Existential Problematics in the Films of Pedro Costa

Abstract

Films of the Portuguese director Pedro Costa seldom steal the
limelight of cinema scholarship. The specific marginality of his works, the
complex semi-documentary structure of his films and, at first glance, the
social nature of his subjects complicate the analysis of his films. This essay
undertakes a detailed investigation of his films' structures and problematics
in the context of intellectual development in 21st-century European cinema.
Four films by Costa — Bones (Ossos, 1997), In Vanda’s Room (No Quarto da
Vanda, 2000), Colossal Youth (Juventude em Marcha, 2006) and Horse Money
(Cavalo Dinheiro, 2014) are regarded as elements of a single artistic system
that transforms, becomes more complex and absorbs more and more cultural
codes.
The essay defines the motifs representative of the four films, visual metaphors
that refer to sacred texts and the gradual transformation of the director’s
aesthetics. It is motivated by the necessity to carry out a complex research of
all components of Costa’s films from the existential perspective: in the author’s
opinion, such perspective gives the opportunity to define specific features of the
director’s aesthetics. The systemic interdisciplinary approach is determined by
the necessity to expose the aesthetic and anthropological problems explored in
Costa's films and to define their philosophical basis, using a combined historical,
cultural, semiotic, anthropological and hermeneutical approach. The essay
concludes that the core of Pedro Costa’s art relates to existential philosophy and
anthropology and that his main concern is spirituality, a theme realized most
adequately via cinema