Joao Cesar Monteiro

João César Monteiro was a Portuguese filmmaker who marked his presence in cinema with unclassifiable and polemic films made with idiosyncratic and somewhat experimental aesthetics, and influenced by his work as a film critic and a poet. In some of his last films, he played a recurrent protagonist, João de Deus, a remarkably articulated and over-sexualized character whose customary attitudes involved spontaneous streaks of hedonism, scandal and satire. Although a substantial portion of his work was received with perplexity and outrage by the average movie-going audience, he has been recognized by Portuguese and international critics and academicians as one of the most important Portuguese directors, along with Manoel de Oliveira. He began his career in film first as a critic before receiving training abroad, at the London School of Film Technique. He made his first film, Quem Espera por Sapatos de Defunto Morre Descalço, in 1965, but it was not finished until 1970 due to financial problems. He also made a short documentary about the Portuguese poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. His first feature film was Fragmentos de um Filme Esmola: A Sagrada Família, in 1972. He gained international recognition with Silvestre, an adaptation of traditional Portuguese folk stories, which was shown at the Venice Film Festival in 1982. He returned to Venice with Recordações da Casa Amarela, which won the Silver Lion in 1989, and introduced the character of João de Deus, who would appear in several of his later films. He also made O Último Mergulho, featuring Fabienne Babe, in 1992. A Comédia de Deus, which was shown at Venice in 1995, caused controversy for its explicit scenes of masturbation and pedophilia. As Bodas de Deus, which was shown at Cannes in 1999, continued the adventures of João de Deus, who wins the lottery and indulges in his fantasies. Branca de Neve, which was shown at Venice in 2000, was highly controversial because much of the film consists of a black screen, although a densely composed audio track plays throughout. His last film, Vai~E~Vem, which was shown at Cannes in 2003, was a more conventional and autobiographical work, where he played a dying filmmaker who reflects on his life and relationships. He died in Lisbon in 2003, at the age of 64.