As the feature-length film Duchess, Duchess (2004) is set to be made permanently available online, Captüra Filmes looks back on the early work of Writer/Director João Paulo Simões.
His first short film, Imogen Meets The Merchant (2001), announced the arrival of the promise of a new approach to filmmaking and established the mythological/supernatural angle which was to become more prominent in later projects. It 
delivered an ambitiously fragmented narrative, which successfully wove together Past and Present under an all-encompassing sense of yearning.In Overture (2002), Simões explored much darker aspects of the human condition. An acknowledgement of Cinema's inherently voyeuristic nature was combined with a cyclical structure, which was in turn drawn from J.S.Bach's counterpoint works. The composer's work was to become one of the most important and crucial references in the ensuing Captüra Filmes
productions.Ignored and neglected by its producers at the time, Duchess, Duchess is probably João Paulo Simões's most conventional film. Deliberately theatrical and old-fashioned in tone, the film was to have its broadcast rights bought by Sky TV and achieve a cult status - its central subject of retrospective jealousy perhaps ringing true to the most attentive spectators.
Unprecedently (and in response to a degree of pyracy it endured), the film will be soon made available online in its entirety.
The Official Trailer can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7kgiqN-Ifk
