ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the film Sao Paulo: A Symphonia da Metropole directed by Adalberto Kemeny and Rudolpho Rex Lustig. The film was released by the Brazilian branch of Paramount; their press releases describe it as depicting the "thundering rhythms of progress" of the "brain-city of Brazil." Sao Paulo: a Symphonia da Metropole is clearly inspired by Ruttmann's Berlin and Alberto Cavalcanti's Rien que les heures. In contrast to Berlin and Man with a Movie Camera, Kemeny and Lustig use numerous intertitles, giving us information on the locales and institutions as well as on their history. In the middle of the film, after the lunch break scenes with panoramic shots taken from a loudspeaker above the city, there is an arrival by train, which marks a sudden change in style. The film is emphasized in one of the first intertitles, in which filmmakers dedicate their city symphony to the inhabitants of the Brazilian metropolis.
