Jean-Claude Bernardet, the Belgian-born Brazilian film critic, theorist, educator, and filmmaker whose ideas helped shape the identity of Brazilian cinema, died on Saturday, July 12 at the age of 88 at the Samaritano Hospital in São Paulo.
Born on August 2, 1936, in Belgium to a French family, Bernardet spent his childhood in Paris before emigrating to Brazil at age 13. He began his career as a critic writing for outlets such as O Estado de S. Paulo, where he was invited by Paulo Emílio Salles Gomes. Over the course of six decades, he left an indelible mark on the cultural, academic, and political fabric of Brazilian audiovisual art. He was a founding figure of film studies at the University of Brasília (UnB), a key voice of the Cinema Novo generation, and a leading cultural thinker until his passing.
In print, Bernardet authored numerous essential texts. His groundbreaking book Brasil em Tempo de Cinema (1967) critiqued the political contradictions of the Cinema Novo movement, marking a turning point in the way Brazilian cinema thought about itself. Other significant works include What is Cinema? (1980) and Filmmakers and Images of the People (1985), both of which foregrounded questions of representation, class, and popular culture. His writing consistently interrogated the relationship between cinema and society, with a focus on the possibilities of aesthetic and political transformation.
Though best known as a theorist and critic, Bernardet also contributed as a filmmaker. He co-wrote and acted in several films, often in modest roles, and directed two lyrical documentaries: São Paulo: Symphony and Cacophony (1994) and Sobre Anos 60 (1999). These mid-length essay films meditate on urban life, memory, and the cultural ruptures of modern Brazil.
In his later years, Bernardet remained a vital force. In 2024, the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil held a major retrospective on his life and work in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, celebrating his enduring influence on national culture. He played a key role in the creation and strengthening of the Cinemateca Brasileira and, in 2007, was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture.
Jean-Claude Bernardet is survived by a legacy that continues to ripple across disciplines and generations. His life was a powerful reminder that cinema, at its best, is not just an art form, but a space of collective reflection, resistance, and reinvention.
