Maldito - O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins

Coffin Joe: The Strange World of Jose Mojica Marins (2001)

*** (out of 4)

Pretty good, if too short, look at the life and career of Brazilian filmmaker Jose Mojica Marins who is best known for his Coffin Joe character. This documentary shows us some of the places Marins shot his films as well as interviews the director about his battle with censors in Brazil and how he was unable to become a rich man. The film briefly goes into discussion on his porn films from the 80s and we also get to learn a little about his regained fame in America and Europe. Since this documentary was shot somewhere between 1999 and 2000 there's no mention of the latest Coffin Joe film that was released in 2008 so obviously this thing could be updated but overall this is a pretty good look at the director's career. We get to hear from the man himself but I had a hard time knowing whether he really is as crazy as everyone says or if he was just saying things to make himself live up to his reputation. There's a rather bizarre sequence where he talks about all the people who have died while working for him and we even get some stuff about one of his porn films that became very famous because of a dog having sex with a human actress. We also get to hear him explain why he never got rich and why he's still looked at as a clown in Brazil. For the most part the documentary gives us a pretty good idea of the director and how he made his films with the majority of the running time taking a look at the Coffin Joe series. We also get to learn about AWAKENING OF THE BEAST and why it was banned in Brazil for nearly two decades. We also get to see the original letter from the censors and hear about everything they wanted cut out. The film runs just around 65-minutes so there's not enough detail to make this fully rewarding but so far it's the best thing we've got.

This is an excellent documentary.... Not having been introduced to Mojica's films previously, this served as a great introduction to the film culture of Brazil and Mojica's individually strange world and world-view. The interviews are spectacular... I was impressed with the filmmakers' ability to get the subjects (many of Mojica's collaborators, friends, and actors) to speak candidly and with such detail regarding his work. There are some very humorous interviews and anecdotes.... I found myself laughing out loud in many spots. The filmmakers also did an _excellent_ job of assembling old footage (the shots of Mojica conducting an acting seminar are simply hilarious), stills, tv footage, etc. A very thorough job... whether you are a fan of Mojica or not, if you are a fan of film, and in particular low-budget filmmaking or horror films, I believe that you will find this documentary to be very interesting.

José Mojica Marins is certainly a one off. His ultra-low-budget films are certainly an uneven selection but they do have a certain vision. That vision is pretty much nasty, surreal and nightmarish; but interestingly filtered through a Brazilian sensibility. There really is no equivalent horror film-maker in South America, far less Brazil. His influences have ensured that his oeuvre is a very distinctive one and for this reason they can be fascinating. He was most famous for the Coffin Joe films but he made many others, all in the same general ball-park. He is the definition of the term 'an acquired taste'; I personally like some of his movies and don't like others.

This documentary is therefore deserved for such a distinctive character. I wouldn't say it necessarily makes his films seem any better. It was most interesting as a look at the man, rather than his output. He definitely seems to be a genuinely strange individual. He operated in the fringes of the film-world the whole time and never really made any money. Considering the bizarre nature of his movies this isn't necessarily a surprise. Sadly he ended up descending into pornography and even bestiality. There is an anecdote about this which is pretty grotesque, although not in a good way. Much better is stories of his studio which genuinely seems to have been a place of horror seeing as it was populated with spiders and snakes that seemed to often run freely. His actors and crew were pretty terrified a lot of the time. But my favourite moment was the stories about the mysterious number of people who died while working for him – he mentioned a guy who he pronounced would die very soon for a laugh and the poor bloke was killed that afternoon! It details like these latter anecdotes that are the best thing about this.