Publications
Article | “It Is as If Everything Takes Place in the No-man's-land of a Time Outside of Time”: Music in Three Short Films by João César Monteiro
José Nicolau Pinto,a PhD candidate researcher of INET-md at NOVA FCSH, has just published the open access article "'It Is as If Everything Takes Place in the No-man's-land of a Time Outside of Time': Music in Three Short Films by João César Monteiro", in OPUS - ANPPOM's Eletronic Journal.
Abstract:
The words of Fernando Cabral Martins (2005), which serve as the inspiration for this article’s title, refer to the short film Os Dois Soldados [The Two Soldiers] directed by João César Monteiro and first broadcast on RTP 2 in 1979. However, they also describe a phenomenon observed in two other short films in the same “series”: A Mãe (The Mother, 1978-1979) and O Amor das Três Romãs (The Love the Three Pomegranates, 1979). In all three films spatial and temporal indeterminacy is a central narrative element, emphasizing their fantastical dimension. In this sense, the aim of this research is to understand how music interacts with the other film elements to “indetermine” or blur, the space-time of action in these short films. Through audiovisual analysis and by examining the interaction of pre-existing music with the imagery, diegesis, and other elements, we propose a new way of interpreting these three films, focusing on their musical components and the complexity they bring on the cinematic object. This research confirms that, in these short films, music serves as an element of temporal and spatial dispersion.
