João César Monteiro
João César Monteiro (born February 2, 1939 in Figueira da Foz , † February 3, 2003 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese film director , screenwriter and actor of Novo Cinema .
life and work
João César Monteiro went to Lisbon at the age of 15. He attended the private high school Colégio Moderno (by Mário Soares ), which he left prematurely. He took on various jobs and lived in Paris for a while. In 1960 he met Alberto Seixas Santos and turned to cinema and the movement of film clubs . He was a film critic for the newspaper Diário de Notícias and for the cinema magazine Cinéfilo . In 1961 he became an assistant director for O Milionário ( The Millionaire ) by Perdigão Queiroga and thus switched to the active side of cinema. In 1963 he received a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation and studied film at the London School of Film Technique .
Monteiro began making his first film in 1965, which he finished five years later. He befriended Paulo Rocha ( Os Verdes Anos ) and especially Fernando Lopes ( Belarmino ), two of the most important protagonists of Novo Cinema . He remained formally outside the Novo Cinema , and he only joined the Centro Português de Cinema collective after long discussions. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974 he turned to a kind of underground political film with Que farei eu com esta espada? ( What do I do with this sword?, 1975): it shows mass demonstrations and interviews with workers who are directed against NATO , plus it shows American warships and US soldiers in Lisbon. Monteiro symbolically directed the “sword” of democracy against the massive, threatening NATO presence, and had Don Afonso Henriques (the first king of Portugal), Nosferatu and a NATO squadron perform together in the Tejo .
Then Monteiro embarked on an ethnographic path with films such as Veredas ( Paths , with Margarida Gil ) or Silvestre ( Wild , with Maria de Medeiros ), which are widely recognized by critics to this day. Finally, he found his sarcastic and socially critical work that brought him international prizes and recognition, but also public criticism. The main character is usually João de Deus , embodied by himself . But he was also able to surprise with Auf dem Meer ( À Flor do Mar , 1986): filmed on the Algarve coast with Laura Morante and Georges Claisse in the leading roles, this was a film full of melancholy and poetry, with warm images and fragile characters.
Major international success has been achieved since 1989 when Monteiro won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Memories of the Yellow House (Recordações da Casa Amarela) . For The Divine Comedy ( A Comédia de Deus ), he was nominated for the Golden Lion in the same place in 1995 , where he won the jury's grand prize. A year later, he was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Passeio com Johnny Guitar ( Walk with Johnny Guitar ) .
João César Monteiro was married for some time to the director and actress Margarida Gil , with whom he also worked. Their son João Pedro Monteiro Gil (* 1984) has already worked as an intern on his mother and father's films. On February 3, 2003, Monteiro died of cancer.
reception
Memories of the Yellow House may be considered Monteiro's “most popular” film , but his films have never met with greater audiences. Some of his films sparked scandals. In his version of the Divine Comedy ( A Comédia de Deus ) he played - as in many of his films - the leading role. The protagonist was a loner who collected pubic hair from women in his spare time. Over the course of the film, he developed a relationship with an underage girl.
Branca de Neve (Snow White) caused a scandal : in Monteiro's most polemical film, based on the Snow White story by Robert Walser , only a black screen can be seen for 60 of the 75 minutes of the film, and only the voices of the actors can be heard Tell history. At the premiere in 2000, he answered critical questions from various television reporters into the cameras: "The Portuguese audience should be f *****!" The sentence went down in Portuguese film history. He did not bring Monteiro any particular popularity and intensified the beginning public discussion about funding for film productions without any prospect of any noteworthy audience approval.
João César Monteiro was headstrong and, with his inappropriate humor, was considered the enfant terrible of Portuguese film. His works were widely recognized by critics and many filmmakers. At the controversial premiere of Snow White, in contrast to the broader audience, many filmmakers, such as Manoel de Oliveira , expressed their appreciation .
Filmography
Feature films
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Short films
production
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presentation
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literature
- Jorge Leitão Ramos : Dicionário do cinema portugués 1962 - 1988. Editorial Caminho, Lisbon 1989, pp. 265–267.
- A. Murtinheira / I. Metzeltin: History of Portuguese Cinema. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-7069-0590-9 , (pp. 109/110, 125, 141/142).
- Supplement to the DVD complete edition (11-DVD-Box, Lusomundo, Lisbon 2003).
Web links
- Website about João César Monteiro (Portuguese, English, Italian)
- Website for the João César Monteiro retrospective of the BAM-BrooklynAcademyofMusic
- extensive article about João César Monteiro (English)
- João César Monteiro in the Internet Movie Database (English)
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ villagevoice.com, 5.Absatz
- ↑ joaocesarmonteiro.net, below ( memento of the original from March 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Monteiro, João César |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese film director, screenwriter and actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 2, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Figueira da Foz |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 3, 2003 |
| Place of death | Lisbon |