UCLA

In this study I combine Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical model for cultural production with auteur theory in an analysis of the work of acclaimed film and television director Luiz Fernando Carvalho. Perhaps best-known in the U.S. for his brilliant feature Lavoura Arcaica (To the Left of the Father, 2001), based on the novel by Raduan Nassar, most of Carvalho's activity has been in television, where he has directed adaptations of works by Ariano Suassuna (A Pedra do Reino), E�a de Queiroz (Os Maias), Carlos Alberto Soffredini (Hoje � dia de Maria), and Machado de Assis (Capitu). Carvalho's work in both film and television has distinguished him as one of the most creative directors working in Brazil and as the first full-fledged Brazilian television auteur. Indeed, Carvalho's work in television challenges traditional perceptions, moving beyond standardized formulas for mass consumption through an aesthetic that creates an amalgam of artistic modes of expression such as film, television, theater, opera, animation, puppetry, painting, dance, literature, and music, while at the same time drawing from what he calls ancestralidade, or a shared creative and hermeneutic cultural heritage.