Rogério Sganzerla
Biography
Rogério Sganzerla (1946 — 2004) was a Brazilian filmmaker and one of the main names of the Cinema de Invenção (or Cinema Marginal) underground movement. Influenced by Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, and José Mojica Marins, Sganzerla often used clichés from film noir and pornochanchadas. Irony, narrative subversion and collage were trademarks of his film aesthetics. Sganzerla was born in Joaçaba, in the state of Santa Catarina, but moved with his family to São Paulo at a very young age, living there for most of his life. During the 1960s he wrote for the newspaper "O Estado de S. Paulo" ("The State of S. Paulo") as film critic, quickly being recognised as a young talent. In 1967, Sganzerla directed his first short film, "Documentário" ("Documentary"), winning an award at the JB-Mesbla 16mm Festival. "Documentário" was quickly followed up by his first feature-length film in 1968, "O Bandido da Luz Vermelha" ("The Red Light Bandit"), which became a landmark for the movement known as Cinema de Invenção or Cinema Marginal and is still Sganzerla's most well-known film. In 1970, he founded the "Bel-Air Filmes" production company along with fellow Cinema de Invenção filmmaker Júlio Bressane. Headed by Sganzerla, the company produced his films "Copacabana Mon Amour", "Carnaval na Lama" and "Sem Essa, Aranha" and Bressane's "A Família do Barulho", "Barão Olavo, o Horrível" and "Cuidado, Madame", all shot in Brazil during four months of 1970 and edited abroad, in England, when both Sganzerla and Bressane were banished from their home country by the then rulling military dictatorship. While in exile, both Sganzerla and Bressane continued to shoot new films. Sganzerla's personal obsessions, such as director Orson Welles (and his infamous visit to Brazil) and musicians Noel Rosa and Jimi Hendrix, appear in many of his films, going as far as being the main subject in some of them. In 1985, Sganzerla directed the docufiction "Nem Tudo É Verdade" ("It's Not All True") about Orson Welles' arrival in Brazil to film his unfinished documentary "It's All True". Sganzerla died in 2004, of a brain tumor, shortly after finishing his last film "O Signo do Caos" ("The Sign of Chaos"). Description above from the Wikipedia article Rogério Sganzerla licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For & Full Filmography22 Titles
Movie - 2026, 2h 15m • as Rogério Sganzerla (Imagens de Arquivo)
During a screening of Oedipus Rex in a run-down movie theater in downtown Rio, three peculiar characters—a frustrated projectionist, his intern, and a wandering poet—decide to interrupt the film to discuss the death of cinema. The audience revolts. So does the film.
Movie - 1970, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Segment "Prólogo": interviews and scenes with some of the most important filmmakers of the "Boca do Lixo" of São Paulo. Segment "A Badaladíssima dos Trópicos x Os Picaretas do Sexo": shenanigans of a troubled fictional film production. Segment "Amor 69": Actress Maria Vargas is expected to appear nude in a scene, but ultimately refuses to do so.
Movie - 2019, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Extracts is a short film with images from 1970 to 1972 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, London, Marrakech, Rabat and the Sahara Desert region. The images were filmed by Helena Ignez and Rogério Sganzerla in exile, in the "leaden years" of the military dictatorship.
Movie - 2023, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
For this behemoth, Bressane took his opera omnia and edited it in an order that first adheres to historical chronology but soon starts to move backwards and forward. The various pasts – the 60s, the 80s, the 2000s – comment on each other in a way that sheds light on Bressane’s themes and obsessions, which become increasingly apparent and finally, a whole idea of cinema reveals itself to the curious and patient viewer. Will Bressane, from now on, rework The Long Voyage of the Yellow Bus when he makes another film? Is this his latest beginning? Why not, for the eternally young master maverick seems to embark on a maiden voyage with each and every new film!
Movie - 2020, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
In 1965, a year after the military coup in Brazil, an oasis of freedom opened in the country's capital. The Brasília Film Festival: a landmark of cultural and political resistance. Its story is that of Brazilian cinema itself.
Movie - 2017, 2h 15m • as Self
Two years of research and visits to collections, cinematheques and museums; almost seventy interviews that generated 30 hours of recorded material; more than two hundred scanned photos and more than one hundred films watched. In total, more than a thousand hours of work were needed to prepare Brazilian Cinema in the 20th Century. The work is a fascinating journey through all the cinematic cycles that Brazil lived, from the pioneering Belle Époque, through the great studios like Atlântica and Cinédia, Cinema Novo, the urban comedies of the 70's, until the resumption in the late 90's. The documentary is unique, it gives the floor to who really wrote and lived this story intensely.
Movie - 2017, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
A rescue of the history of Ipanema beach in the 1970s, when the construction of a pier changed the landscape and created fertile soil for a generation of artists and sportsmen.
Movie - 1968, 2h 15m • as Man in the theater (uncredited)
Born and raised in the misery of Brazilian slums, Jorge becomes a luxury house burglar in São Paulo and gets nicknamed "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. In addition to wearing a red flashlight, he talks to his hostages in an irreverent tone and makes bold breakthroughs to later spend the money extravagantly. His world is the decadent neighbourhood of Boca do Lixo.
Movie - 2009, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Between February an May of 1970, Julio Bresane and Rogerio Sganzerla made 7 films for their company Belair that were forbidden by the Brazilian censorship that reveal today images of an unique freedom.
Movie - 1990, 2h 15m • as Self
Orson Welles acted in Brazilian culture and music by deeply researching Brazil's historical geology, consciously completing a legendary cultural mission. Although being turned down by Hollywood producers, he developed a triumphantly accomplished mission in the language domain - three friends of Welles' testified his love for cinema, his passion for Brazilian music and people and his obstinate endurance against formidable pressures coming from inside and outside Hollywood regarding his unfinished "It's All True".
Movie - 2003, 2h 15m • as Self
Documentary about Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha, one of the most important names in the Cinema Novo, with interviews with some of his friends and colleagues.
Movie - 1992, 2h 15m • as Self
A documentary chronicling the life and works of Brazilian poet, songwriter, journalist and avant-garde filmmaker Torquato Neto, from his beginnings to his suicide at the age of 28.
Movie - 2005, 2h 15m • as Himself (archive footage) / (Voz em Off)
A short documentary on Belair, an independent Brazilian film company that lasted for only five months in 1970.
Movie - 2021, 2h 15m • as Self
An authentically marginal cinema created in Catholic university in Brazil. One of the most intriguing and imaginative moments in modern cinema in the voice of some of its select conspirators—with Carlos Reichenbach at the lead—, and through the most razing flow of images that can possibly be conceived.
Movie - 2020, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
Ivan Cardoso is the inventor of the terrir, a subgenre that mixes comedy, Brazilian chanchadas and classic American horror. This film promotes a rescue of his work by mixing archival material, animations and fictional reconstructions.
Movie - 2019, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
Helena Ignez is one of the main female figures of Brazilian cinema. She developed a new style of acting. Nowadays, she directs independent films. The documentary tells some of the History of Brazilian cinema, its political context and Helena's trajectory.
Movie - 2014, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
A documentary on the restoration of Rogério Sganzerla's 1970 film "Copacabana, Mon Amour".
Movie - 2005, 2h 15m • as Self
Compilation of early Ivan Cardoso's films in Super 8, including "Nosferato no Brasil (Nosferato in Brazil)"
Movie - 1981, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Homage to the great Brazilian samba songwriter Noel Rosa (1910-1937).
Movie - 1978, 2h 15m • as Himself
An unusual look at 1978 Brasilia Film Festival and the politics that make certain films fashionable or not.
Movie - 2012, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A documentary on prolific underground Brazilian filmmaker Rogério Sganzerla.
Movie - 1991, 2h 15m • as Himself
In this short film, Ivan Cardoso records Brazilian film director Rogério Sganzerla sending a message to Brazil.