Passeio com Johnny Guitar (A Walk with Johnny Guitar). 1996. Portugal. Written and directed by João César Monteiro. With Monteiro, Ana Reis. 35mm. 3 min.
Branca de Neve (Snow White). 2000. Portugal. Directed by João César Monteiro. Screenplay by Monteiro, based on a play by Robert Walser. With the voices of Maria do Carmo, Reginaldo da Cruz, Ana Brandão, Luis Miguel Cintra, Diogo Dória, Monteiro. 4K digital restoration by Cinemateca Portuguesa. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 75 min.
Monteiro’s sardonicism and provocations were a constant throughout his career, often when the director appeared in his own films via his subversive alter-egos. Yet his biggest provocation was to shoot an adaptation of Robert Walser’s anti–fairy tale Snow White with, according to legend, his overcoat covering the camera lens. The result is both a humble acceptance of the artist’s limits in his attempt to fully materialize the scope of his artistic vision and, at the same time, an invitation to the audience to fill the blackness of this radical experiment with hope, light, and the fear that emanates from hearing a voice telling a tale in the intimacy of a dark room. In A Walk with Johnny Guitar, Monteiro speaks his mind via the sound and images of Nicholas Ray’s 1954 masterpiece Johnny Guitar.