Publications
Chapter | Reconstrução ou fabulação medieval? Um estudo de caso sobre a música no filme Silvestre de João César Monteiro
José Nicolau Ponto, INET-md researcher pursuing a PhD at NOVA FCSH, is the author of one of the chapters of the book Edad Media proyectada: el pasado medieval ibérico en la creación audiovisual en lenguas portuguesa y española, edited by Alicia Miguélez, Erika Loic and Felipe Brandi (Iberoamericana Vervuer, 2025).
Published in open acess, with the title "Reconstrução ou fabulação medieval? Um estudo de caso sobre a música no filme Silvestre de João César Monteiro"[“Historical Reconstruction or Medieval Fabulation? A Case Study on the Music in João César Monteiro’s Silvestre”], the chapter analyses the music in the film Silvestre. It explores how the film’s exclusively pre-existent musictrack contributes to the historical reconstruction of an Iberian medieval space and time, while simultaneously subverting that reconstruction through processes of fabulation. The film initially incorporates excerpts from Sephardic romances, Iberian vilancicos, and other works rooted in popular and medieval traditions. However, as the narrative unfolds, it introduces compositions by Mozart, Schubert, and Varèse. This anachronistic combination gradually dissolves the historical frame, giving way to an increasingly fictional universe. Could this be yet another means of reinforcing the film's ideological message? Fabulation is presented as a form of translation – from past to present – and even as an attempt to construct a vision of the future. This chapter examines how Silvestre’s fictionalization through music may paradoxically reflect the director’s pursuit of an ideological truth.
This work is financed by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., under the Doctoral Scholarship 2021.04853.BD.
