Carlos Melo Ferreira - Cinema: Uma Arte Impura

A study of cinema through visual, sound, audiovisual, and narrative perspectives, mapping out the history of film, its eras, major movements, and some of its most significant filmmakers and films. By revisiting cinematic history, we can better understand and contextualize the present.

The book explores color—its use and meaning—, genres, from their origins to the present day, and language, examining how words function as a unique form of cinematic expression. It also delves into the representation of the human figurein film, whether portrayed by actors or non-actors in fiction, documentary, and beyond, as well as the relationship between cinematic images and reality. A historical and conceptual framework of cinema and its language is established, highlighting key artistic trajectories up to the present while also considering its connections with other arts, forms of expression, and modes of communication. Through this network of films, filmmakers, and concepts, readers are offered multiple entry points to discover and build their own connections within cinema and beyond. This allows for a deeper understanding of cinema as both a language and an art, but also as a spectacle and an industry—one that has always recognized the audience as central to its evolution.