A Comédia de Deus

The great master of comic genre Joao Cesar Monteiro has made some of the most outlandish films in the history of Portuguese cinema. Very few people know that films made by him do not have any parallel in World cinema. His films are bold in the sense that they carry very minimal plot weight and rely heavily on the zany moods of its characters. Those who have seen films by the "highly unusual" German director Herbert Achternbusch will easily catch a glimpse of this Portuguese iconoclast's vision. It is true that in this particular film things happen at a slow pace but they do not dampen anyone's spirits. One has to be patient in order to enjoy the richness of dialogs which are absolutely hilarious. They flow effusively from Joao Cesar Monteiro's mouth as like Woody Allen, he has also given many hilarious performances.A very mature, efficient and perfect visual balance is achieved in the final moments of the film as some unexpected events are depicted. If all this sounds interesting to you, please go for Joao Cesar Monteiro box set published by Paulo Branco's which is available in France.

Today I have bought "God's Comedy" on an imported DVD. Actually a very cheap DVD without Menu; spoken in Portuguese from Portugal (very difficult to be understood by a Brazilian); and subtitles in English that can not be removed.

I had great expectations with this movie, based on the IMDb User Rating of 7.2; the reference on the front cover of the DVD ("Venice Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winner"; and the name of the famous Portuguese director João César Monteiro, since I was curious to see a film of this director.

Unfortunately I found "A Comédia de Deus" overrated, dull and boring and I have stopped watching this film approximately at 70 minutes running time. As far as I saw, the plot is inexistent: João de Deus (Max Monteiro) is the manager of the ice-cream shop Paraíso dos Gelados (meaning Paradise of the frozen ones). He is very concerned with cleansing and demands that the girls wash their hands carefully to avoid a health problem. This pretentious film is so lame and boring that I was not able to see it until the end and I have skipped it. My vote is one.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

This one is definitively a good film, a Portuguese one. João César Monteiro is provocative, hilarious and he is touching in some hounds of Portuguese society. This is not pop corn movie, it's not one and half hour of pure action. it's a film, it's Art, so therefore it's better to prepare yourself with some culture to understand it. This film has a lot of references to literature,movies and paintings.We can see on Joao de Deus a little bit of Nosferatu on the way he seduces the young girls, and his fetishes are in the books from Sade.There's bunch of great character beyond João de Deus. Judite a ex whore who runs a ice cream factory, the Butcher Father OF joaninha, Rosalinho and Joaninha of sweet eyes who seduces and gets seduced by João de DEUS. It's a disturbing movie which will make you laugh, annoy, irritate, think and in the end wish for more.

This is the man who irritated a whole country by making a film all in black. (Snow White)

To be honest I cannot elaborate on this one, as I only saw the first half hour of the movie. Comédia de Deus for me is the only movie that I ever ran away from, after some short debating with my two companions, leaving the other two spectators the cinema to themselves (I still sometimes wonder whether they managed to sit it out). The first half hour (fair is fair) is the most bewildering piece of fiction I ever saw, combining the utter idiocy of, say, the Police Academy series with the astounding 'la-di-dah, oh, what great art I'm making'-attitude of films as "Ulysses's Gaze".

Worst first half hour ever, but hey, maybe the rest was good. Go check yourself, though, because I've seen the last of this one.

Every João César Monteiro movie I see drives toward one conclusion: although being, in Portugal, the soul director whose vision of life, lust and decay is comparable to that of Baudelaire, Monteiro lacks the force of will that would make him a Rimbaud. The character João de Deus, central figure of a trilogy of which A COMÉDIA DE DEUS is the first part is none other than João César Monteiro masked as a detached and unsure version of himself. To see and to reflect on the weakest side of idealism.