Portugal

  • Manoel de Oliveira – A Caixa aka Blind Man’s Bluff (1994)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaManoel de OliveiraPortugal

    Quote:
    One of Manoel de Oliveira’s masterpieces, A Caixa (The Box) / Blind Man’s Bluff is an adaptation, in parable form, of a play of the same name by Prista Monteiro.
    The action takes place around a flight of steps in a poor neighbourhood and is about the final misadventure of an old Blind Man who has yet again been robbed of the official alms box with which he earns is living. His daughter, besides doing the house work, wears herself out taking in washing. Her companion, an unemployed lay-about like many of his friends, lives off the Blind Man’s box which has just been stolen for the second time.Read More »

  • André Gil Mata – The Tree AKA Drvo (2018)

    2011-2020André Gil MataDramaPortugal

    A man, a child, two wars, a river, a tree. A man and a child meet under a tree on a river bank, sharing the same memory and a secret. They find in each other the serenity, the silence and the time they lost in the flowing water of the river.Read More »

  • Francisco Ribeiro – O Pátio das Cantigas AKA The Courtyard of the Ballads (1942)

    Comedy1941-1950Francisco RibeiroMusicalPortugal

    This classic of Portuguese cinema depicts the friendships and rivalries of the inhabitants of a square in downtown Lisbon, where exists a spirit of familiarity between neighbors. (from IMDB)Read More »

  • António Reis – Jaime (1974)

    1971-1980Antonio ReisDocumentaryExperimentalPortugal

    The world, life and work of Jaime Fernandes, a peasant born in Barcos (Beira Baixa, Portugal), who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the age of 38 and interned in a sanatorium in Lisbon, Hospital Miguel Bombarda, where he died at the age of 69. When he was 65-years-old he started to paint and during the short period of life-time until his death he made a brilliant pictorial work, influenced by the social environment and the sanatorium daily-life.Read More »

  • Manuel Mozos – Xavier (1992-2002)

    Arthouse1991-2000CultManuel MozosPortugal

    Quote:
    Xavier returns to Lisbon after doing his compulsory military service and tries to give his life some meaning: he visits his old orphanage, meets some his old friends, attends a trial at the courthouse.Read More »

  • Carlos Vilardebó – As Ilhas Encantadas AKA The Enchanted Islands (1965)

    1961-1970AdventureCarlos VilardebóDramaPortugal

    A desert island in the Atlantic, a woman alone after the death of both her brother and her husband, a very young French sailor abandoned by his ship. Love takes over and an enchanted new life begins, although they do not speak the same language. But it all comes to an abrupt end… Amália Rodrigues with her radiant beauty in an almost silent picture.

    Free adaptation of a short story by Herman Melville, shot in a deserted islands near Madeira.Read More »

  • António-Pedro Vasconcelos – Jaime (1999)

    1991-2000António-Pedro VasconcelosDramaPortugal

    Quote:
    Veteran director Antonio-Pedro Vasconcelos spins this gritty, unsentimental tale about underage street kids in Portugal. The film opens with a teenaged worker at a bakery getting dumped off at a hospital after losing his finger. The boss instructs the youth’s father to tell the doctors that he lost his digit playing with a knife, but fearing an investigation, the boss subsequently dumps his other underage workers, including 13-year old Jaime (Saul Fonseca). Jaime is struggling to mend his tattered family.Read More »

  • Edgar Pêra – Movimentos Perpétuos: Cine-Tributo a Carlos Paredes AKA Perpetual Movements: A Cine Tribute to Carlos Paredes (2006)

    2001-2010DocumentaryEdgar PêraExperimentalPortugalVideo Art

    Quote:
    A documentary in 17 movements, in which testimonies and the guitar define the genius, the bravery and the modesty of Carlos Paredes. In PERPETUAL MOVEMENTS ‚ A TRIBUTE TO CARLOS PAREDES a dialog is established between a guitar and a SP8 camera, in an aesthetic which evocates the memory of old family pictures, full of intimacy, revealed in the sharing of simple stories of life. The Carlos Paredes’s concert in Auditório Carlos Alberto, in Oporto, 1984, is the starting point for the unfolding of prison stories, resistance, success and amateurism, stories marked by simplicity and passion.Read More »

  • Carlos Saura – Fados (2007)

    2001-2010Carlos SauraDocumentaryPerformancePortugal

    Quote:
    Having taken on flamenco (“Sevillanas”) and tango (“Tango”), Carlos Saura tackles a third great melancholy music style, directing “Fados,” a celebration of Portugal’s classic, lamenting acoustic folk songs. The film combines fado performances from top artists, dance from Portugal, Brazil and Cape Verde and archive footage. In the song centrepieces, artists deliver contemporary versions of fado classics. Lined up fadistas include young female star Mariza as well as Grammy award-winner Carlos do Carmo. Renowned diva Amália Rodrigues is remembered through arquive footage while the exploration of fado’s influences and roots gives opportunities to embrace prestigious Brazilian performers Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque and the emerging Cape Verdean star Lura.Read More »

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