“What shall I do with this sword?”

Images of historical temporality between the Estado Novo and the militant cinema of João César Monteiro

Abstract

The April 25th Revolution brought about radical changes in consciousness and identity among the Portuguese population, challenging decades of historical imagery constructed by the Estado Novo – a process in which the visual arts played a fundamental role. In comparison with certain moments of the Centenary Commemorations (1940), this article seeks to analyze one of the first revivals of a medieval imagery in the post-revolutionary period: the film Que Farei eu com esta Espada? (“What shall I do with this sword?”, 1975) by João César Monteiro. In contrast to the regime's historicist appropriations, this leap into the past, now “under the open sky of history” (Benjamin, 2010), ripped from temporal continuity an anachronic and allegorical image of the redemption of a “people” defined through their revolutionary activity.