Miguel Gonçalves Mendes
Encyclopedia
Miguel Gonçalves Mendes is a Portuguese
film director
, screenwriter
, and film producer
. He has directed four feature films and eight short films since 2002, a filmography that took him to renowned film festivals around the globe. In 2010 he directed the 117-minute documentary José and Pilar
, a walk through the last years of life of the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, José Saramago
and his wife Pilar del Rio, a moving love story of humanistic reaching. The film, co-produced by Pedro Almodóvar
's El Deseo and Fernando Meirelles
' O2, gathered very positive reviews and prompted a unique popular movement in Portugal. Recently Miguel announced he will be adapting José Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
with an international screenwriter and a foreign cast and crew.
, Portugal
. He went to high school in Olhão
, Algarve and from there traveled to Lisbon where he attended the first year of Anthropology at the New University of Lisbon
. He dropped out and went to the Political and Social Sciences Superior Institute (Lisbon
) where he studied International Relations for two years, once again without graduating. At 20 years old he started to connect with arts as performances and means of communication with the audience, enrolling in theater plays as an actor and producer. Finally, in 2001 Miguel applied for Lisbon Film School and four years later came out with a degree in Editing. By this time he had already created his film and theater producing company JumpCut and had directed Autografia, a documentary on the Portuguese poet and painter Mário Cesariny, which screened in Spain
, Italy
and Saint Tomé.
José and Pilar
is a 125 minute documentary following the last years of the Nobel Prize winner José Saramago
, chiefly through his relationship with his resolute wife, Pilar del Río. Highly praised by the critics and the audience, the film seems to have accomplished to show the tenderness, the genuine integrity and the deeply concerned humanity behind such controversial figure and his spouse. It gathers sequences from from Madrid
to Helsinki
to Rio de Janeiro
and covers Jose and Pilar's life in Lanzarote
, their trips around the world (presenting José's books, signing autographs, making speeches) and their most simple, transient and quotidian moments, as for during the period José writes his "The Elephant's Journey
". The film was produced by Miguel Mendes' JumpCut (Portugal), Fernando Meirelles
's O2 and Pedro Almodóvar
's El Deseo
.
The film visited several film festivals around the world (more than once winning the Audience Award) and had commercial premiere in Portugal
, Spain
and Brazil
. Until the end of the year, it is expected to premiere in Italy
, Mexico
and the US.
It recently triggered a unique popular movement in Portugal when the blog Split Screen
began a petition asking the Portuguese Institute of Cinema to pick José and Pilar as the Portuguese submission for the Academy's Best Foreign Film nominees. In a country where the national cinema is particularly weak, we shall account for this gesture as a little history being made, since the petitioners got their wish as José and Pilar was indeed announced as the Portuguese submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
Miguel Gonçalves Mendes recently announced his next project as the adaptation of José Saramago's controversial but world wide praised novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
- at its release, the book was publicly condemned and criticized by the Portuguese Government of Prime-Minister Cavaco Silva, therefore resulting in Saramago's permanent exile in Lanzarote
, Spain
but six years later he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In short, this is the well known story of the life and death of Jesus Christ told from an incredibly audacious angle, the one that rejects religious dogmas, political interests and popular conventionalism and portrays the genuine conflicts and emotions of the human mind and body. It is the life of a boy that became a man, of the family he had to leave behind, of the notions of death, forgiveness, anger, personal and social responsibility, eternity and global communion he had to unveil all by himself.
«This film is about how cruel the mankind can reach, whether it is because of power, money, relationships or some god.», says Miguel. Three years after Fernando Meirelles opened the Cannes Film Festival
with Blindness
(also a novel by José Saramago), the Portuguese director chose this one because «it is the most cinematic of José Saramago's novels, the one with the adequate structure for film.»
The filmmaker already advanced that he wants big budget, international co-production, international stars and international screenwriting.
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, and film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
. He has directed four feature films and eight short films since 2002, a filmography that took him to renowned film festivals around the globe. In 2010 he directed the 117-minute documentary José and Pilar
José and Pilar
José and Pilar is a Portuguese documentary directed by Miguel Gonçalves Mendes following the last years of the Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, chiefly through his relationship with his resolute wife, Pilar del Río...
, a walk through the last years of life of the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, José Saramago
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom has described Saramago as "a...
and his wife Pilar del Rio, a moving love story of humanistic reaching. The film, co-produced by Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
's El Deseo and Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2004 for his work in the Brazilian film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films...
' O2, gathered very positive reviews and prompted a unique popular movement in Portugal. Recently Miguel announced he will be adapting José Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is a novel by the Portuguese author José Saramago. A fictional re-telling of Jesus Christ's life, it depicts him as a flawed, humanised character with passions and doubts...
with an international screenwriter and a foreign cast and crew.
Early life
Miguel Mendes was born on the 2nd of September 1978 in CovilhãCovilhã
Covilhã is a city in Covilha Municipality in Centro region, Portugal. The city proper has 36,723 inhabitants, and the municipality has an area of 555.6 km² with a total population of 53,501, being composed of 31 parishes. It is located in the Cova da Beira subregion, in the district of...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. He went to high school in Olhão
Olhão
Olhão , or Olhão da Restauração, is a city and a municipality in the Algarve region, in Southern Portugal. It is located near Faro, which is the district's capital and the capital of the Algarve. It is mostly a fishing port city...
, Algarve and from there traveled to Lisbon where he attended the first year of Anthropology at the New University of Lisbon
New University of Lisbon
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, , also known as NOVA ) was established in 1973 and is the youngest of the three public universities of Lisbon, in Portugal....
. He dropped out and went to the Political and Social Sciences Superior Institute (Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
) where he studied International Relations for two years, once again without graduating. At 20 years old he started to connect with arts as performances and means of communication with the audience, enrolling in theater plays as an actor and producer. Finally, in 2001 Miguel applied for Lisbon Film School and four years later came out with a degree in Editing. By this time he had already created his film and theater producing company JumpCut and had directed Autografia, a documentary on the Portuguese poet and painter Mário Cesariny, which screened in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Saint Tomé.
José and Pilar
Cast: José Saramago, Pilar del Rio, Gael Garcia Bernal, Fernando Meirelles.José and Pilar
José and Pilar
José and Pilar is a Portuguese documentary directed by Miguel Gonçalves Mendes following the last years of the Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, chiefly through his relationship with his resolute wife, Pilar del Río...
is a 125 minute documentary following the last years of the Nobel Prize winner José Saramago
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom has described Saramago as "a...
, chiefly through his relationship with his resolute wife, Pilar del Río. Highly praised by the critics and the audience, the film seems to have accomplished to show the tenderness, the genuine integrity and the deeply concerned humanity behind such controversial figure and his spouse. It gathers sequences from from Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
to Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
and covers Jose and Pilar's life in Lanzarote
Lanzarote
Lanzarote , a Spanish island, is the easternmost of the autonomous Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 125 km off the coast of Africa and 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering 845.9 km2, it stands as the fourth largest of the islands...
, their trips around the world (presenting José's books, signing autographs, making speeches) and their most simple, transient and quotidian moments, as for during the period José writes his "The Elephant's Journey
The Elephant's Journey
The Elephant's Journey is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago. It was first published in 2008.-Plot:In 1551, King João III of Portugal gave Archduke Maximilian an unusual wedding present: an elephant named Solomon. The elephant’s journey from Lisbon to Vienna was witnessed and...
". The film was produced by Miguel Mendes' JumpCut (Portugal), Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2004 for his work in the Brazilian film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films...
's O2 and Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
's El Deseo
El Deseo
El Deseo is film production company owned by Spanish film producers the Almodóvar brothers . Films produced by the company include All About My Mother, Talk to Her, My Life Without Me, Bad Education, Volver, Broken Embraces and The Skin I Live In.- External links :* Film production company owned...
.
The film visited several film festivals around the world (more than once winning the Audience Award) and had commercial premiere in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Until the end of the year, it is expected to premiere in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and the US.
It recently triggered a unique popular movement in Portugal when the blog Split Screen
Split screen
Split screen can refer to:*a motion picture technique; see split screen *a computer graphics and video game technique; see split screen...
began a petition asking the Portuguese Institute of Cinema to pick José and Pilar as the Portuguese submission for the Academy's Best Foreign Film nominees. In a country where the national cinema is particularly weak, we shall account for this gesture as a little history being made, since the petitioners got their wish as José and Pilar was indeed announced as the Portuguese submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
«My own favorites among his books include the darkly comic The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and the frightening Blindness.», Harold Bloom.Miguel Gonçalves Mendes recently announced his next project as the adaptation of José Saramago's controversial but world wide praised novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is a novel by the Portuguese author José Saramago. A fictional re-telling of Jesus Christ's life, it depicts him as a flawed, humanised character with passions and doubts...
- at its release, the book was publicly condemned and criticized by the Portuguese Government of Prime-Minister Cavaco Silva, therefore resulting in Saramago's permanent exile in Lanzarote
Lanzarote
Lanzarote , a Spanish island, is the easternmost of the autonomous Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 125 km off the coast of Africa and 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering 845.9 km2, it stands as the fourth largest of the islands...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
but six years later he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In short, this is the well known story of the life and death of Jesus Christ told from an incredibly audacious angle, the one that rejects religious dogmas, political interests and popular conventionalism and portrays the genuine conflicts and emotions of the human mind and body. It is the life of a boy that became a man, of the family he had to leave behind, of the notions of death, forgiveness, anger, personal and social responsibility, eternity and global communion he had to unveil all by himself.
«This film is about how cruel the mankind can reach, whether it is because of power, money, relationships or some god.», says Miguel. Three years after Fernando Meirelles opened the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
with Blindness
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
(also a novel by José Saramago), the Portuguese director chose this one because «it is the most cinematic of José Saramago's novels, the one with the adequate structure for film.»
The filmmaker already advanced that he wants big budget, international co-production, international stars and international screenwriting.
Filmography
- TBA | The Gospel According to Jesus ChristThe Gospel According to Jesus ChristThe Gospel According to Jesus Christ is a novel by the Portuguese author José Saramago. A fictional re-telling of Jesus Christ's life, it depicts him as a flawed, humanised character with passions and doubts...
- 2010 | José and PilarJosé and PilarJosé and Pilar is a Portuguese documentary directed by Miguel Gonçalves Mendes following the last years of the Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, chiefly through his relationship with his resolute wife, Pilar del Río...
- 2009 | The Path of Salomão (short)
- 2008 | Zarco (short)
- 2008 | Azinhaga (short)
- 2008 | Monday (short)
- 2007 | Floripes (short)
- 2007 | Dedicated to the one I love (short)
- 2007 | Course of Silence (short)
- 2005 | Floripes or the Death of the Myth
- 2005 | The Battle of the Three Kings
- 2004 | Autografia
- 2002 | D. Nieves (short)
External links
- JumpCut (Portuguese, Spanish, English)
- IMDB Profile