Bueno, however, eventually downplayed what he saw as his mythomania by comparing him to the eminent filmmaker Mário Peixoto—who had put in circulation a bogus complimentary article on his work by Eisenstein—as well as acknowledging Tolentino's talent as a satirical poet.
[12] Some, such as the poet and critic Ivan Junqueira, do not consider the issues mentioned above as real cases of plagiarism and hoaxing in Tolentino's career, highlighting instead his mastery of the art of pastiching the classics.
They are As Horas de Katharina (1971–1993), whose subject matter was loosely inspired on the life and message of Anne Catherine Emmerich, O Mundo Como Ideia (1959–1999), and A Imitação do Amanhecer (1979–2004), all winners of the Jabuti Prize for Brazilian literature.
In his late phase, Tolentino adopted an activist stance in defense of classical forms and subjects, and it was as such that he clashed with the concrete poet Augusto de Campos.
Campos issued a homophobic rejoinder published in O Estado de S. Paulo, describing Tolentino as an "international sissy" and "upstart", and his alternative translation of Crane's poem as "limping on every feet and stuffed with poor rhyming, flaccid and adipose".
[10] Late in his life, he also came to be regarded as a cult figure by a circle of admirers,[16] mostly for his classicizing stance in both poetry and aesthetics, expressed in a harsh critique of the present for the sake of the transcendental and mystical components of Catholicism.
[18] Bruno, who was a victim of AIDS and had already overcome a cancer in the early 2000s, died aged 66, from multiple organ failure at the Emílio Ribas Hospital in São Paulo on 27 June 2007.