Tim Burton Meets José Mojica Marins, the "Bela Lugosi of the Tropics"

02/16/2016 - 08h43

Tim Burton grew up in Hollywood's shadow. He made films about werewolves and mad scientists on Super 8, in his back garden - with a view of the back of the famous Hollywood letters.

But for José Mojica Marins, the mecca of cinema was the projection box at the Cine Santo Estevão, a movie theatre managed by his father in the west of São Paulo.

	Danilo Verpa/Folhapress
	Tim Burton (R) cross with José Mojica, a pioneer of Brazilian horror.

He showed homemade films projected onto sheets, which he extended on a washing line in the theatre basement. Examples of his early oeuvre include O Juizo Final ("The Final Judgement"), which he made at the tender age of 13, in which coffin-like spaceships attack Earth.

So when did the path of Burton, 57, director of Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, cross with that of Mojica, a pioneer of Brazilian horror?

In Burton's head at least, a long time ago. Last week, he gave a press conference, in which he talked of the little-known films he grew up watching - including those of Mojica. The two men met personally on Monday, in the Museu da Imagem e do Som in São Paulo.

"His films stayed in my mind as if they were nightmares. But good nightmares," said Burton, stressing that he was "honored" to meet Mojica. As the two men do not have a language in common, Ivan Finotti, editor of Folha 's "Ilustrada" section acted as interpreter.

"Coffin Joe!" exclaimed Burton on meeting Mojica, a reference to Mojica's film alter-ego. To Burton's surprise, Mojica's fingernails were trimmed (apart from his thumbnails) - Coffin Joe was famous for his grotesquely long, curled fingernails. "Your nightmares became dreams for me," said Burton to Mojica.

"Thank you, thank you, thank youI just heard him saying 'thank you'," said Mojica at the end of the meeting. "There were a whole lot of thank yous."

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE
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