil) 1952 Simão, o caolho (Brazil) 1952 Song of the Sea (Brazil) 1955 Mulher de verdade (Brazil) 1955/60 Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti (Austria/East Germany) 1957 Die Windrose (East Germany) 1959 Venetian Honeymoon (France/Italy) 1967 Thus Spoke Theodore Herzl (Israel) 1969 Les empailles (France) 1971 La visite de la vieille dame (France) 1976 Le voyageur du silence (France) 1976 Um homem e o cinema (Brazil)