From architecture to cinema: Fernando Meirelles’ best films

Son of a doctor, Fernando Meirelles has always traveled to different places. As a teenager, his father gave him a camcorder, hence his love for the cinema. He studied architecture and town planning at USP. After some work in the audiovisual field, at the end of the 90s Fernando won the book Cidade de Deus and decided to produce and direct the film based on the work, becoming a powerful feature in the history of the Brazilian filmography of all time. From then on, his career as a filmmaker took off and in 2005 he made his first international production, Jardineiro Fiel.

Meirelles is one of the best-known Brazilian filmmakers internationally, even with an Oscar nomination for Best Director. Today he’s turning 66 and we’ve decided to name some of his great movies.

the city of god

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Perhaps the Masterpiece of Meirelles’ career, a film that will remain etched in the memory of all the moviegoers and moviegoers who have watched it, an impressive production from our audiovisual industry. In 2002, Cidade de Deus, adapted from the eponymous book by Paulo Lins, arrived in cinemas all over Brazil. In the film we discover the trajectory of the Cidade de Deus, from the 60s to the beginning of the 80s. Through the stories of characters living in the region, we see stories that led the place to be considered as one of the most violent regions. in Rio de Janeiro.

The faithful gardener

One of the highest budget films of all Meirelles productions to date ($ 25 million), and its first international feature in its program, The Faithful Gardener is based on the eponymous novel by the British writer ( who has many books on espionage) John le Carré. In the plot, we meet a British diplomat working in Nairobi, Kenya, who decides to investigate the reasons for the murder of his wife, a human rights activist. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning in the Best Supporting Actress category (Rachel Weisz).

Essay on blindness

In 2008, Meirelles brought to the screen the homonymous adaptation of the work of Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, Essay on Blindness. Shot in Brazil, Canada and Uruguay, the film shows us an epidemic known as white blindness that is hitting a city. A doctor’s wife is the only person who can still see. She goes to a shelter with her blind husband and finds other people in the same situation as hers. The cast is very good, names like: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael García Bernal, Danny Glover, Sandra Oh and Alice Braga fill the screen with emotion.

two popes

A church that marries one age will be widowed in the next age. Dois Papas is a retreat of thought, two of the greatest artists of their generations, tango vs pretzel, all wrapped up in hypotheses of days of dialogue between two completely different minds who love the same God. Nominated in certain Golden Globe and Oscar categories, this Netflix production is a light film, where the magic operates in the dialogues.

national

From the play Domésticas by Renata Melo, we meet five characters who are great female fighters. They all have different dreams but live the same reality: to work as a domestic worker. The film shot at numerous festivals across Brazil and was also screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

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