João Pedro Rodrigues Intégrale

Installation with João Rui Guerra da Mata

[Cinema]

From the midst of the extremely vibrant Portuguese cinema scene, the unique work of João Pedro Rodrigues has been winning over audiences since the end of the 1990’s with a total of eighteen films to the present day. His films breathe new life into cinema genres, such as the fantastical post-Fantômas, the melodrama following on from Sirk and Fassbinder, and the film noir following in the footsteps of Sternberg...As bewitching as the sovereign desires that they stir up, his films have earned him immediate recognition in the major film festivals. O Fantasma, Odete and To Die Like a Man follow their characters through the meanderings of their obsessions, from the difficulties of the here and now towards their overcoming of them. Via a glittering array of genders and genres, sexual, animal and cinematographic alike, the bodies of the actors undergo a constant process of metamorphosis, and with it, the films themselves. In collaboration with João Rui Guerra as artistic director, he has also co-directed several short films and a full-length film, shot in Macao. The latter picks up on the trail of the mysteries and ghosts of the former Portuguese colony, weaving together documentary and fiction in a seamless way.Coinciding with the cinema release of The Ornithologist, the latest film by João Pedro Rodrigues, the Centre Pompidou, in conjunction with the Festival d’Automne à Paris, has given them a joint invitation to present the entire body of their work and, for the first time in France, to create an installation work.
To mark the occasion, the Centre Pompidou, with support from le Fresnoy, has commissioned João Pedro Rodrigues to make a film of his choosing with which he replies to the question “Où en êtes-vous?” or ‘Where are you at?’. A book of interviews, the first work in French dedicated to this film-maker, completes this retrospective.