He refused to separate cinema from life, from politics, from desire.
Na madrugada de 15 de fevereiro de 2022, o Brasil perdeu Arnaldo Jabor, cineasta e comentarista que, por mais de seis décadas, usou a câmera e a palavra como instrumentos de consciência coletiva. Aos 81 anos, após complicações de um AVC sofrido em dezembro, ele partiu deixando uma obra que atravessa o Cinema Novo, os festivais de Berlim e Cannes, e trinta anos de presença semanal na televisão brasileira. Jabor pertencia àquela rara linhagem de artistas para quem a arte e o jornalismo nunca foram ofícios distintos — eram, ambos, formas de não desviar o olhar.
- Jabor sofreu um AVC em meados de dezembro e passou seus últimos meses hospitalizado no Sírio-Libanês, em São Paulo, onde uma cirurgia para remover um coágulo não foi suficiente para salvá-lo.
- A morte de uma voz tão plural — cineasta, cronista, filósofo do cotidiano — abre um vazio difícil de nomear na cultura brasileira, onde ele era simultaneamente memória viva do Cinema Novo e presença atual nos telejornais da Globo.
- Seu último comentário no ar, em novembro, denunciava interferência política no Enem, reafirmando até o fim que o espaço público era território de responsabilidade, não de conivência.
- O velório privado em São Paulo e a homenagem pública no Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio na quarta-feira marcam a despedida de um homem que pertencia tanto à intimidade familiar quanto à memória coletiva do país.
Arnaldo Jabor morreu na madrugada de terça-feira, 15 de fevereiro, aos 81 anos, vítima de complicações de um AVC sofrido em dezembro. Internado no Hospital Sírio-Libanês desde o dia 17 daquele mês, ele passou por cirurgia para remoção de um coágulo, mas não resistiu. Deixou três filhos — Carolina, Juliana e João Pedro — e quatro netos. Após cerimônia privada em São Paulo, seu corpo seria levado ao Rio de Janeiro para velório público no Museu de Arte Moderna, antes da cremação.
Durante trinta anos, Jabor foi uma presença constante nos telejornais da Globo, onde comentava cinema, política, economia, amor e filosofia com a mesma desenvoltura. Estreou como colunista em 1991 e passou por Jornal Nacional, Bom Dia Brasil e Fantástico antes de se fixar no Jornal da Globo. Seu último comentário, em 18 de novembro, tratava de supostas interferências políticas no Enem — tema que resumia bem sua postura de vida: a recusa em separar cultura de responsabilidade cívica.
Mas foi no cinema que Jabor construiu sua identidade mais profunda. Formado no Curso de Cinema Itamaraty-Unesco em 1964, tornou-se figura central do Cinema Novo e pioneiro do cinema verdade no Brasil. Ao longo da carreira, dirigiu sete longas-metragens, dois curtas e dois documentários. Toda Nudez Será Castigada, de 1973, adaptado de Nelson Rodrigues, rendeu-lhe o Urso de Prata em Berlim. Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar, de 1986, recebeu indicação à Palma de Ouro em Cannes e é considerado sua obra mais plena — uma meditação sobre o desejo que fundia intimidade e questões filosóficas maiores.
Além do cinema, publicou oito livros, vários deles bestsellers, e construiu uma voz literária capaz de falar de sexo, política e sentimento com igual precisão. Jornalista desde 1962, quando começou n'O Metropolitano, Jabor foi, até o fim, alguém que entendia a câmera e a caneta como ferramentas do mesmo ofício: tentar compreender o mundo sem olhar para o lado.
Arnaldo Jabor died in the early hours of Tuesday, February 15th, at the age of 81. The Brazilian filmmaker and television commentator had suffered a stroke in mid-December and had been hospitalized at Hospital Sírio-Libanês in São Paulo since the 17th of that month. Complications from the stroke proved fatal. He underwent surgery to clear a blood clot but could not recover.
Jabor left behind three children—Carolina, Juliana, and João Pedro—and four grandchildren. His body would be laid out in São Paulo in a private ceremony for family and close friends, then transported to Rio de Janeiro, where the public would be invited to pay respects at the Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday the 16th. After that, he would be cremated.
For three decades, Jabor had been a fixture on Globo's news programs, beginning his tenure as a columnist in 1991. He appeared on Jornal Nacional, Bom Dia Brasil, Jornal Hoje, and Fantástico before settling into a regular slot on Jornal da Globo, where he offered commentary on cinema, the arts, sexuality, national and international politics, economics, love, philosophy, and prejudice. During the pandemic, he recorded his segments from home, but as vaccination rates climbed, he returned to Globo's newsroom in São Paulo. His last on-air piece, delivered on November 18th, examined allegations of political interference in Brazil's national university entrance exam.
But Jabor's primary identity was as a filmmaker. Born into a family of Lebanese Jewish descent, he began his career in journalism in 1962 at O Metropolitano newspaper, but it was cinema that would define him. He studied at the Itamaraty-Unesco Film Course, graduating in 1964, and became a central figure in Cinema Novo, the Brazilian movement that emerged in the 1960s to tackle the country's political and social realities, drawing inspiration from French nouvelle vague and Italian neorealism. He helped pioneer "cinema verdade," a documentary form that became a cornerstone of modern Brazilian filmmaking.
Over the course of his directorial career, Jabor made seven feature films, two shorts, and two documentaries. His first feature, Opinião Pública, arrived in 1967. But it was Toda Nudez Será Castigada, released in 1973 and adapted from a play by Nelson Rodrigues, that brought him international recognition—the film won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and took the prize for best film at the Gramado Cinema Festival. Pindorama, from 1970, earned a Cannes nomination and a best actress award for Fernanda Torres. Tudo Bem, released in 1978 as the opening film of what became known as his Apartment Trilogy, won best film at the Brasília Film Festival and was selected for both Berlin and Cannes's Directors' Fortnight.
His most celebrated work came in 1986 with Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar, which received a nomination for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The film stands as perhaps the fullest expression of his artistic vision—a meditation on love and desire that showcased his ability to blend personal intimacy with larger philosophical questions. He would go on to direct O Circo, O Casamento, Eu Te Amo, Carnaval, and A Suprema Felicidade, each exploring different facets of Brazilian life and emotion.
Beyond cinema, Jabor was a prolific writer. He published eight books, several of which became bestsellers: Amor É Prosa, Sexo É Poesia, and Pornopolítica reached wide audiences and established him as a cultural voice capable of speaking to desire, politics, and the texture of Brazilian life with equal fluency. He worked as a sound technician, an assistant director, and a film critic. He was, in short, a complete man of cinema and letters—someone who understood that the camera and the pen were tools for the same work: making sense of the world.
When Jabor finally stepped away from the newsroom in November, it was to comment on a matter of public integrity. That was fitting. Throughout his life, whether behind a camera or in front of one, he had insisted that art and journalism were not separate from politics—they were ways of engaging with it, of holding it accountable, of refusing to look away.
Notable Quotes
His last on-air commentary examined allegations of political interference in Brazil's national university entrance exam— Final segment, November 18, 2021
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
What made Jabor different from other filmmakers of his generation?
He refused to separate cinema from life. Cinema Novo was political, yes, but Jabor understood that politics lived in desire, in the body, in what people said and didn't say. His films were never lectures.
And his work on television—how did that fit with his filmmaking?
It didn't contradict it. He brought the same sensibility to a three-minute commentary on Jornal da Globo that he brought to a feature film. He was looking at the same thing: how Brazilians lived, what they feared, what they wanted.
His last piece was about the entrance exam. Why that?
Because it mattered. It was about whether the system was rigged, whether young people could trust the institutions meant to serve them. That was always his concern—the integrity of the thing, the honesty of it.
Did his books change how people saw him?
They showed he wasn't just a filmmaker or a journalist. He was thinking about eros, about language, about how we speak to each other. The books gave permission for the commentary to be as personal as it was political.
What will people remember most?
Probably Toda Nudez Será Castigada. It's the film that traveled furthest, that won the most recognition. But the people who knew his work deeply will remember that he never stopped asking the same question: what does it mean to be alive in Brazil right now?