João Bénard da Costa, as he is commonly known, is regarded and remembered today as one of the most notable personalities of Portuguese culture who made the greatest contributions to the history of cinema. Stating that he was a professor, writer and above all, a cinephile, falls short in light of his uncommon culture, coupled with immense creativity unleashed by a sensitive and passionate way of expressing that which is almost impossible to put into words: the universe of human feelings revealed in (and through) art.

He was born in Lisbon on 7 February 1935 to an upper middle class family, the son of João Pedro da Costa and Maria Margarida Bénard. He began by studying law, but ended up graduating with honours in 1959 with a degree in History and Philosophy from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon. His thesis was entitled Do tema do “Outro” no Personalismo de Emmanuel Mounier (The Theme of the "Other" in Emmanuel Mounier's Personalism). Although he was invited by Professor Delfim Santos to be his assistant at the Faculty of Arts, his university career was stopped short due to the intervention of the PIDE (Portuguese secret police). His interest in Portuguese and foreign film from a young age, as seen through many of his works on cinema, but with a distinct autobiographical slant – such as there Muito lá de Casa (1993) – show his fascination with foreign cultures and mentalities, much more ethically, politically and culturally open than those of the Portuguese...

Between 1959 and 1965 he was a secondary school teacher, teaching History and Philosophy at the Seminário Menor in Almada, at the Frei Luís de Sousa day school in the same city, and at the Liceu Camões and Colégio Moderno in Lisbon. History left a constant mark on his thinking and his writing. This is particularly visible in his speeches as President of the Committee for the Commemoration of the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities. He was appointed to this position by the president of Portugal and held it for eleven years, from 1997 to 2008. In these speeches he celebrated each Portuguese city with a precise historical evocation, invoking notable local personalities.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | (Pdf)