I always have trouble with Rosenbaum in regards to Oliveira. I am, on one hand, deeply grateful for the work he has done to make Oliveira more accessible to audiences in the States but I also believe that despite his very genuine appreciation JR actually does MO a great disservice in pieces like this. I'm not sure what it stems from exactly, though I tend to think it's a certain philosophic disconnect, but JR simply does not get what is going on in the films he is dismissing. I am, if anything, a more rabid Oliveira-phile but I'll be the first to admit that it does help to be in some alignment with his stated attitudes. Of course, as with any great artist, MO does not force his perspective on us; all he demands is that we have the patience to consider what we are seeing and hearing thoroughly. He is an absolute master ironist and as such recognizes his own limitations better than anyone but those limitations are not these. They are simply the limitations of any and all to comprehend and synthesize fully and without bias.

It's ideological, this disconnect between J-Ro and M-dO. Whatever you think of that, it's probably good to have some kind of distance on this very uneven, somewhat fadfollowing director (he's always about 5 years "behind" - splendidly so). It's Monteiro is who needs a write up in print - he flew in the face of all that encrusts M-dO and was the opposite of lazy. Unfortunately he died young, like James Dean. (Craig Keller has already done a great job online, starting right at the beginning of Monteiro's filmography, at his Cinema Asparagus Blog).

As much as I would love to see more written on Joao Cesar Monteiro, the James Dean comparison is a bit far off. Monteiro was 64 when he died!