Vai~E~Vem

Light, peaceful, wickedly erudite humour of a kind long since unheard of. A Portuguese film from a Portuguese film maker. A film about "everydayness" and availability to be aroused by others and by their words. An experience of declined immortality for the sake of life.

This is a very interesting film, but I'm afraid only a Portuguese person from Lisbon can fully understand it's unique feeling.

João Cesar Monteiro died, and this film are his final words.

"Vai e Vem" is art of a man who knows he's near his end. João Vuvu is João César Monteiro dying, like he's capable of touching death. There's nothing similar to this state. Everything comes and goes back again.

In this film, JCM humor is different. There's an even bigger amount of sadness in it.

Wonderfuly heavy.

However, it's hard to watch and probably boring if you're not in the mood, or if you're not able to understand it.

I loved this film. The dialogues are wonderful and the story itself is amusing as we see J.César Monteiro in one of his best performances. The script has wonderful dialogues and is filled with bright and irreverent humour (a quality of Cesar Monteiro's writting). It's the story of an old-man (João Vuvu played by João César Monteiro) who has a son in jail and lives alone..strange events takes place as he goes to the hospital after being sodomized by a a very weird beard woman who fancies women. This is the last film by João César Monteiro because he left us this year at february..another victim of cancer..this film holds his memory.

Great were my expectations when I went to watch this film, because the Portuguese film critics were writing wonderful things about it. And how disappointed did I get! Sixty six shots in three hours and and nothing new. The film is nothing but an old man's fantasizing with young servants.

Monteiro has always had a very special approach to filmmaking, and he has his place in Portuguese film history, but that doesn't make this movie any better. What a pity.

Amazing movie. It flows in a peculiar way. There are, from the very start of the movie, shots of him going about his daily life and you have the opportunity to see glimpses of Lisbon through these commonplace trips. The movie is sprinkled with bits of humor here and there but what really makes the movie is the sheer atmosphere of it. Even more than in other movies of his, there is a very enthralling meditative aspect to it. It is more of an inner voyage that only Monteiro would have been able to depict. You will certainly love it. Just don't expect mainstream Hollywood nonsense; this is a different universe altogether.