José Luiz de Magalhães Lins, banker who financed Cinema Novo, dies

Banker José Luiz de Magalhães Lins died this Friday afternoon (3), aged 93. The information was confirmed by the family, who said that the death occurred due to natural causes.

Lins was treating pneumonia and died at his home in Rio de Janeiro at 2:20 pm. “He left a little while ago and had a peaceful passage. We are dismayed, but at peace”, said José Antonio Magalhães Lins, one of the banker’s sons.

Born in Arcos (MG), Lins worked at Banco Nacional de Minas Gerais, where he started as a clerk, in 1948, and stayed until he became executive director of the institution, which reached the rank of second largest private bank in the country.

Close to politicians, artists, military personnel, athletes, journalists and businessmen, he acted behind the scenes of key episodes in Brazil’s recent history, as shown in a report by Sheetfrom 2020.

He commanded João Goulart’s campaign for the return of presidentialism, participated in the articulations of the military coup the following year and saved Garrincha from jail.

However, the banker gained fame after becoming one of the main financiers of cinema novo, a Brazilian film movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Lins sponsored works such as “Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol” and “Terra em Transe”, by Glauber Rocha; “Vidas Secas”, by Nelson Pereira dos Santos; “Os Fuzis”, by Ruy Guerra; “A Grande Cidade”, by Cacá Diegues; among other classics of national cinema.

“The example of Mr. José Luiz Magalhães Lins is of extraordinary importance at this moment that Brazilian cinema is experiencing, the most fertile in its history”, wrote Glauber Rocha, in 1963.

In an interview with journalist Claudio Leal, one of the rare ones he has ever granted, Lins highlighted the rectitude of filmmakers at that time. “While I was in business, nobody made a loss. Nobody.”

Enthusiastic about literature and the plastic arts, the banker also financed the Walmap literary prize, the publishing house Civilização Brasileira and the newspaper Pif-Paf, owned by Millôr Fernandes.

As shown in the report by Sheet, his diverse performance made it difficult for the SNI (Serviço Nacional de Informação) to define its “ideological position” during the military dictatorship. In a 1979 report, the agency wrote that “the records do not allow for a conclusive opinion”.

The banker lived with figures who moved across the entire political spectrum. Before the military coup, he coordinated João Goulart’s campaign, in 1963. A year later, his uncle Magalhães Pinto aligned himself with the regime in the conspiracy against Jango.

Another remarkable episode in his life was with Garrincha. As Ruy Castro tells it, in “Estrela Solitário”, Lins found out that the star could be arrested for not paying the alimony of his ex-wife and daughters. To save the player, the banker signed a check in 1968 and asked his advisor to pay the debt.