Portuguese director Antonio Pedro Vasconcelos, composer of films such as “O Lugar do Morto” and “Os Immortais”, died in Lisbon at the age of 84, his family announced in a statement.
“The family of Antonio Pedro Vasconcelos informs us that our A-PV aircraft left tonight, just a few days before completing 85 years of a wonderful life,” it can be read in the statement issued today.
The director was born in Leiria, and died on Tuesday night in Hospital da Luz in Lisbon. I will celebrate my new birthday on March 10, next Sunday.
“Every year, every month, every day, of this extraordinary life that he spent with us made us the happiest people in the world. And certainly, many others too, thanks to his work, his talent, his countless struggles and his countless emotions.”, highlights His family in a statement.
“Today, more than ever, we are certain that our A-PV, who fought so hard for us all to be fairer, more healthy, more aware, and always with the same seriousness and dignity as him, will always be immortal. We know” How lucky we were. We will always live full of pride,” the note adds.
As a director, producer, critic and teacher, having founded the Portuguese Center for Cinema, Antônio Pedro Vasconcelos has been a strong advocate for the existence of cinema for the general public.
As such, he was responsible for some of the most commercially successful films and one of the inescapable names of Portuguese Cinema Novo, whose first feature film was “Perdido porcento…” (1973), where he was assistant to Paulo Branco, who produced the film Next “Oxalá” (1981).
There was a rift between the two, the details of which he never wanted to reveal, and which lasted for decades, with Antonio Pedro himself producing the next film, which changed his career forever and was, for many years, his biggest success ever. Cinema, with more than 300 thousand spectators: the unmissable “O Lugar do Morto” (1984), a “thriller” in which Anna Zanati is presented as a “femme fatale” who involves a journalist in a plot of seduction and crime (her role Pedro Oliveira, well-known journalist at RTP).
Antonio Pedro will only return with the ambitious historical film “Aqui D'El Rei”! (1992), but I found commercial success only with the next work, “Jaime” (1999), with Saúl Fonseca, Fernanda Serrano, and Joaquim Leitao, which received the “Silver Shell” award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Portuguese Golden Globe Awards for Best… film. Film and best director.
It was also in this film that he worked for the first time with Nicolau Brenner (1940-2016), who became an inescapable presence in his cinema, in the media, and with popular and controversial titles such as “Immortals” (2003), “Cool Girl” (2003). (2007), “The Beauty and the Photographer” (2010), and “Cats Don't Get Dizzy” (2014).
There was another famous artistic connection with Soraia Chaves, with “Call Girl”, “A Bela eo Paparazzo” and “Amor Impossível” (2015).
With “Parky Meyer” (2018) he gave the first major role to Daniela Melchior, who launched a relevant international career.
The last film, “Km 224”, starring Ana Varela and José Fidalgo, was released in April 2022, produced by Paulo Branco, resuming the cooperation that had stopped more than 30 years ago, due to a “somewhat shocking” separation, he told SAPO. mag at the time.
As a producer, he co-created VO Filmes, Opus Filmes and Centro Português de Cinema, which produced most of the Cinema Novo films.
He also headed the editorial team of the newspaper O Cinéfilo with the director João César Monteiro, and was a literary and film critic, historian and television commentator, “with a strong civic involvement,” as José Jorge Letería wrote in a book of interviews with the director. “The Mother of a Director Condemned to Freedom” (2016).
He also had an active presence among citizens, including recently through the Associação Peço a Palavra, which fought against the privatization of TAP.
Greetings from the Portuguese Film Academy
It is with great sadness that the Portuguese Film Academy conveys the news of the death of producer, critic, professor and director Antonio Pedro Vasconcelos.
An honorary member of the Academy and winner of the 2020 Sofia Professional Prize, APV attended law courses at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, and cinematography at the Sorbonne University.
Responsible for some of the biggest commercial successes in Portuguese cinemas, he is one of the unmissable names in Portuguese cinema.
His first films, “Perdido por Cem” (1973) (produced by Centro Português de Cinema) and “Oxalá” (1980), were strongly influenced by the Nouvelle Vague. The next two films, “O Lugar do Morto” (1984) and “Jaime” (1999), were huge hits with the audience. He has directed documentary and feature series for television, as was the case with the Portuguese-French co-productions “Aqui d'El Rei” (1992), “Mílu, a Menina da Rádio” (2007) and more recently “A Voz e Ears of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” (2017). .
He directed The Immortals (2003), Call Girl2 (2007), and Beauty and the Paparazzo (2010), and in 2015 he won the Sofia Award for Best Picture and Best Director for The Cats Don't Have Vertigens. He directed in 2014. Most recently, he directed “Amor Impossível” (2015), for which he won the “Sofia” Award for Best Film, and “Parque Mayer” (2017), for which he won the “Sofia” Award for Best Director. In 2022 he made KM 224, which in 2023 led to a TV mini-series of the same name.
Besides directing, he was a film producer, being one of the founders of VO Filmes, Opus Filmes and the Centro Português de Cinema cooperative, which produced most of Cinema Novo Português' films. He was a presenter of Cineclub on RTP2; He was a literary and film critic, headed the editorial team of O Cinéfilo (Cinema Supplement and O Século) with João César Monteiro, was a columnist for Visão and director of A Semana, a supplement for the Independente.
A campaigner for civic causes, he was also a professor at the Film School of the National Conservatory and coordinator of the Film, Television and Advertising degree in Cinema at the Modern University of Lisbon.
Our sincere condolences to all his family, colleagues and friends.
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