Manuel Guimarães

Personal Info

Known For Director

Gender Male

Manuel Guimarães

Biography

Manuel Guimarães (1915–1975) was a Portuguese filmmaker. In 1931, Guimarães studied painting in the School of Fine Arts in Oporto. He started to work in 1936 as a theater scenographer, illustrator and cartoonist, as well as a film poster designer. He became interested in cinematic art, and started out as assistant of directors as Manoel de Oliveira, António Lopes Ribeiro, Jorge Brum do Canto, Arthur Duarte and Armando de Miranda. In 1949, he directed the short documentary O Desterrado, a film about the life and craft of the Portuguese sculptor Soares dos Reis. Saltimbancos as his first feature-film, which is an adaptation of the novel Circo (Circus) of the writer Leão Penedo. The plot is centered on the life of a small travelling circus. Meanwhile, Guimarães worked in advertising in Metro Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1952, Manuel Guimarães directed Nazaré, whose script was written by the neo-realist writer Alves Redol, portraying the life of the fishermen from Nazaré. The film had several cuts caused by censorship. Vidas Sem Rumo (1956), script by Manuel Guimarães and dialogues by Alves Redol, suffered even worse cuts: about half of the film was cut and entire scenes were removed, becoming an almost unintelligible film. Being constantly attacked by the regime, Guimarães opted to direct more commercial movies about sport events, since 1956. In his attempt to return to fiction, (A Costureirinha da Sé – 1958) Manuel had to accept product placement in the film. His next works were essentially documentaries promoting Portuguese towns and products. António da Cunha Telles, who meanwhile began to produce the first films of the Portuguese Cinema Novo (New Cinema), became interested in him and accepted to do an executive production and co-production of two of his next films: O Crime da Aldeia Velha (1964), an adaptation of a Bernardo Santareno play and O trigo e o Joio (1965) based in the book with the same name, by Fernando Namora, who wrote the script as well. However, the public preferred a different kind of cinema, more entertaining, and Guimarães turn again to art documentary. Manuel Guimarães had some periods where he returned to illustration and graphic works in newspapers and other publications and continued painting, specially in the end of his life, but without any public expression. The 25 de Abril brought him hope, but it was too late. Ill, Manuel Guimarães couldn't end his last film, Cântico Final, adapted from the novel with the same name wrote by Virgílio Ferreira. The film was ended by his son, Dórdio Guimarães.

Known For

Director

1975
Cântico Final

as Director

1973
1970
Resende

as Director

1969
A Terra e o Homem

as Director

1969
António Duarte

as Director

1968
O Ritmo na Vida

as Director

1968
Tráfego e Estiva

as Director

1967
Artes Gráficas

as Director

1967
1965
1959
1959
O Primo Basílio

as Assistant Director

1956
Vidas sem Rumo

as Director

1952
Nazaré

as Director

1951
The Circus

as Director

1950
Frei Luís de Sousa

as Assistant Director

1947
The Lion from Estrela

as Assistant Director

1942
Aniki-Bóbó

as Assistant Director

Producer

1975
Cântico Final

as Producer

1965
1959
1951
The Circus

as Producer

Editor

1975
Cântico Final

as Editor

1969
António Duarte

as Editor

1968
1959

Writer

1975
Cântico Final

as Screenplay

1956
Vidas sem Rumo

as Screenplay

1952
Nazaré

as Screenplay

1951
The Circus

as Screenplay

Art

1959
My Little Seamstress

as Production Design

1951
The Circus

as Production Design