Rio de Janeiro.- Director and producer Luiz Carlos Barreto, one of the great names of Brazilian cinema, died this Wednesday at 98 years of age in Rio de Janeiro, according to what his family reported to local media.
Barreto, a representative of the movement known as “Cinema Novo,” had been admitted for a few days to a hospital in Rio, where he passed away at dawn due to causes not disclosed so far, according to the newspapers Folha de São Paulo and O Globo.
His state of health had been delicate since he suffered a serious fall about two years ago that left him paraplegic.
Born in Sobral, in the arid interior of the state of Ceará (northeast), in 1928, ‘Barretão’, as he was called in the film world, developed a long and prolific career spanning more than six decades.
Before cinema, he ventured into journalism. He wrote for the Communist Party newspaper, which was illegal at the time, which motivated him to move to Rio de Janeiro, where he was a reporter and photographer for the magazine ‘O Cruzeiro’.
We recommend reading: Lula does not plan to attend the inaugurations of De la Espriella or Fujimori
More Read
He discovered his cinematic vocation when he met Glauber Rocha, a key figure and theoretical leader of ‘Cinema Novo,’ a movement that denounced the enormous social inequalities and racism that Brazil still suffers today during the 60s and 70s, in the midst of the military dictatorship (1964-1985).
Although he also worked in the seventh art as a photographer and screenwriter, his most recognized work was as a producer.
In this sense, he set up his own production company together with his wife Lucy Barreto, LC Barreto, from which he brought to light more than 70 films, some of enormous success, such as ‘Dona Flor e seus dois maridos’ (1976), directed by Bruno Barreto, his eldest son.
More Read
He also produced ‘O Quatrilho’ (1995) and ‘O que é isso, companheiro?’ (1997), with both works being nominated for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
His other two children, Fábio, who passed away in November 2019 at the age of 62 after remaining in a coma for about a decade due to a car accident, and Paula Barreto, who today is in charge of the family production company, also dedicated themselves to cinema.
“The cinema virus infected my whole family,” he said in his latest interview with ‘O Globo’. In fact, many of his grandchildren also worked at LC Barreto.
