João Pedro Rodrigues Movies
- 2012
A man is summoned to Macao by a desperate old acquaintance who's mixed up with some dangerous people in this enigmatic crime drama from directing duo João Rui Guerra DaMata and João Pedro Rodrigues. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues directed and co-wrote this offbeat story of love and death. Tonia (Fernando Santos) is a drag queen and lip-sync artist who has won a loyal following at the club where she performs, but as she grows older, she's begun to worry if she's losing her touch, especially with the rising popularity of her rival Jenny (Jenny Larrue). Tonia shares a flat with her boyfriend, Rosario (Alexander David), who loves her but sometimes urges her to get a sex change; Tonia may live her life as a woman, but her Catholic faith makes it difficult for her to change her body to match. More troubling to Tonia are Rosario's struggles with heroin addiction, as he alternates drug binges with weeks of being clean and sober. Years before she began living as a woman, Tonia was involved with a woman and fathered her child, and one day the son she hasn't seen in years arrives at her doorstep with shocking news -- he's deserted his post in the army and is on the run from the law after killing a man. Morrer Como um Homem (aka To Die Like a Man) was an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the "Un Certain Regard" program. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alexander David, Gonçalo Ferreira De Almeida, (more)
A heartbroken Portuguese man mourning the loss of his lover to a tragic car accident finds solace in the arms of a woman driven to insanity by her need to bear children in O Fantasma director João Pedro Rodrigues' psychologically mangled melodrama. It was the very day of Pedro (João Carreira) and Rui's (Nuno Gil) one-year anniversary that Pedro was sent careening through his shattered window only to die moments later in the arms of his devastated lover. But as fate would have it, Pedro isn't the only one who has pledged undying love to the recently departed. After rejecting her most recent boyfriend for his refusal to impregnate her, increasingly erratic wannabe mother Odete (Ana Cristina De Oliveira) brazenly crashes Pedro's funeral only to lets loose with the shocking claims she was both deeply in love with the unfortunate car-crash victim and that she is also the mother-to-be of the deceased man's unborn child. Later taken in by Pedro's mother after holding vigil at his graveside for many days and nights, Odete begins to experience a startling transformation as her child reaches term and Rui begins to see his deceased lover in the eyes of a woman whose singular goal in life is to give birth. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nuno Gil, João Carreira, (more)
Shot almost entirely at night, O Fantasma chronicles a young trash collector's descent into a world of increasingly bizarre sexual encounters. Sergio (Ricardo Meneses) spends his days living in a run-down rented room, engaging in anonymous sex and trying to rebuff the advances of his co-worker Fatima (Beatriz Torcato). Unfulfilled by his daily sexcapades, Sergio finally gets turned on by a Tom of Finland-esque motorcyclist (Andre Barbosa), whose physical beauty becomes the source of Sergio's obsession. Sergio stalks him, eventually donning bondage gear and making the motorcyclist his love prisoner. After having his brutish way with his comely captive, Sergio vanishes into the night and prowls the city's garbage dumps in a phantasmic odyssey of sexual dysfunction and cruelty. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 1995
A beautiful bride-to-be decides to see if her groom really does love her for her personality in this Portuguese drama. She tests his love on the day of their civil wedding by shearing off her beautiful dark waist length hair. Rita's ploy eventually backfires because although Paulo is not pleased, he marries her anyway. Still her rashness has created a widening gulf between them. Paulo resents having one of his sex toys taken away from him and one night gets his revenge by cutting her hair even shorter while she is sleeping. Their relationship continues downhill from there. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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