A Comédia de Deus AKA God's Comedy (1995) FotW #331

[Cocoa]

Film of the Week #331: A Comédia de Deus AKA God's Comedy (1995)



Summary:
João de Deus is the manager of an ice-cream shop owned by an ex-prostitute, Paraíso dos Gelados (Ice-Cream Paradise). Through a unmoved desire of perfection, he seeks, through cleansing and purity to attain heaven. The surrounding world, however, does not comply with his decaying vision of lust and decay as a way of achieving his purpose.

#529 on 1000<400, with 205 checks.
Nominated by Cocoa, joachimt, Minkin, Traveller.
On IMDb
On iCM

From the 1000<400 results

#529(⇧117, #646) A Comédia de Deus (1995)
[God's Comedy]

Directed by: João César Monteiro
(248.39 Pts, 7 Votes) , Top 1–10–50: 0–1–3
History: 529←646←832←848←1461←NA←NA

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ICheckMovies: 195 Checks , 27 Favourites , 3 Official lists

List of Voters:

Ivan0716 (7)
cayado-coro (23)
Leopardi (26)
perceval (175)
Mothravka (NA)
xianjiro (427)
XxXApathy420XxX (516)

This movie fits the current Iberian Peninsula.



Here is a schedule of all the FotWs.

[rnilsson19]

If there's one character that's thoroughly an acquired taste, it's João de Deus. Can def see this board reacting rather strongly to him. I, however, think JCM's cinema is brilliant and utterly unique.

lboxd reviews of this film:

All the notes I made about this while watching it are derogatory. For instance: why, in all these films about holy perversion, are the angels of divine deviance always 16-year-old girls, and why are the recipients of such graces always old men? It's not that the notion is offensive, it's that it's stale and well-established.

Monteiro himself is a shockingly unlikable presence onscreen, a cold and doddering skeleton. It's amusing to see even the actresses clearly becoming bored with his pointless rituals.

And yet, and yet. João's reverence, the beauty of his depravities, his monkish solemnity hand-in-hand with his contemptuous condescension, are frustrating because they're challenging—because they're part of such truthful, human conflict.

Monteiro's João de Deus character is like Chaplin's Tramp combined with Chaplin's IRL sex life.

[albajos]

I saw this in cinema, and it's one of the worst cinema experiences I've had.

The movie makes no effort to make us care about the characters. It's just a miserable deviant.

[viktor-vaudevillain]

One of the greatest films ever made.

[joachimt]

It's just a miserable deviant.

One of the greatest films ever made.

Can't wait to watch this.

[Traveller]

Prior to A Comédia de Deus I had not seen any film by João César Monteiro, so I was only made aware afterwards that this is apparently the second part of a trilogy. The runtime was a bit off-putting at first, but somehow worked pretty well with the slow pacing of the film. Laughed out loud at some of the oddities; others weren’t as convincing, like

Spoiler

his gross pubic hair collection.

I generally have a hard time rating comedies, and this is no exception. I’m on the fence on this one; it was okay, nothing more nothing less. Maybe I was missing something crucial from the first part at times.

[joachimt]

this is apparently the second part of a trilogy.

Good to know. Is it important to watch part 1 first? Or is it only theme related?

[Traveller]

Recordações da Casa Amarela (1989) ist the first part, which is on the UNESCO list, so you've probably seen it - so you tell me.

[joachimt]

Recordações da Casa Amarela (1989) ist the first part, which is on the UNESCO list, so you've probably seen it - so you tell me.

It's been six years since I've seen it, so I'm not sure if I remember enough to give the answer myself. We'll see.

[72aicm]

The first one was a WC-movie iirc. Liked this one more. 7/10

[viktor-vaudevillain]

this is apparently the second part of a trilogy.

Good to know. Is it important to watch part 1 first? Or is it only theme related?

They are only interconnected vaguely - mainly through the protagonist, João de Deus, but then again he's also a character in a few other Monteiro films, which isn't a part of "the trilogy". João de Deus is Monteiro's "alter ego" in same vein as Woody Allen's main characters. Comédia de Deus was my first Monteiro, so: No need to watch Recollections From the Yellow House first.

[zuma]

What I remember about this film is

Spoiler

the uncomfortable look on the girls face while she is lying on the table. He is tracing her outline and barely touching her.

Made my skin crawl.

[Cocoa]

I've seen two João César Monteiro films before this and I liked both of them. I can't say the same for this film. I didn't love this film, but I also didn't hate the film. This film was simply boring for me.

[joachimt]

The runtime was a bit off-putting at first, but somehow worked pretty well with the slow pacing of the film.

With a higher pacing, the runtime would be lower. Not hard to do the calculations on that.

I just finished it and I'm glad it's over. Took me three days to get through it. It's a stupid sex comedy presented as arthouse. The jokes weren't funny and stretched out too long. Someone referred to Chaplin above. Take the scene with the guy pulling cigarettes from his mouth for example. It was endless, and extremely dull. Now imagine someone like Chaplin acting out that scene. With each cigarette the gestures would be different, not big, but big enough to make it funny each time. The way it was presented in this case was just one joke that continued way too long. But the biggest issue with the movie was the whole ...... uh....... plot? Scene after scene with an old ugly not very nice guy having weird sex games with beautiful young women. Why oh why were these women participating? Did I miss something here? Maybe I missed a key moment in this utterly long movie. I kept dozing off, so maybe I fell asleep at that one second where the whole thing actually had some explanation which made it possible for me to go along with the characters. 4/10