João Botelho

Directing

João Botelho

Born

1949-05-11 (77)

Place of birth

Lamego, Portugal

Known for

Directing

Credits

51 titles

Known for

Film credits

2010s · 3 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Four poster
NR

A look at the art of two pairs of brothers, plastic artists: João Queiroz, Jorge Queiroz; Pedro Tropa and Francisco Tropa.

Four

2014

The Fatalist poster
3.8

The complex relationship between master and servant is explored in director João Botelho's adaptation of Denis Diderot's popular novel Jacques le Fataliste et Son Maître. As Tiago (Rogério Samora) drives his master (André Gomes) through the Portuguese countryside to an unspecified destination, the traveling pair embark on a series of highly philosophical discussions. Flowing with tales of his life in the military and previous sexual escapades, Tiago trades a series of tales with his rapt passenger, including the story of a vengeful spurned lover who plots revenge on the nobleman who rejected her by transforming a prostitute into a society lady and convincing him to marry the tainted bride.

The Fatalist

2005

The Fatalist poster
3.8

The complex relationship between master and servant is explored in director João Botelho's adaptation of Denis Diderot's popular novel Jacques le Fataliste et Son Maître. As Tiago (Rogério Samora) drives his master (André Gomes) through the Portuguese countryside to an unspecified destination, the traveling pair embark on a series of highly philosophical discussions. Flowing with tales of his life in the military and previous sexual escapades, Tiago trades a series of tales with his rapt passenger, including the story of a vengeful spurned lover who plots revenge on the nobleman who rejected her by transforming a prostitute into a society lady and convincing him to marry the tainted bride.

The Fatalist

2005

Se a Memória Existe poster
7.0

A dozen of the revolutionary Army officers that played eminent parts in the change of political regime in Portugal, from a military dictatorship to a social-democracy, read a book to a young girl, describing in a poetic, yet realistic way, what happened in the streets, and minds, of her People in April 25, 1974.

Se a Memória Existe

2000

Se a Memória Existe poster
7.0

A dozen of the revolutionary Army officers that played eminent parts in the change of political regime in Portugal, from a military dictatorship to a social-democracy, read a book to a young girl, describing in a poetic, yet realistic way, what happened in the streets, and minds, of her People in April 25, 1974.

Se a Memória Existe

2000

No Dia dos Meus Anos poster
6.0

This Portuguese movie directed by João Botelho, is part of The Four Elements series. This is the second episode, The Air.

No Dia dos Meus Anos

1992

No Dia dos Meus Anos poster
6.0

This Portuguese movie directed by João Botelho, is part of The Four Elements series. This is the second episode, The Air.

No Dia dos Meus Anos

1992

Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me poster
6.4

“An old photograph taken 36 years ago. His hand rests on my shoulder. A blessing, a gift. Then a history of over four decades of friendship, admiration and apprenticeship. A journey into Oliveira’s cinema, his method, his way of filming and his extraordinary cinematic inventions. He lived for over a century, over a century of cinema, cinema in its entirety. For him, and for me too now, documentary and fiction films go hand in hand; it is all about cinema. So I had the audacity to film a magnificent story that Manoel loved but never filmed, one that he left behind as if his hand and eyes were close to God, or among the gods, and he was steering me.” - João Botelho

Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me

2016

Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me poster
6.4

“An old photograph taken 36 years ago. His hand rests on my shoulder. A blessing, a gift. Then a history of over four decades of friendship, admiration and apprenticeship. A journey into Oliveira’s cinema, his method, his way of filming and his extraordinary cinematic inventions. He lived for over a century, over a century of cinema, cinema in its entirety. For him, and for me too now, documentary and fiction films go hand in hand; it is all about cinema. So I had the audacity to film a magnificent story that Manoel loved but never filmed, one that he left behind as if his hand and eyes were close to God, or among the gods, and he was steering me.” - João Botelho

Cinema, Manoel de Oliveira and Me

2016

Traffic poster
5.7

Young Jesus is taken on a vacation by his parents (Rita Blanco, Adriano Luz) to a deserted beach resort. They accidentally fall into overnight wealth after Jesus digs in the sand, uncovering a large drug stash. Others characters intersecting here include an alcoholic actress, a philandering banker, a general trafficking in arms, priests who close their church and head north as hitchhikers, politicians who watch an all-girl production of Julius Caesar, and beggars who recite a children's story in a huge heap of trash.

Traffic

1998

Traffic poster
5.7

Young Jesus is taken on a vacation by his parents (Rita Blanco, Adriano Luz) to a deserted beach resort. They accidentally fall into overnight wealth after Jesus digs in the sand, uncovering a large drug stash. Others characters intersecting here include an alcoholic actress, a philandering banker, a general trafficking in arms, priests who close their church and head north as hitchhikers, politicians who watch an all-girl production of Julius Caesar, and beggars who recite a children's story in a huge heap of trash.

Traffic

1998

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis poster
4.4

Fernando Pessoa, one of the greatest writers in Portuguese, created an immense parallel world and several heteronyms so as to endure the loneliness of genius. José Saramago, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Literature, has a heteronym, Ricardo Reis, return to Portugal after a 16-year exile in Brazil. 1936 is a perilous year with Mussolini’s fascism, Hitler’s Nazism, Spain’s Civil War and Salazar’s New State in Portugal. And Fernando Pessoa meets his creation, Reis. Two women, Lídia and Marcenda, are Reis’ carnal and impossible passions. “Life and Death as one” allows for literature and cinema.

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

2020

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis poster
4.4

Fernando Pessoa, one of the greatest writers in Portuguese, created an immense parallel world and several heteronyms so as to endure the loneliness of genius. José Saramago, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Literature, has a heteronym, Ricardo Reis, return to Portugal after a 16-year exile in Brazil. 1936 is a perilous year with Mussolini’s fascism, Hitler’s Nazism, Spain’s Civil War and Salazar’s New State in Portugal. And Fernando Pessoa meets his creation, Reis. Two women, Lídia and Marcenda, are Reis’ carnal and impossible passions. “Life and Death as one” allows for literature and cinema.

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

2020

A Terra Antes do Céu poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

A Terra Antes do Céu

2007

Para Que Este Mundo Não Acabe! poster
NR

"Come and see this world end!" - wrote the the priest António Fontes, father of folk medicine and "burning witches" in Vilar de Perdizes, a desperate plea in his precious monograph of the Barroso region. And I (João Botelho) went. Then I saw the people and the land. Haunting on discovery. Heart sank. "God is good but the devil is not so bad!" - We learned from this Community habits and that is great, tough and generous. And I also learned that no fairer place for a demand of life and even the elusive happiness there, I assure you, it is always possible.

Para Que Este Mundo Não Acabe!

2009

Para Que Este Mundo Não Acabe! poster
NR

"Come and see this world end!" - wrote the the priest António Fontes, father of folk medicine and "burning witches" in Vilar de Perdizes, a desperate plea in his precious monograph of the Barroso region. And I (João Botelho) went. Then I saw the people and the land. Haunting on discovery. Heart sank. "God is good but the devil is not so bad!" - We learned from this Community habits and that is great, tough and generous. And I also learned that no fairer place for a demand of life and even the elusive happiness there, I assure you, it is always possible.

Para Que Este Mundo Não Acabe!

2009

Oh Lisboa, Meu Lar poster
NR

A journey inside the tram crossing the city of Lisbon while listening to fragments of Fernando Pessoa's poetry.

Oh Lisboa, Meu Lar

2010

A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente dos EUA poster
5.5

Alexandra Lencastre plays a woman who believes she is President of the U.S.A.

A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente dos EUA

2003

A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente dos EUA poster
5.5

Alexandra Lencastre plays a woman who believes she is President of the U.S.A.

A Mulher que Acreditava Ser Presidente dos EUA

2003

Hard Times poster
7.3

A film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Hard Times" set in a Portuguese industrial town of the 1980s.

Hard Times

1988

Hard Times poster
7.3

A film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Hard Times" set in a Portuguese industrial town of the 1980s.

Hard Times

1988

Hard Times poster
7.3

A film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Hard Times" set in a Portuguese industrial town of the 1980s.

Hard Times

1988

Disquiet poster
5.5

Lisbon, today. In a room of a house at Douradores Street, a man invents dreams and theorizes about them. The essence of the dreams itself becomes physical, palpable, visible. The text itself materializes in its musicality. And, in front of our eyes, this music can be felt with the ears, brain and heart. It spreads itself in the street where the man lives, in the city that he loves above all and over the entire world.

Disquiet

2010

Disquiet poster
5.5

Lisbon, today. In a room of a house at Douradores Street, a man invents dreams and theorizes about them. The essence of the dreams itself becomes physical, palpable, visible. The text itself materializes in its musicality. And, in front of our eyes, this music can be felt with the ears, brain and heart. It spreads itself in the street where the man lives, in the city that he loves above all and over the entire world.

Disquiet

2010

True and Tender is the North poster
5.0

Adaptation of a 1987 novel by Agustina Bessa Luis, a multi-generation exploration of a wealthy family with a mysterious past and a house on the island of Madeira.

True and Tender is the North

2008

True and Tender is the North poster
5.0

Adaptation of a 1987 novel by Agustina Bessa Luis, a multi-generation exploration of a wealthy family with a mysterious past and a house on the island of Madeira.

True and Tender is the North

2008

Um Filme em Forma de Assim poster
4.2

Organized like a dream, structured like a musical and with texts, both spoken and sung, that lead us to unexpected, chaotic and exciting situations, which try to grasp part of what the unattainable Alexandre O'Neill left us.

Um Filme em Forma de Assim

2022

Um Filme em Forma de Assim poster
4.2

Organized like a dream, structured like a musical and with texts, both spoken and sung, that lead us to unexpected, chaotic and exciting situations, which try to grasp part of what the unattainable Alexandre O'Neill left us.

Um Filme em Forma de Assim

2022

The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family poster
5.8

The tragedy and comedy in Carlos' life begins, grows and ends like the tragedy and comedy of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, allegedly a brilliant writer, Carlos, with his idle existence as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time to enjoying friends and lovers. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It's a vertiginous passion that goes beyond that past gloominess to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.

The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family

2014

The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family poster
5.8

The tragedy and comedy in Carlos' life begins, grows and ends like the tragedy and comedy of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, allegedly a brilliant writer, Carlos, with his idle existence as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time to enjoying friends and lovers. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It's a vertiginous passion that goes beyond that past gloominess to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.

The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family

2014

La Valse poster
5.2

A choreographic poem by Maurice Ravel.

La Valse

2012

Pilgrimage poster
5.6

Adventurer, pilgrim, penitent but above all outstanding writer, Fernão Mendes Pinto left us an unparalleled romance, the living and human palpitation of one of the greatest historical adventures of man.

Pilgrimage

2017

Pilgrimage poster
5.6

Adventurer, pilgrim, penitent but above all outstanding writer, Fernão Mendes Pinto left us an unparalleled romance, the living and human palpitation of one of the greatest historical adventures of man.

Pilgrimage

2017

A Arte da Luz Tem 20.000 Anos poster
NR

Documentary about Vale do Côa.

A Arte da Luz Tem 20.000 Anos

2014

Anquanto La Lhéngua Fur Cantada poster
NR

A documentary about the singings of a Portuguese Village that has their own dialect

Anquanto La Lhéngua Fur Cantada

2012

Corruption poster
3.7

A crime drama based on the life of a woman who lived for years with a man that was the head of a corruption network in the Portuguese football world.

Corruption

2007

Corruption poster
3.7

A crime drama based on the life of a woman who lived for years with a man that was the head of a corruption network in the Portuguese football world.

Corruption

2007

A Portuguese Farewell poster
6.2

In Africa, during the colonial war, a patrol is lost in the bush and a soldier dies in operation. Twelve years later, in Portugal, the soldier family meets in peace.

A Portuguese Farewell

1986

A Portuguese Farewell poster
6.2

In Africa, during the colonial war, a patrol is lost in the bush and a soldier dies in operation. Twelve years later, in Portugal, the soldier family meets in peace.

A Portuguese Farewell

1986

A Portuguese Farewell poster
6.2

In Africa, during the colonial war, a patrol is lost in the bush and a soldier dies in operation. Twelve years later, in Portugal, the soldier family meets in peace.

A Portuguese Farewell

1986