Cléo de Verberena

Cleo de Verberena
Born Jacira Martins Silveira
c.1909
Amparo, São Paulo, Brazil
Died 6 October 1972
São Paulo, Brazil
Citizenship Brazilian, Chilean
Occupation Actress, film director, film producer
Children César Augusto Melani
Parents
  • José Martins Ribeiro Jr. (father)
  • Júlia Pereira da Silveira (mother)

Jacira Martins Silveira (c.1909 - 6 October 1972), known by her stage name Cléo de Verberena, was a Brazilian actress and film director. She is widely considered as the first Brazilian woman to direct a film, the 1931 production O Mistério do Dominó Preto, on which she also starred and produced.[1][2]

Biography

Jacira Martins Silveira was born in 1909 in the city of Amparo. At the age of fifteen she moved to São Paulo to complete her education. There, she performed in the revue theater Teatro Central. She fell in love with cinema, becoming interested in acting and filmmaking. Her favorite directors were Von Stronheim and Fred Niblo and her favorite actress was Greta Garbo.[3]

At a party, she met César Melani, the son of Ângelo Melani and Amabile Faci, landowners of Franca, with whom she would eventually marry and make films. In 1930 they founded their studio Épica Films, in the district of Perdizes in São Paulo.[4] Jacira adopted the artist name "Cléo de Verberena" and Melani called himself "Laes Mac Reni".

Épica Films' first production was O Mistério do Dominó Preto (The Mystery of the Black Domino), based on the writer Martinho Correa's novel, directed by and starring Cléo de Verberena; her husband also worked in the production. Cléo also worked on stage plays with the ViaLáctea group and signed the screenplay for the film Casa de Caboclo by Augusto Campos.[4]

In 1932 she moved to Rio de Janeiro to promote O Mistério and work on the film Canção do Destino. Melani stayed in São Paulo to fight in the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, and died in 1934. Canção do Destino was never finished. Cléo worked on the 1933 film Onde a Terra Acaba.[5]

With the death of Melani, Cléo sold the studio, not getting involved more with cinema. She then married the Chilean consul Francisco Landestoy Saint Jean, moving with him to Chile and England. Francisco died in 1953. Cléo no longer married, and settled in São Paulo with his son Cesar.[6]

Cléo died on October 6, 1972, in São Paulo.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Shaw, Lisa; Dennison, Stephanie (2014). Brazilian National Cinema. Routledge. ISBN 9781134702107.
  2. ↑ "A primeira directora do Cinema brasileiro" [The first woman director of Brazilian Cinema]. memoria.bn.br (in Portuguese). Cinédia, n.221. 1930. p. 10. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  3. ↑ Schumaher, Schuma; Brazil, Erico Vital (2000). Dicion‡rio mulheres do Brasil: de 1500 até a atualidade : com 270 ilustrações (in Portuguese). J. Zahar. ISBN 9788571105737.
  4. 1 2 3 Baliego, Gabrielka (October 2017). "Cléo de Verberena - a primeira cineasta mulher do Brasil". Caixa de Sucessos. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  5. ↑ "FILMOGRAFIA - ONDE A TERRA ACABA". bases.cinemateca.gov.br. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  6. ↑ "Cléo de Verberena - a primeira cineasta mulher do Brasil". Caixa de Sucessos. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
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