António Ferro, o retrato e a entrevista: montagem e propaganda na encenação da história

Resumo

The interviews  of Antonio  Ferro (1895-1956)  to Salazar (1889-1970), gathered in the book Salazar, o Homem  e a sua Obra [Salazar, the Man and his Work] (1933), inspired  by  the  journalist  Emil  Ludwig's  interviews  to  Stalin  (1878-1953)  and Mussolini (1883-1945), are still today the best written portrait of the Head of Government  of  the Portuguese  Dictatorship.  This portrait  appears  as a cinematographic  montage made of fragments of images woven with words. It is not a portrait as an exclusive domain  of memory, but an image of spectacle that transfigures. This book also becomes the portrait of the future head of the Secretary of  National   Propaganda,  Antonio  Ferro. Either  a  portrait  or  portraits,  these "serialized  interviews"  served  as a powerful  propaganda  instrument during  the staging  of  the  nation's   History  and,  simultaneously,  became  a  testamentary remark. Additionally, it emphasizes the use of photographic images with propagandistic intention, not only as an illustration,  but also as a testimony  of the different   moments   during   the  interviews,   as  well  as  the  importance   of  the photographic  iconography of the 193o's.