The film traces the life and times of Wenceslau de Moraes (b. Lisbon 1854, d. Tokushima 1929), the great Portuguese writer who lived in the Far East. 1891: Moraes breaks with his mistress and leaves Portugal for Macao, never to return. 1895: While in Macao, he becomes fascinated by Japan, leaving his Chinese wife and their two children. 1912: Moraes is living and writing in Robe, in the south of Japan, as Portuguese Consul, with his Japanese wife Oyone. 1913-16: Deeply affected by the death of Oyone, Moraes quits his post and goes to live in poverty, near the tomb of his wife. However, he soon becomes involved with a young niece of Oyone’s, Ko-Haru, who eventually dies of tuberculosis. 1916-29: Moraes is transformed into a ghostly figure, wandering at night around the graves of Oyone and Ko-Haru. He writes his most mature works at this time, while his literary fame continues to grow in Portugal. 1929: Moraes dies under obscure circumstances.Read More »
Portuguese
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Paulo Rocha – A Ilha dos Amores AKA The Island of Love (1982)
Paulo Rocha1981-1990ArthouseDramaPortugal -
Ico Costa – Alva (2019)
2011-2020ArthouseCrimeIco CostaPortugalAfter committing a crime, Henrique, a man in his thirties, hides in the forest.Read More »
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Paulo Rocha – Mudar de Vida AKA Change of Life (1966)
1961-1970ArthouseDramaPaulo RochaPortugalQuote:
Paulo Rocha’s haunting second feature, CHANGE OF LIFE, is a beautifully-told story of a young man who returns from abroad to his small fishing village to discover that much has changed. Inspired by his work with Manoel de Oliveira, Rocha “cast” the local villagers as themselves, interspersed with experienced actors led by the great Isabel Ruth who would go on to become an Oliveira regular and an iconic presence in Pedro Costa’s OSSOS. The poetry of the local vernacular is captured in the textured dialogue written by fellow Portuguese filmmaker Antonio Reis, who met Rocha through Oliveira. The film was a critical and commercial success upon release, though it would effectively be the last film Rocha made for nearly two decades.Read More » -
Carlos Nader – A Paixão de JL AKA JL’s Passion (2015)
2011-2020BrazilCarlos NaderDocumentaryIn January 1990, at the age of 33, the artist José Leonilson starts registering an intimate journal in a tape recorder. His views on events that shook both Brazil, such as the resignation of former president Collor, and overseas, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, permeate his confessions. He also talks about his impressions on the various movies he used to watch. The records of this sensitive artist in tune with modern life did not intend, at first, anything more than register the harmony that existed between his life and his peculiar and intimate work. However, J.L. suffers the unexpected blow of the discovery that he himself is HIV positive. The uncertainty and urgency in his life begin to permeate his reports.Read More »
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Suzana Amaral – Uma Vida em Segredo (2001)
2001-2010ArthouseBrazilDramaSuzana AmaralThe Female GazeYoung girl, born and raised in an isolated farm, is brought to a small town to live with her cousins, her only relatives. Once in town, she encounters great difficulty adapting to city life.Read More »
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Vincent Carelli & Tatiana Almeida & Ernesto de Carvalho – Martírio (2016)
2011-2020BrazilDocumentaryErnesto de CarvalhoTatiana AlmeidaVincent CarelliSynopsis:
The great reclaiming march for the sacred Guarani Kaiowá territories through Vincent Carelli’s filming, who recorded the birthplace of the movement in the 1980s. Twenty years later, touched by the successive massacres reports, Carelli searches the origins of this genocide, a conflict of disproportionate forces: the peaceful and obstinate insurgency of the dispossessed Guarani Kaiowá against the powerful apparatus of agribusiness.Read More » -
António-Pedro Vasconcelos – Os Gatos não Têm Vertigens (2014)
2011-2020António-Pedro VasconcelosComedyDramaPortugalAn 18 year old boy with a complicated life starts a criminal career but ends up on a rooftop of Lisbon. On the apartment below lives a recently widowed, lonely old lady. Against all odds and her family’s will, they become each others best company.Read More »
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Maria de Medeiros – Capitães de Abril AKA April Captains (2000)
1991-2000DramaMaria de MedeirosPoliticsPortugalQuote:
In Portugal, late in the night of April 24 to 25, 1974, the radio broadcast an outlawed song: “Grândola”. It could have just been an act of insubordination by a rebellious
journalist. It was in fact the preplanned signal triggering the military coup which was to change the face of this country and the destiny of vast territories in Africa.Read More » -
João Batista de Andrade – O Homem que Virou Suco AKA The Wrung-Out Man (1980)
1971-1980BrazilDramaJoão Batista de AndradePoliticsQuote:
São Paulo police mistakenly thinks a folk poet and singer is the same man who had stabbed his boss.Read More »