“Oh, and one last favor. If you pass by heaven, give my regards to the angels. But if you end up in hell, give my address to the devil.”
– Coffin Joe in “This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse,” 1967, Brazil
If you don’t know who this is, shame on you. Ok – that might be a bit strong since his films weren’t available in North America until the last ten years or so, but you should know who he is. This guy was a one-of-a-kind auteur whose low budget films seemed to exist in a weird alternate reality that had to be seen to be believed. Imagine grainy black and white explorations of existential themes masquerading as a grind house horror movie – in Portuguese.
I wrote an earlier post about him here, so I won’t recap except to say that after a lifetime of watching movies, the first time I saw “This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse,” I thought I was either hallucinating or dreaming. After seeing untold thousands of films, this isn’t something that happens very often.
So I just want to take a moment to honor this mind-blowing artist. He inspired me and was a shining example of the power of following your personal vision and aesthetic, no matter how unconventional.
He made living just a little more interesting.