Alberto Cavalcanti

Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti". Early life Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. He was a precociously intelligent child and, by the age of 15, was studying law at university, but was expelled following an argument with a professor. His father sent him to Geneva, Switzerland, on condition that he did not study law or politics. Cavalcanti chose to study architecture instead. At 18, he moved to Paris to work for an architect, later switching to working in interior design. After a visit to Brazil, he took up a position at the Brazilian consulate in Liverpool, England. Cavalcanti corresponded with Marcel L'Herbier, a leading light in France's avant-garde film movement, which led to a job offer from L'Herbier for Cavalcanti to work as a set designer. Film career In 1920, Cavalcanti left his job at the consulate and moved back to France to work for L'Herbier. Directing his first film in 1926, he was involved in the making of numerous others, the most notable being L'Inhumaine. Cavalcanti was soon making his own films, the first being a 1926 experimental documentary, Rien que les heures (Nothing But Time), showing a day in the life of Paris and its citizens. After the advent of talkies, he took a job at the French studios of Paramount Pictures, but found himself making more commercial films, which did not hold his interest, so he left Paramount in 1933.