GLI STRANI MONDI DI ZÉ DO CAIXÃO E DI JOSÉ MOJICA MARINS

José Moijca Marins (São PauloBrazil, 1936) is a director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is an extraordinary person. He is selftaught and independent. He created a cult character known in all of BraziI, Zé do Caixão (in North America, "Coffin Joe"), who is a kind of sadistic, anarchistic, sex maniacal, and blasphemous character constantly in search of a woman who will give him a perfect son. Glauber Rocha calls him "the only genius of Brazilian cinema". Rogerio Sganzerla calls him a "total genius" and states that in his films "the abnormal delirium is the delirium of misery itself and not the misery of delirium, i.e. the most radical path in Latin American cinema". Carlos Reichenbach defines him as "the man who invented the national horror film, just like Pelè is the man who invented the national game of soccer". José Mojica Marins was a marginal figure during his whole life. He claims that he made his first «quasifilm» out of slides at the age of only seven, started his theatrical activity at eight, and shot his first 8mm film, Juizo Final, about the Apocalypse, at ten. In 1946 he shot his first 16mm documentary Os lugares por onde eu passei. In 1947 he shot his first horror film, Feitiçaria and founded his first production house, Iberia Cinematografica, where he made all kinds of films, from Italianstyle comedies to children's films. In 1955 he founded another production house, Apolo Cinematografica, and directed his first 35mm film, Sentença ce Deus, which is unfinished. However, he did finish a western, Sina do aventuriero (1955). In the 1950's he founded an acting school in São Paulo. He then founded his own studio in 1964, where Mauricio Capovilla, Rogerio Sganzerla, Carlos Reichenbach, etc. worked. In A meia-noite levarei sua alma (1964) his most famous character was born, Zé do Caixão, who would make many comebacks in his following thirty years in action. Because of his extraordinary public success, Zé would return in Esta noite encamerei no teu cad`ver (1966), in the episode Pesadelo Macabro in Trilogia do terror (1967), and in 0 estranho mundo de Zé do Caixão (1968), where the character, Oaxiac od Ee, appears for the first time. As an actor, he appeared in Mauricio Capovilla's O profeta da fome and in Carlos Reichenbach's Audacia. The character, Finis, a kind of antiChrist, first appeared in Finis hominis (1970) and then in Quando os Deuses adormecem (1971). There are many more films with Zé do Caixão, often coupled with his own creator. He shot some softcore and hardcore porno films under the name of J. Avelar. There are two films that pay homage to him Ivan Cardosos 0 universo de Mojica Marins (1977) and Gofredo da Silva Telles Netto's Fogo Fatuo (1980). He made an enormous number of television, radio, and theatrical productions from the 1960s to the present. In the 1980's he started working on many films that he was not able to finish. However, he became popular on television in the role of the diabolic Lucio Fera in Olho por Olho, a soap opera on the network, Rete Manchete. In the early 1990's he was discovered by the movie fan magazines in North America and his films have found a new life in videocassette. (Marco Giusti)

"Many people ask me about my raison d'être. Nothing exists without a reason, nothing on the earth, and nothing in the universe; because people see the earth as something enormous and they forget about the immensity of the universe. And so they talk about God. I believe neither in God nor in the devil. I believe in something bigger the force of the human mind. Man is his own God. My creator, José Mojica Marins, lost his way because he saw in me a threat to his existence. There are many differences between him and me. My thoughts are different. I am not afraid of death despite my knowledge of his existence. But he is afraid because he has a lot of children and thinks that after his death there will be nobody to protect his children. And so he remains trapped by his emotions. lf somebody does not fear death and believes in himself, he will conquer death because the mind is stronger. I believe that the films that I have shot will clarify many things because even if my creator dies, the works are written and my work will reach all the way until the end." (Zé do Caixão)