SÃO PAULO S. A.

In São Paulo in the late 1950's and early 1960's Carlos finds that he has changed from a student into something else when he gets a job in an automobile business run by Arturo, an Italian. He earns good money. He finds a girlfriend that he meets while taking an English course. He then gets married. However, he feels frustrated and does not have any real satisfactions. He becomes more and more enslaved to the city, to bourgeois society, and to business.

"This is his film with the largest cult following so far. It is a cardinal expression of urban uneasiness. The city is the protagonist. It is a classic, a first work. The forest of houses of the city of São Paulo always stays in the background of the scenes in São Paulo S. A. The action takes place between 1955 and 1961, during the boom of the automobile industry The actions unfold from the point of view of a middle-class young man with his social and existential unease. He gets a good job. He has a girlfriend. He lives unsatisfied and tries to escape before suffocating. His refrain is "start over…, start over…, start over.' The narration mixes past and present and so is fragmentary, agitated, and very agile. This film is pure Cinema Nôvo." (Jairo Ferreira)

Director and screenplay: Luiz Sérgio Person.
Director of photography: Ricardo Aronovich.
Art director: Jean Laffrent.
Editor: Glauco Mirko Laurelli.
Music: Claudia Petraglia.
Cast and characters: Walmor Chagas (Carlos), Ana Esmeralda (Hilda), Eva Wilma (Luciana), Otello Zeloni (Arturo), Darlene Glória (Ana), Osmano Cardoso, Cecília Rabelo, Armando Sganzerla, Nadir Fernandes, Sílvio Rocha, Altamiro Martins, João Chalherani.
Production company: Renato Magalhãs Gouvêia, Nelson de Mattos Penteado, Socine Produções Cinematográficas.