Recollections of the Yellow House

From this dull poor spectacle... few are the things enjoyable. Watching people eating for 30 minutes in a row is not cinema to me. Lack of reality, lack of rhythm, lack of cameras? lack of sense of ridiculous, lack of acting, lack of script, lack of history, lack of everything is the only thing i could found in this ridiculous movie, if i can call it a movie. I dont know what makes people spend money doing a movie like this, i prefer to watch a white wall for and entire day to watch anything like this again.

This is a strikingly original piece of work. Both in its overall tone and in how it portrays (what I would call) a certain sickening "malaise" of our age's urban solitary Man.

This is where the João de Deus character (almost his alter-ego) first shows up in Monteiro's "oeuvre". Yes, it can be said that this film depicts some of Man's most shamingly unconfessed little dirty everyday sleaziness. But it does so in a hauntingly poetic way: there's somewhat of (what might be called) "aesthetics of all things disgusting" to it, which would reach its peak in Monteiro's own A BACIA DE J.W.

João de Deus undergoes some sordid humiliation and proceeds to enact or abide by the politics of slimy (but classy and literate) seduction. It's the "classy" and "literate" factors that prevent this film from being annoyingly disgusting (it's not "what" you do but "how" you do it)

There's also the lust of decadence as he's comfortably numbed into an ever materially and psychologically degrading state, starting from when he has to flee the flat he was paying for after a uniquely poetic and shy seduction/rape scene.

It's quite possibly the best Portuguese film I've seen. And there's much of the proverbial Portuguese dreaming and poetic melancholy (even sadness) tone in that there's shootings of the narrow typical Lisbon streets and recreations of some (not so typical) fate-ridden scenes (fate means "fado") so closely and frequently attached to the Portuguese.

I can't believe that I watched this movie only this recently. What a masterpiece. It is one of the greatest comedies I have ever seen. But it is not an obvious one and there are no cues for when to laugh as in so many distasteful sitcom-style-movies. This one will demand some effort from you but it is worth it. The story seems trivial, it revolves around the life of a man living in a house with other people and how he spends his existence, how he deals with his landlady, his job, etc... But that is only the scenery. As in most of his movies, there is a deep symbolism both in the dialogues and in the sets which is the real crux of the story. There are also genuinely funny moments throughout the film, which I won't mention so I won't spoil it. I give it a 10/10.

I'm Portuguese and I love this film. João Cesar Monteiro is very different from any other director and when he makes a film he is not thinking about making money; is goal is to make art and the transmission to the viewers of how he see the human condition. This is one of is best films. I apologize for my bad English:)

A film that is weirdly poetic. João de Deus is a walking contradiction and that's what makes him so interesting to watch. The sleek way in which he says and does the most obnoxious and outrageous things is just delightful and always unpredictable.