Director
Jose Mojica Marins
Writer
Rubens Francisco Luchetti, Jose Mojica Marins
Cast
Rosangela Maldonato, Jose Mojica Marins, Roque Rodrigues, Teresa Sodre
Cinematographer
Giorgio Attili
contact
ONE EYED FILMS Limited
More censorship issues followed THE STRANGE WORLD OF COFFIN JOE when the director caused a further stir with THE AWAKENING OF THE BEAST (1970) – a pseudo-documentary, travailing the exploits of Brazilian drug counterculture – which was effectively banned by the State indefinitely. After this Marins set about making something completely different to try and recoup his financial losses, considering he was now sat on a film he was unable to release. The result was THE END OF MAN, where the director comes closest to Luis Buñuel, in the film’s more surreal aspects as well as its scathing satire of religion. The film may not have had a comparable budget to something like Buñuel’s SIMON OF THE DESERT (1965) or VIRIDIANA (1961), but the central messages remain startlingly similar.
The director takes a starring role, this time appearing as a strange naked man who, through a series of unrelated acts, manages to attract a large following as some sort of a messiah. The film is notable for its comic elements, just as much as it is for having Marins wander around the crowded city streets completely in the nude for its early scenes, to the puzzlement of many (likely unsuspecting) passersby. And although the film bears a distinct tonal difference to the director’s work in horror, the central message seems to align with the Coffin Joe films. THE END OF MAN is also notable for being one of the director’s most avant-garde works, a territory he was inclined to use in his genre work, albeit in smaller doses, yet here it is fully and beautifully explored. – Kat Ellinger
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