Vai~e~Vem. 2003. Portugal/France. Written and directed by João César Monteiro. With Monteiro, Rita Pereira Marques, Joaquina Chicau, Manuela de Freitas, Lígia Soares, José Mora Ramos, Rita Durão, Maria do Carmo Rolo, Miguel Borges, Rita Loureiro. 4K digital restoration by Cinemateca Portuguesa. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 175 min.
In his last film, shot shortly before his death, Monteiro plays João Vuvu, a Chaplinesque retired widower who spends his days riding his neighborhood bus and conversing with old and new acquaintances in the streets of Lisbon. In his austere, elegant apartment, the light is both welcoming and seductive while playful exchanges on lust and desire occur with different women who bless a routine of poetic solitude, antifascist anthems, and the mysteries of spiritual pleasure. The film’s famous final shot—a reflection of the director’s eye—shows, like few others, that cinema, in reflecting the unseen and unutterable, is where life meets death.