“A libertine, a heretic saint, an iconoclast occupies New York’s heart with films that continually challenge, perplex, and illuminate,” states the production company Leopardo Filmes, led by Paulo Branco, which produced or distributed most of João César Monteiro’s films, in a press release.
The cinema of João César Monteiro (1939-2003) will be showcased at MoMA until November 6, featuring nearly all his films, such as “Recordações da Casa Amarela” (1989), “A Comédia de Deus” (1995), both awarded in Venice, “As Bodas de Deus” (1999), “Silvestre” (1981), and “Quem Espera por Sapatos de Defunto Morre Descalço” (1970).
The retrospective also includes “Branca de Neve” (2000), described as João César Monteiro’s “greatest provocation,” an adaptation of Robert Walser’s “anti-fairy tale,” primarily composed of black-and-white images and voices, as noted by MoMA in presenting this series.
The films will be shown in newly restored prints, and a book featuring translations of João César Monteiro’s writings and interviews will be published.
João César Monteiro, the protagonist of many of his films, is considered the most unclassifiable director in Portuguese cinema, a “true libertine,” as MoMA describes, who “subverted trends and definitions in a body of work that, akin to Erich von Stroheim, focuses on the perverted mysteries of pleasure, decadence, and the poetic translation of the sublime into art.”
The MoMA retrospective was organized by Francisco Valente, a film critic, director, and programmer, and assistant curator at MoMA’s Department of Film, involving the Portuguese Cinematheque, producer Paulo Branco, and the director’s family.
