A Comédia de Deus

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

Pretentious, tedious pseudo-art. Probably written as a play and then adapted to a film. Virtually unwatchable, complete waste of time. One "hangs in there" waiting for the film to improve, but it never does. Lots of classical music gives the illusion of quality and high-art, remove the music, and you have a film-school throw-away, the entire thing should have gone unreleased. Lots of pretty young women, but merely a tease/window dressing. SKIP IT! So many good films, so little time...

If you like to see a strange old man messing around with innocent young girls - which are even working for him - you're right! And you'll also see a lot of strange "games" with food - befor and after having been eaten...I know i didn't understand the deeper sense of this movie, but it just was to strange for me...Don't!

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.

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.