Do laivo humanista no Cinema do Pós-Guerra

: Ozu, Mizoguchi, Bresson e Rohmer

Abstract

It is the aim of this work to ponder the viability of a “humanist” kind of cinema, by means of both the Humanist doctrine and the national cinemas of Japan and France, whose production quality and quantity are consensually championed among scholars to rival the hegemonic Hollywood. Amid the immensity of filmmakers and masterworks that constitute both legacies, there was a focus on four renowned and idiosyncratic directors who have excelled in the post-war period: the Japanese Yasujirō Ozu (1903–1963) and Kenji Mizoguchi (1898–1956), as well as the French Robert Bresson (1901–1999) and Éric Rohmer (1920–2010), from whom we chose for humanist diagnosis Late Spring (Banshun, 1949), A Story from Chikamatsu (also known as The Crucified Lovers) (Chikamatsu Monogatari, 1954), Mouchette (Mouchette, 1967), and My Night at Maud’s (Ma Nuit Chez Maud, 1969), respectively. Although all distinct from one another, these titles are linked by an incontestable common denominator: the osmosis between content and form, the singularity and refinement of the visual grammar – trademark of each of the four auteurs –, and the rare capacity to stimulate a meditation on the relationship of Man with his condition and fate, features without which these films would lose most of their very own identity and the overwhelming power that, after all, immortalized them in the pantheon of Cinema.

Date of Award	13 Jan 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Paulo André da Silva Rodrigues (Supervisor)