Vergílio Ferreira and Malraux: Literature, Existentialism and Cinema

Vergílio Ferreira, after a short approach to Neo-Realism, began to be interested in a french writer’s ideas who were a turning point to the portuguese writer. Malraux, a huge reference in Existentialism, had conceived the problem-novel, a text centred in a deep focus concerning Man, Life and the understanding of the Human Condition. With this dialogue between Vergílio Ferreira and Malraux, Existentialism enters Portugal and begins a major theoretical dispute between Neo-Realism and Existentialism. Vergílio Ferreira abandons the neo-realism guidelines and embraces Malraux’s problem-novel.