21° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
A Tribute to Joào César Monteiro
Quem espera por sapatos de defunto morre descalço
"The film's apparently nonchalant air hides its fundamental lyricism and an impure
pleasure in aestheticism. Thirty minutes of film and a flood of
images,which inaugurate in Portuguese cinema the possibility of
conjugating different codes that are united into a transfigured
idealism. This beautiful film also marks the cinema debut of the
greatest Portuguese actor of the last two decades: Luís Miguel Cintra."
(João Bénard da Costa)
"In 1965 I tried to set up a project for a 16 mm film. Two days of
filming and my tail between my legs. (…) The next year, stimulated by a
certain type of good will (nostalgia), I decided to take up the project
once again, filming dragged on for two years. At a certain point, when I
was already fed up, the Gulbenkian Foundation granted me (thank you, too
kind) a subsidy 180,000 escudos divided into three payments. So then I
was tempted to just go around some. I asked Vasconcelos to shoot two
scenes that were still missing and left…" (J. C. Monteiro).
Biography
film director
João César Monteiro
João César Monteiro was born in Figueira da Foz on February 2, 1939. He was assistant director to Perdigão Queiroga for O Milionário. In 1963 he received a scholarship from the Galouste Gulbenkian Foundation to follow courses in cinema at the London School of Film Technique. He was active at film clubs and was a movie critic for various magazines and newspapers, including 'Imagem,' 'O Tempo e o Modo,' 'Cinefilo' and 'O Diario de Lisboa.' His sharp-tongued and irreverent critiques resulted, for example, in being kicked out of the Centro Português de Cinema for having affirmed that, with few exceptions, the directors of the Gulbenkian cooperative were 'monkeys in a zoo.' During the mid-1960's he began to frequent the 'group of Vá-Vá' (Lopes, Rocha, Cunha Telles, Vasconcelos and Seixas Santos). In 1967 shooting began on Quem Espera por Sapatos de Defunto Morre Descalço. He made his first film in 1968, the short Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, dedicated to the memory of Dreyer. Over twenty more films followed, both short and full-length, in which he often acted as well (in particular playing the part of João de Deus), constituting one of the largest cinematographic opuses ever.
He has written a collection of poems, Corpo Submerso (1958), and a collection of essays, Morituri te Salutant (1974). He was a collaborator of the magazine 'Trafic' until the death of its founder, Serge Daney. Monteiro died in February of this year after having completed his testament film Vai e Vem. A DVD edition of his entire opus, the rights to which he left to the producer of his last film, Paulo Branco, was released posthumously in Lisbon this year. This year, the book dedicated to the uncompleted project about La Philosophie dans le boudoir de Sade, was published posthumously in Lisbon.
FILMOGRAFIA
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (cm, 1968), Quem Espera Por Sapatos de Defunto Morre Descalço (mm, 1970), Fragmentos de Um Filme Esmola - A Sagrada Família (1972), As Armas e o Povo (opera collettiva, 1974), Que Farei Eu com Esta Espada? (1975), Veredas (1977), Os Dois Soldados (cm, serie TV Contos Tradicionais Portugueses, 1978-1979), O Amor das Três Romãs (cm, serie TV Contos Tradicionais Portugueses, 1978-1979) O Rico e o Pobre (cm, serie TV Contos Tradicionais Portugueses, (1978-1979), Silvestre (1981), À Flor do Mar (1986), Recordações da Casa Amarela (Ricordi della casa gialla,1989), A Água: O Último Mergulho (serie tv Os Quatros Elementos, 1992), A Comédia de Deus (La commedia di Dio, 1995), Bestiário ou o Cortejo de Orfeu (cm, 1996), Lettera amorosa (cm, 1996), Passeio com Johnny Guitar (cm, 1996), Le Bassin de John Wayne (1997), As Bodas de Deus (Le nozze di Dio, 1998), Branca de neve (2000), Vai e Vem (2003).
Cast
& Credits
Assistente alla regia/Director Assistant: Jorge Silva Melo
Fotografia/Director of photography: Acácio de Almeida
Musica/Music: José Alberto Gil
Suono/Sound: Alexandre Gonçalves
Interpreti e personaggi/Cast and characters: Luís Miguel Cintra (Lívio), Paula Ferreira (Mónica), Carlos Ferreiro (Mário), Carlos Porto (ufficiale giudiziario), Antónia Brandão, Helena Gusmão, Manule Gusmão, Elsa Figuereida, Nuno Júdice.
Produttore/Producer: João César Monteiro, con la sovenzione della Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
Direttore di Produzione/Director of Production: Jorge Silva Melo
Copia/Prints: Cinemateca Portuguesa - Museu de Cinema
Diritti internazionali/International rights: Paulo Branco (Gemini Film)