Cinema
Dom Roberto
Ernesto de Sousa · 1962
Synopsis
In the poor districts of Lisbon, João Barbelas, a dreamy vagabond, earns his living by showing puppets on street corners; the kids call him Dom Roberto. He finds himself on the street, meets Maria, a young woman with a sad past, and naively believes he has found lodgings for both of them. Love and joie de vivre settle in, but hunger does not let go of them.
Context
The film was produced outside the system, by a cooperative of spectators founded for it, without official support, and shot in the summer of 1961. It is based on a tale by Leão Penedo, which the director adapted himself. Its hero openly evokes Chaplin's tramp, carries his puppet everywhere and speaks through it even at home. Released at the Império cinema on 30 May 1962, it won at Cannes, in the International Critics' Week, the Young Critics' Prize and that of the Association of Cinema for Youth; but its author was arrested by the political police in May 1963, as he was leaving to attend.
Who it is for
A black-and-white feature film, in Portuguese, of about a hundred minutes; Dom Roberto is the name of the hero's puppet show.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first major break with the old Portuguese cinema and as the first film of the New Cinema.
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