Recollections of the Yellow House

In his debut as his libidinous alter ego João de Deus, Monteiro stars as a meticulous and melancholy bachelor living in a rambling boarding house and feverishly obsessed with his landlady’s daughter. A ribald yet wonderfully delicate comedy, Memories of the Yellow House traces the indecisive, dangerous ripening of erotic fantasy as João’s voyeuristic rituals push him to further, unexpected extremes. The rich mellowing of Monteiro’s political address is embodied in the figure of the boarding house whose sanctimonious and narcissistic landlady is both a loose metaphor for the repressive, reactionary tendencies of postwar Portuguese society and an affectionately comic figure.