Bocage, the Triumph of Love

Casanova was only a warm-up act for 18th-century bisexual Portuguese poet Manuel Maria du Bocage (Victor Wagner), the sworn enemy of hypocrites and priests. On a quest for the purity of love as he travels widely, crossing continents with companion Josino (Francisco Farinelli), Bocage declares, I cannot refuse anything that wants to be loved. Bocage's allegorical epigrams, odes, and satires are expressed, while he encounters phantasmagorical creations (angels, Aphrodite, a merman, a sorcerer-gorilla), teases Trappist monks with obscene parables, joins Josino in jousting at windmills, and preaches sexual liberation under his banner of Bacchus Triumphs. Reverberating with the avant-garde music of Livio Tragtenberg, the film is divided into chapters, such as The Absurdity of Jealousy and Living Legend of a Dying Century. With cast, crew, sets, and costumes recycled from director Djalma Limongi Batista's earlier Caligula stage production, the film was shot in the mountains of Brazil and along tributaries of the Amazon. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide