VEREDAS on-line discussion

Please select and answer THREE of the four questions below about João Cesar Monteiro’s film VEREDAS. Your responses should be at least one full paragraph in length and should thoughtfully examine specific examples from the film.

1. What are some of the different strategies used in VEREDAS to present and explore Portuguese legends and folklore? And what are some of the specifically cinematic means engaged by Monteiro?

2. What are some of the common themes or ideas explored within the myths, legends and folk tales that unfold in VEREDAS? What do we learn about the narrative logic and imagination of Portuguese folklore? In what ways do song and music offer a counterpoint to or extension of the myths gathered in VEREDAS?

3. What do you make of the title VEREDAS, which literally translates as “paths”? What kind of journey is described in the film, and to what purpose? What kind of image does the film give of Portugal? Keep in mind Park Kwang-su’s original inspiration for TO THE STARRY ISLAND, his almost anthropological project to explore the realm of traditional Korean culture. Considered from this perspective, what connections can you make between João Cesar Monteiro and Park’s respective projects?

4. The frightening final story which closes VEREDAS (the dark tale of a couple torn asunder by a despotic landlord who enslaves the young man and sires a daughter with the young woman before driving her out into the wild) makes explicit commentary on the then present-day Portugal, the fall and legacy of the Salazar dictatorship, commented upon through the figures of the priest and landlord and their shared embrace of violence (as well as the carnations on the dinner table which reference the "Carnation Revolution" of April 1974 which took place during the film's production). Thinking about both this final story and VEREDAS as a whole, what kind of argument does Monteiro offer about myths and their relationship to Portuguese culture and history?