Happy 65th Birthday, Fernando Meirelles! Born today in 1955 as Fernando Ferreira Meirelles, this Brazilian screenwriter, producer and film director, of whom claims to "hate violent movies," certainly has an eye for beauty in brutality.
Born in São Paulo, Meirelles was a son to a gastroenterologist. His father travelled regularly to Asia and North America (among other regions of the world), which gave Fernando the opportunity for contact with different cultures and places.
Fernando is the second youngest of four children. He saw his older brother, José Marcos, pass in a car-bike accident when he was only four years old. His two sisters, Márcia and Silvinha, graduated in theater and psychology, respectively.
Regarding his brother's death, Meirelles has said: "A great tragedy for the family. For a long time, it was a taboo. No one mentioned it. I was four when it happened, but I still remember him."
Meirelles' first experience with cinema was with his father, who often directed 8 mm films during his job at the university. He produced mostly western and thriller parodies, using his relatives and friends as actors.
In 1967, at eleven, Meirelles spent a year in the United States in California, where he had contact with the hippie movement, which impressed him. At thirteen, with a borrowed Super 8 camera,
Meirelles started producing small films, inspired by pioneer Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer Norman McLaren's animations, known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
During the 1980s, Meirelles studied at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning program at the University of São Paulo.
His graduation work was done in the form of a film, instead of the traditional designs of the other students: he went to Japan and bought professional video equipment to do the job. He presented it and graduated with the minimum acceptable grade.
While studying architecture at the University of São Paulo, Meirelles became involved in experimental filmmaking.
After several years in independent television, he became an advertisement film director. He is still one of the partners of O2 Filmes, the biggest Brazilian advertisement firm.
Along with four friends, Meirelles began his career with experimental films. Eventually, they formed an independent production company Othar Eletrônico.
This would later become one of Brazil's two leading video production companies of the 1980s, playing a key-role in consolidating Brazilian video art.
By the end of the 1980s, Meirelles became increasingly interested on the advertising market. In 1990, Meirelles and friends closed down Othar Eletrônico.
After one decade, this was enough for Meirelles to become one of the most important and sought-after advertising producers.
In the late 1990s, Meirelles read Brazilian author Paulo Lins' 1997 semi-autobiographical crime fiction novel Cidade de Deus (City of God). It is the only novel by Lins that has been published. It also took Lins one decade to complete the book.
Meirelles decided to adapt the novel to film, of which was completed in 2002.
For him, this would be the first film of which he would be best known for co-directing. This alongside Brazilian film director and screenwriter Kátia Lund.
Aside from Brazil, 'City' of God' would also be shot in France and Germany.
Meirelles decided that the actors in it would be selected among the inhabitants of slums.
In a final triage, from four hundred children, they selected two hundred, with whom they worked for the shooting of the feature.
The filming was done with a professional crew. The film was shot on location in Rio's poorest neighborhoods.
Set in the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths.
Rocket (Seu Jorge) is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood.
José "Zé" Pequeno (Leandro Firmino da Hora) is an ambitious drug dealer who uses Rocket and his photos as a way to increase his fame as a turf war erupts with his rival, vigilante-turned criminal "Knockout Ned" (Matheus Nachtergaele).
The tagline for City of God' is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you." It is frequently listed as one of the greatest films of all time.
Upon release, 'City of God' became a national and international success. On a budget of $3.3 million, the film grossed $30.6 million at the box office.
Meirelles and Lund later went on to create the Brazilian drama television programme City of Men (2002–2005).
The series was watched by thirty-five million viewers in Brazil and was released internationally on DVD shortly after ‘City of God’.
The programme is often cited as a "spin-off" of ‘City of God’. However, City of Men is a less violent and more light-hearted affair with dramedy elements (the film adaptation is darker, sharing its roots of ‘City of God’).
The series tells the stories of Luis Cláudio and Uólace, better known by their nicknames Acerola (Silva) and Laranjinha (Cunha), respectively.
The following year, in his January 2003 article of the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote: "City of God" churns with furious energy as it plunges into the story of the slum gangs of Rio de Janeiro.
Breathtaking and terrifying, urgently involved with its characters, it announces a new director of great gifts and passions: Fernando Meirelles. Remember the name.
The film has been compared with Scorsese's "GoodFellas," and it deserves the comparison.
Scorsese's film began with a narrator who said that for as long as he could remember he wanted to be a gangster. The narrator of this film seems to have had no other choice.”
Ebert concluded his review by saying: In its actual level of violence, "City of God" is less extreme than Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," but the two films have certain parallels.
In both films, there are really two cities: the city of the employed and secure, who are served by law and municipal services, and the city of the castaways, whose alliances are born of opportunity and desperation. Those who live beneath rarely have their stories told.
"City of God" does not exploit or condescend, does not pump up its stories for contrived effect, does not contain silly and reassuring romantic sidebars, but simply looks, with a passionately knowing eye, at what it knows.”
Three months later, the film was nominated a BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language. However, it only won for Best Editing. This occurred at the 56th British Academy Film Awards in mid-April 2003.
One year later, 'City of God' was Brazil's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film. It was nominated for four Oscar nominations, being Best Director, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.
However, it did not win, nor ended up being nominated as one of the five finalists. This occurred at the 76th Academy Awards in late February 2004.
With this newfound recognition, Meirelles was offered a job in Hollywood. One year later, Meirelles directed the second film of which he is best known.
This was the 2005 British/German/Kenyan/French/American/Chinese drama thriller/mystery film 'The Constant Gardener'.
The film is based on the British author of espionage novels David John Moore Cornwell's (better known by the pen name John le Carré) 2001 suspense thriller fiction novel of the same name.
Assigned to a new post, low-level British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) relocates to Kenya with his lovely young wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz), an activist for social justice.
When Tessa is found murdered out in the wilderness, circumstances point to her friend, Dr. Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Koundé), but it is soon clear that he's not the killer.
Grief-stricken and angry, Justin sets out to uncover the truth behind Tessa's murder -- and in the process, he unearths some disturbing revelations.
The following year, 'The Constant Gardener' received three Oscar nominations for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Editing, and Best Music (Original Score).
For the score, Meirelles had insisted that the soundtrack be based on the music of African countries, and most of the filming was done in Kenya.
However, the film only one won for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Rachel Weisz). This occurred at the 78th Academy Awards in early March 2006.
One month later, the film was nominated for six BAFTA Awards. However, it only won one for Best Editing. This occurred at the 59th British Academy Film Awards in mid-March 2006.
Two years after the television series had ended, the feature-length 2007 Brazilian drama/crime film ‘Cidade dos Homens’ (‘City of Men’) was released (produced by Fox and TV Globo). It was based on the series of the same name.
The film shared some of the actors (notably leads Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha) and their setting with ‘City of God’.
Both are two best friends who live in a notorious Rio slum, in a community of drug-dealers, hustlers, and teenagers struggling to fulfill their dreams.
The film and the series do in fact share some common aspects: the directors, some of the actors, and the setting of the Brazilian favela with its background of gangsters and poverty.
Three years later, Meirelles co-produced the 2010 British-Brazilian documentary film 'Waste Land'. The film shows that on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill.
This was where men and women sift through the refuse for a living. This includes Brazilian artist, photographer and sculptor Vik Munez, of whom works with the so-called catadores.
He later selects six of the garbage pickers to pose as subjects in a series of photographs mimicking famous paintings. In his desire to assist the catadores and change their lives, Muniz finds himself changed as well.
In August six years later, Meirelles was one of the creative directors behind the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. For the event, he had worked on a shoestring budget equivalent to less than £5 million ($6,380,000).
According to Meirelles' personal life, he has been married to actress and dancer Ciça Meirelles since 1983. They have two children together: a daughter, Carolina Meirelles (b. 1984) and a son, Brazilian film director Francisco "Kiko" Meirelles (b. 1988).
Meirelles has been active from 1982–present.
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