The Brazilian Alberto Cavalcanti (1897-1982) was involved in the most significant film artistic movements between the 1920s and the 1950s, particularly in France and Great Britain. Cavalcanti's work, which consists of experimental avant-garde, documentary, and feature films as well as their hybrids, includes 118 films and is still relatively unknown today. An exception is the symphonic city film Rien que les heures (France 1926; German title: Nichts als die Zeit). Silvana Mariani examines Cavalcanti's work in her study and his efforts to portray social issues "realistically." In the 1950s, Cavalcanti returned to Brazil for a short time with the goal of establishing a national film industry in São Paulo—an endeavor that was not very successful. However, during this time, he also created his film O Canto do Mar (1953), which Mariani considers an analysis.