Cinema for me is…
Gonçalo in 23 Frames
1. Describe yourself in ten words.
Enthusiastic kid, born by the sea, head in the clouds.
2. Your best quality? Your worst habit?
Both are my lack of impulsiveness.
3. Your dream job?
Film director.
4. What do you like most about your country?
Definitely the food.
5. Your favorite dish in your country?
Leitão à Bairrada.
6. Which word or phrase in your native language do you like the most and what does it mean?
“Knocking the nose on the door”, and it is used when someone is refused something. It encapsulates how visual and comical most of our sayings are.
7. What European capital have you visited lately?
Madrid.
8. Other than your own, which European country would you love to live in?
Greece.
9. What does Europe mean to you? 3 values.
Inclusivity, solidarity and hope.
10. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail”..
11. Your favorite film theatre? What do you like about it?
Cinema Trindade, because it doesn’t compromise its selection to attract larger audiences.
12. Who is your movie hero?
Kang Man-Shik from “Save The Green Planet!” because he destroys the entire world.
13. Which movie director would you like to be?
David Cronenberg.
14. Briefly describe your favorite scene.
The drunk townsfolk at a rural tavern ask a young academic for a demonstration of astronomy. The young man proceeds to assign the rough, uneducated men the roles of stellar objects from the solar system and makes them spin around each other in a silly, yet deeply serious manner. When the time is right, he stops them and explains the conditions and effects of a solar eclipse. Silence fills the air, for the men are entranced by his sublime description.
This opening scene from Béla Tarr’s “Werckmeister Harmonies” is my favourite because it took me right back to my childhood, when astronomy and the ungraspable were my greatest fascinations.
15. What are the 3 best European films you have seen in the last year?
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Céline Sciamma, 2019) FR The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979) DE Marketa Lazarová (Frantisek Vlácil, 1967) CZ.
16. Which film character do you most identify with?
Any character from Guy Maddin’s “The Forbidden Room”, because they never seem to know how they got there.
17. Your favorite soundtrack or song?
“A Field In England” OST by Jim Williams
18. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?
“November” (2017) dir. Rainer Sarnet.
19. Your life becomes a bio-pic. Who plays the role of you?
Anthony Perkins.
20. Which talent would you most like to have?
Drawing.
21. What is your most treasured possession?
It’s not really an object, but the privilege to live by the sea.
22. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Surviving my last film shoot.
23. What is your motto?
“Turn soft and lovely any time you have a chance.” – from Jenny Holzer’s Truisms.