Luis Miguel Cintra

Acting

Born Apr 29, 1949

From Madrid, Spain

An iconic actor and stage director in Portugal, Luís Miguel Cintra was born in Madrid, in 1949. His connection to theater began in 1968, at the Faculty of Letters Theater Group, when he was studying Romance Philology at the University of Lisbon. From 1970 to 1972, he attended the Acting Technical Course, in the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, thanks to a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. When he returned to Portugal, he founded, along with Jorge Silva Melo, the Teatro da Cornucópia Company, in 1973, where he directed plays by some of the great names in theater, including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Brecht, Beckett, Strindberg, and many others, almost always participating as an actor in the plays he directed. At the same time, until the 80s, he was a theater critic for O Tempo e o Modo magazine and he managed the Seara Nova Theater Collection, from Estampa publishing house, and the Theater Collection, from Ulmeiro publishing house. As a reader, Luís Miguel Cintra recorded complete readings of Viagens na Minha Terra, by Almeida Garrett and Amor de Perdição, by Camilo Castelo Branco, as well as poems by Pessoa, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Camões, Antero de Quental and Ruy Belo. In 1987, Cintra made his debut as an opera stage director, with L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, by Ravel and Dido and Aeneas, by Purcell, at the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos. In the following years, he directed operas by Mozart, Haydn, Cherubini, among others. He worked with the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos Choir and the Gulbenkian Choir, as a reader, in recitals by authors such as Schubert, Liszt, Sati and Poulenc. In 1984, he entered the Venice Biennial Theater Festival with his group and in 1988 he directed the show La Mort du Prince et Autres Fragments, by Fernando Pessoa, for the Avignon Festival. Later, he kept on presenting plays in Italy, France, Spain and. Belgium In addition to the theater, Luís Miguel Cintra began his career in cinema early, making his debut in a short film by João César Monteiro. From that point until now, he worked in over 70 films, with directors like the aforementioned João César Monteiro, Paulo Rocha, Manoel de Oliveira, Joaquim Pinto, João Botelho, Teresa Villaverde, Pedro Costa and the American John Malkovich. His many awards include two Bordalo da Casa da Imprensa Awards for Best Acting in Film (1995) and Best Acting in Theater (1997), two Globos de Ouro for Theater Personality of the Year (1999) and Best Theater Actor (2003), the Coimbra University Award and the Pessoa Prize, both in 2005. The LEFFEST will pay tribute to Luís Miguel Cintra’s work as an actor, through a selection of films he starred in; and as a stage director, showing recordings of some of the plays, followed by discussions with the audience and several actors he worked with.

Luis Miguel Cintra

Known For

The Dancer Upstairs

Two Brothers, My Sister

The Strange Case of Angelica

No, or the Vain Glory of Command

Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl

Rage

My Case

The Convent

Recollections of the Yellow House

April Captains

Filmography — Acting

The Dancer Upstairs

Two Brothers, My Sister

The Strange Case of Angelica

No, or the Vain Glory of Command

Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl

Rage

My Case

The Convent

Recollections of the Yellow House

April Captains

Demain?

Gebo and the Shadow

Island of Loves

The Satin Slipper

Inquietude

The Letter

Blood

Casa de Lava

The Last Dive

The Jester

Abraham's Valley

The Life of Mirrors

Silvestre

A Talking Picture

The Cannibals

Here on Earth

The Wolf of the West Coast

Vertiges

Word and Utopia

Magic Mirror

Moonfish

Snow White

The Old Man of Belem

We Are on Air

The Spousals of God

The Fifth Empire

The Divine Comedy

The Heart's Root

The Sword and the Rose

Lisboa Cultural

If I Were a Thief... I'd Steal

Blind Man's Bluff

Day of Despair

Poor George

The Mountains of the Moon

Around Rocha’s Table

No one Twice

Christopher Columbus, The Enigma

Villa Mauresque

Correspondences

Transatlantique

The Days When I Don’t Exist

Erros Meus

Where the Sun Beats

Neither Bird Nor Fish

Anteroom

War

Zéfiro

Biette

Rending

Illusion

Second Hand

From Now On

The Uncertainty Principle

Arrabalde

Signals of Life

Tall Stories