The imaginary in João César Monteiro’s cinema

This work analyzes the poetics, images, and myths of João César Monteiro’s (1939-2003) cinematographic work. Based on Gilbert Durand’s methodology, our reading of Monteiro’s work reveals a cinema-crystal, a cinema that reflects in a pure and provocative way the invisible that surrounds us; from the nocturnal depth that structures it, images emerge of women and water, mirrors and gazes, travel and initiation, otherness and trust, cinema and Portugal. Projecting the author’s personal world into a transpersonal dimension, this imagery universe is constellated around two main myths: the myth of intimacy, a religion of women and substances, and the myth of the Golden Age, a dream of eternal return and a progressive and hermetic crusade towards the Spiritual Empire.