Pessoa at the entrance of the Centro Commercial de Cedofeita, Porto.
Edgar Pêra
Edgar Pêra has made a huge amount of his work available on his Youtube channel, link HERE.
Whilst we’re on the subject, HERE is a link to his personal website….
…and HERE is a link to a very well researched summary of Pêra’s life and work.
Films
Não Sou Nada- The Nothingness Club
HERE is a link to a review of the film after it’s showing in Rotterdam
HERE is a link to some information about a film that Edgar mentioned, “The Art of Memory” , which is about the old textile factory where several projects, including The Nothingness Club, were filmed
Telepathic Letters (Cartas Telepáticas)
HERE is a link to a review of the film from it’s showing at the Locarno Film Festival and HERE is a shorter, but no less thoughtful review from a site called The Film Verdict.
HERE is a short radio interview from the Locarno Festival.
The film is currently available on MUBI, link HERE
Publications, Further Reading…
Pessoa
Despite his huge importance in the world of Portuguese literature, Fernando Pessoa is still a marginal figure in the English speaking world, which is remarkable considering that he wrote at least some of his output in English. What follows here is a brief overview of books by and about Pessoa for the curious English speaking listener…
Richard Zenith’s exhaustive biography is a good place to start, HERE is a link.
Speaking of the Biography, HERE is a link to a very good review of it that is extremely illuminating on the subject of Pessoa.
Zenith also worked as a translator for this beautiful dual language edition of a selection of Pessoa’s poetry, well worth having , link HERE
HERE is a link to a rather good article about The Book Of Disquiet.
We really need to talk about the Lisbon Publishing House Tinta da China, which has done a lot to popularise the works of Fernando Pessoa. The books are beautifully produced, enough to make any bibliophile’s pulse move faster. They produced a wonderful companion book to the film, which is in Portuguese, link HERE, but also a collection of translations of some of Pessoa’s prose writing HERE and another English language anthology of a selection of the Poetry HERE
Finally, the Poetry Society of America have an all inclusive overview of Pessoa and his use of heteronyms, link HERE.
H.P.Lovecraft
Lovecraft, however, is a much more well known figure, if somewhat divisive. There is no great shortage of complete editions of his work, as well as other works of art based around his world, often trying to re-interpret it in a more inclusive way.
Let’s start off with some classic Lovecraft….
Most of my understanding of Lovecraft comes from an evening spent in the company of Totti from the band “Sulphur Aeon”. Here are the boys interpreting their hit “The Summoning of Nyarlathotep”
…and here’s an audiobook version of the Necronomicon. Totti described this book to me as “Komplett Mummpitz”.
Finally…
I had often wondered why there wasn’t a film about Pessoa’s adventure with Aleister Crowley. It turns out there are two, although one of them is a T.V. Series from 1989, link HERE to the imdb page, you can probably find the entire thing on Youtube, and a more serious short film from 2019, link to the trailer HERE
…whilst we’re on the subject of TV, Edgar Pêra directed a series, along with Carlos Amaral, about the 1974 revolution, which was recently broadcast by the RTP, link HERE . This was a great help for clueless foreigners like us, as it dealt more with the run-up to the revolution than the revolution itself. It is worthy of your attention.
The exploitation of AI actors is also a subject of concern….
Pessoa’s desk, as used in “The Nothingness Club” , on display at Trindade Cinema during the first run of the film.
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