PAST REVIEWS
A Soma das Partes
Review by António Lourenço — 14 June 2024
Drawing on unreleased archival footage and interviews with renowned musicians, conductors, and soloists, this documentary traces the journey of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, which made its debut on 22 October 1962 at the D. Maria II National Theatre in Lisbon. Since then, the orchestra has played a vital role in expanding the Portuguese musical landscape internationally. It has recorded over 70 albums and shared the stage with some of classical music’s greatest interpreters.
Narrated by Professor Rui Vieira Nery, the approximately one-hour documentary features testimonials from Alexandre Oliva, Alfredo Flores, Andrew Swinnerton, António Gonçalves, Arlindo Santos, Evgeny Kissin, Hannu Lintu, Inês Tomás Almeida, Joana Carneiro, Lawrence Foster, Leonor Braga Santos, Levi Condinho, Lorenzo Viotti, Luís Tinoco, M. Teixeira, Mª João Pires, Mª João Falcão, Muhai Tang, Risto Nieminen, Teresa Nunes da Ponte, Varoujan Bartikian, Vera Dias, and others.
Successive generations of international musicians shaped the orchestra into its present symphonic form. The film highlights reflections such as:
“Art will endure if the creator is a genius and will never be forgotten. I want this music to be played as written, even though many dynamics were not indicated by the composers.”
A visionary force behind the orchestra was Dr. Madalena Azeredo Perdigão, wife of the President of the Gulbenkian Foundation. In 1958, recognizing the need for a professional orchestra in Portugal, she proposed its creation. Initially rejected due to budget constraints, she succeeded in forming a smaller ensemble dedicated mainly to Baroque repertoire. This early group travelled nationwide, performing even in improvised venues, until the inauguration of the Grand Auditorium — a space described as magical, almost sacred.
The film recalls the golden age of the Gulbenkian Music Festivals, which brought to Lisbon legends such as Karajan, Abbado, Michelangeli, Rostropovich, and Rubinstein, as well as the world’s greatest symphony orchestras. As artistic demands grew, so did the orchestra.
Masters featured in the documentary discuss essential musical elements — dynamics, tempo, harmony (the soul), and rhythm (the body) — along with the importance of fidelity to the score. The orchestra also embraced contemporary music, though for a more restricted audience.
The film reveals an institution once unknown in Europe, now praised for its collaborative spirit:
“We do not merely accompany; we collaborate,” says one Maestro. “We must understand the soloist’s mind and personality — their tempo, freedom, and vision. To contradict this is to distort the music’s spirit.”
Lorenzo Viotti (2012–2022), with youthful energy, describes the orchestra as his “first love”, emphasizing the importance of transmitting sound to the audience until it envelops them. Maestro Hannu Lintu (2023– ) adds:
“We will continue to take flight with musicians who share their lives with everyone, ultimately speaking the same music so that it lands on its feet, like a cat — free from the obsession with perfection.”
'The Great Escaper' - Review by António Lourenço, 25th March 2024 - *****
In this biographical film, "The Actors," Michael Caine and Glenda Jacks portray the compelling protagonists of a poignant true story set in a quaint home in the serene countryside of southern England.
Directed by the talented Oliver Parker, renowned for his works such as "An Ideal Husband" and "The Importance of Being Earnest," and penned by the skilled William Ivory, the narrative unveils the remarkable journey of Bernard Jorden (portrayed by the iconic Michael Caine, now 90 years old).
Jorden, adamant about revisiting the historic site of D-Day and commemorating the anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, embarks on a clandestine voyage across the English Channel, unbeknownst to his partner. During his crossing, he encounters a fellow veteran from the Royal Air Force, sparking an unexpected companionship. Together, they find solace in sharing their experiences, memories, and the wisdom amassed over their lifetimes.
As they delve into conversations to combat the solitude that often plagues the elderly, they gradually reveal deeply held secrets—repositories of knowledge and stories that remain concealed until now, akin to precious libraries destined to vanish with the passage of time.
Amidst this captivating narrative, the incomparable Glenda Jackson (In the 60's this great actress delivered a memorable portraying of
Queen Elizabeth I), a role that adds to her illustrious career, including her final cinematic appearance. Meanwhile, the search for the missing veteran intensifies, setting the stage for a heartwarming tale of friendship, redemption, and the enduring legacy of those who have lived through history's defining moments.
“Autumn” - Review by Ricardo Martins, 19th December2023 - ***
“Autumn” is a portuguese movie, that in original Portuguese is called “A Minha Casinha”, so the title is not that well translated. “A Minha Casinha” would correctly translate in something like “my little home”, and it makes much more sense since that it derives from the title of an old popular tune sung originally by Milu in a movie from the forties.
The plot regards a boy that is going away from home to study in England and what happens to the family as seasons go by. Time in the movie is divided by seasons such as Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer and then again Autumn.
The “coming of age” movie is a subgenre that is not quite well explored as it should be in Portuguese cinema. Sometimes the results are quite good (“Adeus Pai”), other times they are bland like a television movie (“Jaime”). In “Autumn” we’ve got youngsters we can relate to, their concerns, their wish for freedom and fun outside the nest. But we also got the parents point of view, and they are not tyrannical monsters as sometimes happens in stories like these – they are loving, worried of course, but they were also young once. We even see the parents in an interesting flashback sequence strolling in a beach when they were young and imagining how they would be as elder folks.
For a story such as this, when generations interact and sometimes clash, you have to direct a good cast. And the actors are all fabulous – Beatriz Frazão, Elsa Valentim, Miguel Frazão and Salvador Gil – all excel in their roles. The director António Sequeira makes the most of a commendable ensemble that look and act like a true family, even if the regional accents are not all the same, the quality of the cast makes us forget details like that.
The scenery also plays a huge part since the natural landscapes of Baião in the northern part of Portugal and the river Douro bathed margins make for a lovely place to which the actors interact. The house in which they live is a real house and it feels lived in, if it was made in studio it would not feel half as real.
The tagline in the poster of “Autumn” is “A Portuguese movie for Portuguese people”, but I reckon it can be appreciated outside of Portugal since it talks about universal feelings such as growing up, dating, family quarrels and homesickness when you go study abroad. It has made some success in other countries, such as the United States, having won the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival.
“Olhares do Meditarrâneo – Women’s Film Festival” in Cinema São Jorge - Review by Ricardo Martins, 12th November 2023 - ***
This Thursday started the festival “Olhares do Meditarrâneo – Women’s Film Festival” in Cinema São Jorge.
Originally conceived for just one edition, the festival began to influence the way we see cinema from around the Mediterranean Sea, and its importance grew as much as this year it is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
The opening movie “You Resemble Me”, directed by award-winning journalist turned director Dina Amer, is a good example of a female point of view in the 21st century.
It intends to speak about the so-called first female suicide in Europe, Hasna Ait Boulahcen, although we only know that at the end of the movie.
The beginning of the film has a kind of vitality and giddiness, adopting the shaken camera and the point of view of the two little girls strolling around the streets of Paris, very much by themselves. Later, we realize that they have a neglectful immigrant mother and a sleeping or uninterested father.
They are caught stealing in the streets, and the sisters are separated from each other as they go to separated foster families.
Years later, we see Hasna as a grown-up attractive girl, working menial jobs, going to nightclubs, doing drugs, and getting abused by all sorts of men. She is guilt-ridden about being the one that caused the disintegration in her family, and the phone calls her sister doesn’t answer cause her severe anguish.
She feels as though she doesn’t entirely belong to French society and begins to contact, via social network, a cousin of hers she hasn’t met since childhood. The cousin begins to seduce and groom her to become part of a jihad against western civilization.
Near the end of the movie, we see what became of Hasna, as she became a casualty of the November 2015 Paris attacks. We see many newsreels from the time and testimonies of family members, such as her (unchanged) mother and father and her sister (the only one with any shred of guilt about what happened).
The end of the movie doesn’t entirely fit with the style of filming, and that’s a shame because it’s a movie filled with good ideas and great performances
"Vanskabte land" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 28th May 2023 - *****
Films4You
A Danish priest is sent to Iceland at the end of the 19th century. He is an amateur photographer and throughout the trip he photographs the lunar landscape without trees. He intends to have a church built in the middle of a remote village. Walking exhausted, he loses his sense of identity and who he really is, as well as his mission, as well as the notion of his moral and ethical duty.
Already half dead, he is taken to the home of a peasant who plays the accordion and has two daughters. This one teaches you how to drive and ride a horse. But the priest likes one of the daughters !
However, the situation dramatizes itself and after the priest's horse is killed, the film approaches a deadly ending!
This film is inspired by 150-year-old photographs found in a trunk.
"LIVING" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 18th March 2023 - *****
NOS Audiovisuais
This is a film adapted from the Japanese director Akiro Kurosawa.
In 1953, Mr. Williams (Bill Nighy) is a veteran bureaucrat who lives piled up in piles of paperwork in an office. He feels like someone in a monotonous existence. However, he receives from his doctor a diagnosis that devastates him. He finds that he has a terminal illness. The illness it is going to trigger an examination of the life he led. He finds that he wants to change, before it's too late.
Feeling drawn to Margaret's (Aimee Louwood), a young woman who worked under his direction it is going to help him. With one redoubled energy and filling up with strength, decides to leave a legacy in the world, a meaning to the generation to come.
This film was awarded at several festivals.The Protagonist actor Bill Nighy, was born in 1949, studied at Guidford Acting school for theater and film. He made his debut at the Teatro Nacional and appeared in several productions of Television. He interpreted Shakespeare's "King Lear" and also Chekov, withother great English actors such as: Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, etc.
I take the opportunity to remember a plethora of famous actors, who I had the happiness to see in person and on stage, the best actors in the world, who also made films, such as Laurence Olivier (at the Old Vic), Eric Porter (in Stratford on Avon), Tom Shepard, Paul Scolfield, Maggy Smith, Joan Plowright and many other unforgettable ones!
"TAR" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 13th February 2023 -3/5 STARS
Cinemundo
The director of Tár, Todd Field no longer filmed for 16 years, since his film "Little Children", now wrote and directed this film especially for actress Cate Blanchet to shine.
Nominated for an Oscar and who, in addition to having already won 2 Oscars, won four Golden Globes, three BAFTA and a César and two Volpe (Venice Festival), as well as several awards. He was also theatre’s artistic director.
This is the fictionalized biography of the 1st Woman to conduct the famous Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, considered one of the best in Europe! Previously only conducted by male Conductors, who have become mythical in the world of Classical music! In a conversation, Lydia Tár, speaks about these Conductors, in an ambiguous way and unknown to the public, in general, such as Furtwängler and Von Karayan. These conductors at that time were forced to enroll in the Nazi party, without having exactly conviction, consequently Tár having referring to its denazification, given the prestige and genius of the greatest Conductors in the world, such as Beechman and another ambiguous name Jacqueline du Pré (but I clarify that she was a famous cellist, married to another Conductor Barenboim, and died of sclerosis).
In one of the movie scenes, on a class room at The Juilliard School conservatory, Tár it is giving a lecture to a small group of students. During this class, Max a young conducting student says he isn’t into Bach because of Bach's misogyny. Max says that as a BIPOC - Black, Indigenous, and People of Color - he can’t support Bach's music. This kind of cancelation it is based on #MeToo and “cancel culture”. On other hand, Tár responds that she is a U-Haul lesbian and if he wants to be a Conductor he has to be immerse in the Bach's music: "You want to dance the masque, you must service the composer.” “You’ve got to sublimate yourself, your ego. And yes, your identity.” Tár says .
Now for the common public, this is used and not explained at all by Todd Field. Who are these sacred names, and ambiguous so that the public is confused, generating gaslighting! It also talks and shows the album covers of Leonard Bernstein, the Maestro who had made programs on Television for decades, promoting and explaining, in clear language, the so-called "Classical Music".
I would like to take this opportunity to clarify that in the history of music, the classical period extends to Mozart (end of the 18th century), followed by Romanticism, Impressionism, Dodecaphonic, etc. But at a certain point, we hear in the movie that Beethoven copied Mozart, as it will be the opposite, Amadeu was younger! Does all this have the intention of confusing the lay spectator of these matters?
But the mystery thickens during empty scenes of dialogue and action, this over 2.30 hours of droughts, in which a child appears that Tár shares and tells him to start a family with another woman. However, Tár is associated with a suicidal woman, not knowing the relationship between the two. Words and more dialogues, but generating a mystery, in order to hold us in the chair, until the end.
The film begins with the conductor being interviewed on stage, explaining to an audience about the importance of time in music. Time is a key element in each conductor's interpretation of a work, as well as cadence, rhythm, to conduct an orchestra that can have 100 musicians!
Then the great woman conductor, directs the orchestra in the adagietto of Mahler's 5th Symphony (the composer she loves most), beautiful music that was used in the movie "Death in Venice". Tár's narcissism is highlighted throughout the movie. This narcissism is reflected in Lydia's choice to replace the soloist, without a plausible reason, for the young beautiful Russian violinist and also her decision to replace old assistant.
The thriller scenes are when she has auditory hallucinations: a Metronome that works at night, the refrigerator, a voice that she searches for in a ruined house... The film ends with Tár conducting in an Asian country and in a sign of extravagance the audience with strange masks, from Capcom's slave series, Monster Hunter.
"Babylon" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 1st February 2023 -5/5 STARS
NOS Audiovisuais
BABYLON Director: Damien Chazelle ("La Land")
Stars: Brad Pitt and Margot Tobbia´ Comedy-189 minutes Distributor: ' NOS Audivisuais
Los Angeles period between the years 1926 to 1952, set in the golden age of the 20s, full of ambition without limits of enrichment, shows the rise and fall of several characters, where a series of film studios were formed, which appeared on the west coast of the USA, will encompass the passage from silent to sound cinema, originating and overthrowing many silent actors, whose voices proved to be horrible and unsuitable for sound.
We often hear the famous song "Singing in the Rain" in a quote, also from the well-known Musical!
Also includes the song 'Voodoomama' by award winning composer Justin Hurwitz. The city of classical antiquity, mythical Babylon, capital of the ancient empire, gives the title to the film, in an analogy to what the bible mentions: with a tower that reaches the sky and is named
'Tower of Babel'. Babylon is a metaphor for oppression and tyranny. It lasts 3 hours, showing the old days, without shame and debauchery, because when the sound arrives, there is a great tension, confusion and destructiveness as it could be in Babel. Virginia Rappe's infamous era and megastar 'Fatty', technology breakthroughs and cocaine stacks. Many movie stars never managed to make the transition to sound!
Beautiful photography and music, fill the film, although the montage is somewhat difficult to transpose. Great saga, important for us to gain a better view of the history of Holywood.
"She Said" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 7th December 2022 -5/5 STARS
This film it is a look that scrutinizes and investigates the perverse conduct and sexal harassment of Hollywood industry moge named Harvey Weinstein, who triggered a huge scandal, giving rise to the #Metoo movement.
Thanks to the courageous and determined work of The New York Times investigative journalist who after publishing
an article exposing one of the most powerful producers in Cinema.Denuncing the moral and sexual herassment,
he practiced on dozens of women, who wanted to succeed in the 7th Art. Manipulating and using the power to launch them as actresses. Despite a range of threats to his physical integrity, and also the demand for legal evidence and witnesses, so that it could be published.
However the were several attempts to stifle the case, through payments, black mail and various others schemes.
After a courageous victim appeared, little by little the witnesses began to emerge, thus giving the evidence made public, necessary, and sufficient enough to prosecute such a desideratum of a powerful man in cinema, leading him to have a heavy prison sentence.
Resulting in this event, a turnaround in American culture. The movie although necessary a lit long (I would like to
defend that there should be an intermission again, as was practiced years ago). The action was developed with an intense rhythm and timing in order to create an emotional state and lead the spectator to become involved, deeply in the defense of the cause!
Very good acting by:
Zoe Kazan, Cary Mulligan, Mike Houston, Asley Judd, Samantha Morten, and Andre Baugher, among others.
We strongly recommend this film, especially because it is a militant defense against moral and physical Harassment, and more!
"Sundown" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 17th August 2022 -5/5 STARS
Alambique
Directed by the Mexican Director: Michel Franco, in a continuous line between his previous film "New Order" and "Sundown", this Director, winner of a Silva Lion at Venice Film Festival, on issues of violence and the way violence inflicted on usually daily life is lived in this Latin American country. The Director explores this reality and the way in which a society manages to deal with and live and accept it, being part of their lives A movie that is something premonitory in relation to Democracy.
SUNDOWN starts with a close-up of a lot of fishes breathing in extortion, passing in an ellipse to a rich family on vacation on a beach in Mexico, apparently seems to us to be a couple Neil(Tim Roth) and Alice(Charlot Gainsbourg) and a daughter and son, living in a luxurious hotel on Vacances and enjoying the sun and sea. Using a somewhat language, the film absorbs us from the first to the last image, revelling little by little who in fact the characters are, which we initially imagined would have other family ties.
Beginning as a family drama ends up as a war movie. Neil and Alice are the fulcra of a family, along with the two teenagers Colin and Alexa. Everything is somewhat enigmatic under the scorching sun of Acapulco. Meanwhile, Alice receives a phone call which will trigger hear a burst of tears, triggering the need to return home but an incident occurs to Neil and lying says he forgot his Passport, not leaving with them, returns to Acapulco city and changes to a more modest hotel, and begins an intimate and sexual relationship with a native girl.
After which tensions, passions and attitudes will arise, condemnable and sensitive. But the film in a surprising subtlety, systematically reveals to us, who they really are, multimillionaire owners of slaughterhouses. The sun on the earth plays a key role, attacking in an almost aggressive way. Photography with an imperative to reflect two things: the emotional states of the characters and the violence prevailing around them. Neil hired a taxi and begin a relationship with a strange gang, drinking bear after bear and enjoying the beach. later Alice returns looking for Neil.
Michel Franco- (1979-México), has always dealt, after his film "After Lucia", which won ' A Certain Regard' prize in Cannes, with Bulling, dysfunctional families and social differences between rich and poor. After all, the main interpreter is the actor Tim Roth. who had already acted in "Chronic" (2015), a strange and rare midle aged man who awaits (but knowing secretly) that his Sundown is approaching.
With the odour of death and illness, with a protagonist who seems to carry the anguish and introspective existential burden of something painful.
With sweeping landscapes, and looking at the horizon with Margaritas, the Director does not judge but presents and unfolds slowly, the script, with contemplative tracking shots and slow motion, focused on the main character, with a mask of enigmatic and suffering anguish, grabs the viewer, as in a puzzle, in whose only apparent desires, it seems to be enjoying the sands, the sea of the famous beach, sipping beer after beer and sunbathing in the scorching sun.
Not even a murder that happened in front of him moves or arouses his emotions or feelings in him.
When a speedboat, approaches the beach, it shoots at a point-blank range and kills a poor street vendor.
Michel Franco who at that time was going through a crisis in his 40s does not judge, but warns us morosely, about the country of the Aztecs full of attractions and gangs.
Always in the face of Neil's indifferent wandering who really is carrying the burden of a lifetime, sublimating that weight with drink and unbridled sex.
Only towards the end, it is secretly revealed his physical condition. The Director always criticised the hypocrisy of the privileged classes ( Albert Camus in "The Stranger") and thus anticipates Neil, one feels closer, also a final burst of tension and assault in broad daylight!
"Triangle of Sadness" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 10th October 2022 -5/5 STARS
Alambique
Directed by Ruben Östlund-Palme D'or winner in Cannes
A satirical comedy, 150 minutes, with situations cynical, nihilistic against the rich, and upper classes, but without punches. With hilarious scenes, laying down and making fun of rich rants, in the worst of situations, to point out the so-called Russian oligarchs, triggered, after the end of the Soviet Union, one of those greedy brutes answering a question about what he sells, replied shit.
Östlund, in this film, without the subtle of his previous film about Art, moreover the last 30 minutes of this excessively long film could be cut!
Handsome Carl (Harris Dickinson) a model, and one of the art directors makes a comment about his "Triangle of sadness", the frowny zone just above his eyebrows. Carl, also became furious with his model girlfriend Yaya (Charlbi Dean), because after taking him to a gourmet restaurant, for rich, and very expensive, finishing the meal, she didn't pay the bill, and she had the nerve to arrange manipulative excuses not to pay it, sketching a perverse Narcissist smile.
Absurdity reigns, and laughs in the worst situations, with criticism of the ridiculous bourgeoisie. A german woman that has suffered a stroke, cannot move, and only exclaims: "In Der Wolken" (In the clouds). Yaya took Carl on a luxurious cruise where they acquainted all the dysfunctional super-rich on board. The captain (woody Harrelson) is having a breakdown and the chief steward Paula (Vicky Berlin) is like a dictator disapproving, oppressor and despot.
The survivors of the shipwreck, stay in a desert island, where they eat fish, and kill a poor donkey.
"Behind the Infinite Two Minutes" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 14th July 2022 -4/5 STARS
Directed by Japanese: Junta Yamaguchi- 2020 -70 minutes a science film comedy, distributed by Vendetta Films.
It is a comedy that was exhibited in Fantaspoa. A Young man named Kato that lives right above a café gets a message on his Tv, showing his one picture, but it is two minutes ahead of time. His friends play around with it in a lot of situations. Time Travel will trigger paradoxical situations. Problems of money that belongs to some gangsters.
Donbass directed by Loznitsa. - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 9th June 2022 - 5/5 STARS
Midas Filmes
A film of 2018 consecrated at the Cannes Festival with the award for Best Director, in 'Un certain' regard's section.
It was filmed in the Donbass Basin dived Ukraine from Russia and didn´t premiere in several counties. It is certain that the film gained an increased and brutal topicality and hence the importance and relevance of its debut especially since Sergei Loznitsa's work has been regularly publicized, whose most recent highlight was the documentary State Funeral .
Indeed accumulating episodes of life in the occupied territories of Donbass by separatists and informal Russian troops.
LOZNITZA gives us a brutal portrait of the situation that has been going on there since 2014. Between madness and grotesque, mixing comedy and tragedy, inspired by real events although being a fiction film in Donbass unfolds episode after episode in which a character from one leads us to the next and so on.
Opening in a makeup place with a full staged television report, the film takes us into a post-truth world where propaganda and lies have taken over everything.
Taken in eastern Ukraine, where a hybrid war mixes armed conflict, crimes and riots, perpetrated by separatist groups. War is called peace, propaganda is held up as truth and hate pretends to be love.
A journey through Donbass in a series of crazy adventures where the tragic and sometimes farcical mix of life and death. It is not a tale about a region, a country or a political system, but about a world lost in post-truth and false identities. It concerns us all.
Loznitsa shows in the film situations and episodes that may seem absurd like in the middle of a burlesque marriage scene followed by chairs and laughter, hearing the sound of Mendelson's wedding march.
In another scene, a guy with a written paper glued is beaten and insulted by a lot of people, who call him fascist. Bomb explosions follow and end with a strange attack on the people in the first scene, killing dozen unexpectedly!
he Documentary "MATTI DA SLEGARE" - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 20th May 2022 - 5/5 STARS
Franco Basaglia, the main Agent who revolutionized the closing of 180 Asylums in Italy. As a result of which it has spread all over the world. As Director of the Psychiatric Hospital of Gorizia, he initiates reforms in order to transform the Hospital for the mentally ill into a healing community. In 1978 the government passed law 180 or Basaglia law, ensuring the closure of asylums and creating other services in the Community, such as, for example installing the mentally ill among the more than 3.000 vacant buildings, which turned out to be very beneficial in improving the condition of patients.
The Documentary "MATTI DA SLEGARE", made by several directors such as: Marco Belocchio, Silvano Agosti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli-1975-140'minuts . Shot at the Psychiatric Institut in the communist province of Parma, the politic Mario Tommasini in order not to marginalize the mental patients, took people and by integrating them into society, instead of ostracizing them, so he come into contact with the famous director Bellochio who filmed this documentary with the cooperative he founded for this purpose. This film is above all a cry against the real tortures and abuses in the health systems, being analysed and experienced that contributes to the improvement of mental health.
We talk with Silvano Agosti one of the directors and also a filmmaker and philosopher, who highlighted above all a fight against real torture suffered before, in hospitals by the poor demented, who used to live locked up in prisons, sometimes for decades, as in one of the cases we have known for 35 years.
Georgetown - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 29th March 2022 - 5/5 STARS
Pris Audiovisuais
Based on a true story, it is a portrait of middle-aged individual Ulrich Mott, of initially unknown origin, wearing a false mask of seduction and false charm as an authentic social predator, whose only aim is to approach and sneak into politicians and influential people, to obtain favours and profits, not caring about the feelings and others heartbreak, he uses all the tricks and calculations, typical of a Narcissist later escalating and resulting in a true Psychopath.
The film opens showing Ulrich Mott, wearing an Iranian uniform and commanding and saluting the soldiers in the desert, then moving on to a luxurious house in Georgetown where a lavish party with guests from the high circle takes place. Mott leads his wife of 90 years old Elsa Brett (Vanessa Redgrave), they are all seduced and surrendered to Mott's charms but with the exception of old lady Amanda's daughter (Annette Bening) who complains loudly.
However, they both argue before heading out for a walk.
Everything about him is false and perverse, including Mott's ambiguous sexuality, which will be called into question, (once he said to Elsa: you smell like a coffin), latter she discovers Matt with another in the hotel bed!
The next morning an ending triggered abruptly after an angry discussion, the policy investigates...
Directed and played by Christoph Waltz
Power of the Dog - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 15th March 2022 - 4/5 STARS
Nos Audiovisuais
This is a film with a thesis on toxic masculinity hegemony, a metaphor for westerns. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch a figure that concentrates all masculinity, with his brother George (Jess Plemons) and son Peter(Kodismit Macphee), shy and effeminate, the opposite of cowboys, they create cattle on the ranch that they both own. The soundtrack is something chilling, it will revolutionize the western style and its brutality. The film is not intended to have any climatic ending. The writer Savage as a gay man the plot and characters on his own experience.
The action takes place in the year 1925 and the Burbank brothers in their ranch, in Montana, especially Phil creates fear around them, he meets a widow on another ranch Rose Gorden (Kirsten Dunst) they fall in love and married. Later Phil will treat Rose very badly, with bulling as consequence she becomes alcoholic. In another scene Peter is looking at pictures of naked men that he discovered in Phil's stash, later he also watched Phil bathing naked, after this incident, they establish a strange friendship and Peter in a moment of tenderness reveals to him that has found his father died from suicide, Peter dark and ambiguous intention, manipulating Phil to get rid of him, false sense of companionship, Peter is making a rope that will play a role in the end. We know that Phil promised protection to his mother and has medical knowledge that Anthrax bacteria in the dead cattle could kill!
In the end, Peter is seen reading the Bible- Psalm 22, inferring the power of the dog title name and that Rose or even Peter himself is darling being delivered by the poising plot.
George got married with Rose.
Hero - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 5th March 2022 - 5/5 STARS
Alambique
Directed by Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi was awarded the Palme DÓr at Cannes, as well as nominated for the Golden Globe in the category of best foreign-language film.
Opens with superb photography of the Tombe of Xerxes. Set also in the historical city of Shiraz , we see Rahim the hero, in prison arrested for debts, having been denounced and accused a friend of the ex-brother in law. After having 2 days of provisional leave, he will try to sell a bag of golden coins, pretending that he had found it even though it was his girlfriend..
He gives the prison telephone number, generating a wave of admiration.
The Director always starts from a plot in which the characters will suffer the consequences of their errors, getting involved in a web of complications motivated by their mistakes. Putting also the spectators deeply involved. Meanwhile, someone doubts the veracity of Rahim. For Iranian honour and shame are crucial in their lives!
Cyrano (2021) - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 25th February 2022 - 4/5 STARS
NOS Audiovisuais
A British-American film directed by the famous director Joe Wright and written by Erica Schmidt, based on the book "Cyrano de Bergerac" by the writer Edmond Rostand and a 2018 musical.
In this version, the great curiosity is that the usual Cyrano with a big nose deformation (one film was interpreted by Gerard Depardieu) but hear the protagonist is distinguished by his structure (Peter Dinklage) playing a genial poet (who others call freak) not the nose! He was enabled to appear before his beloved Roxanne (Harley Bennet) that nevertheless falls in love with his verses, which were spoken by a handsome friend that replaces Cyrano presence. I emphasized that the scenarios are fabulous, with stupendous aesthetic care, in each frame and also good photography. Concerning the singing voices since it is a musical and not an Opera, nice voice of lyrical soprano Roxanne, however, the voices men's are recited, with ugly intonation but not lyrical.
Some time ago we watched a play in the principal Thater in France: La Comédie Francaise the protagonist was Michel Vuillermoz, being Cyrano de Bergerac is one of the most famous plays for posterity, with dramaturgy by Emmanuel Bourdieu who went to directed five films and is also the author of three plays with mise enscène by Denis Podalydes.
Between dreamed reality, romance or imaginary tale, of pure romantic ideas and shadows, the suffering, the dark areas of reality, History and the fantasy of people invention and the contact with real. The solution in this film version is very creative to replace a Cyrano with a monstrously large, unhabitual nose into a being that was called ' a freak'!
Roxanne will be a symbol of those who loved in the other, especially, the spiritual side, more than the physical being something superfluous. Cyrano likes a D.Quixote who far from living the illusion, intends to submit reality to his perfect love, Knight of the sad figure!
Death on the Nile - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 5th February 2022 - 5/5 STARS
NOS Audiovisuais
Directed and starring by Kennet Bragnag in Hercule Poirot, based on the book by the famous police writer Agatha Christie (who wrote 33 books with this detective).
Starting with a prologue in the black and white scene in Belgium 1st world war, showing young solder Poirot in french, that is going to save the lives of his fellow, solving an attack, evidence from the outset insight and wit, out of the ordinary. The film then changes to colours with the detective displaying a large moustache that has a purpose (?),
after presenting as a detective to a sophisticated people that makes a cruise, always with impeccable clothing.
Fantastic photography with the actions passing in the magnificent monuments of Egypt. Meanwhile, several deaths happen and the suspects follow. There is an important and faraway temple where one of the actions happens ABU SIEBEL ( the complete monument was transplanted 300 meters above, stone by stone, in order to be saved from flooding).
Poirot perspicacity and deep gaze will solve the crimes.
Lost Ilusions - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 25th January 2022 - 5/5 STARS
NOS Audiovisuais
Directed by Xavier Giannoli
A period drama from the 19th century.It is a story of the young Lucien (Benjamin Voisin) who comes from the provinces, with great hopes, illusions and ambitions to enter aristocratic circles, as a poet for whom poetry was a religion, initially the sophisticated society will refuse him mocking for his poem "Daisies" and nicknamed him with the same name.
Through a journalist(Vincent Lacoste) that introduced him to a newspaper milieu, and met another(Xavier Dolan) where publishing is a real business and the editor (Gerard Depardieu) doesn't even know to read.
Between a society that he discovers a world submissive to a law of profit and pretence and perverse human games!
Lucien becomes the lover of an older aristocrat and letter with a boulevard actress who aspires to represent classic theatre -Racine, where the cheerleader will determine the acters that will be applauded or brooded, accordingly to who pays the most.
Xavier Giannoli won the Palme d'Or for his short film, as well a César in 2006, in 2016 he directed "Marguerite"- Florence Foster Jenkins out of tone lyric singer, following in 2017 " La Apparition",
" Illusion Perdu" Adaptation of the famous masterpiece with the some name " Lost Illusions" writen by Honoré de Balzac( "La comedie Humaine").
It is a beautiful film , that even makes us immerse ourselves in it, forgetting its long duration of more than two hours!
The Big Boss - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 23th December 2021 - 5/5 STARS
Pris
Comedy Directed by Léon Aranoa and starring Javier Bardem. Spanish film selected and nominated for the international feature film for the 94th Oscar.
In a subtle caricature of a Scale factory owner, who tries to show and practice an image of a fair boss, helping and empathizing with his employees like a father. In the meantime, it collects awards from the Regional Government.
what's going to go wrong is, that in addition to having hired a somewhat seductive intern, it's firing a former employee however, a drama emerges, which will unmask the true perverse manipulative nature of the subject.
Xavier Bardem subtly interprets a satire, metamorphosing into the role of a patronage that feeds on corruption.
As far the Oscars, there is talk in other films, such as : "C'Mon C'Mon" by Mike Mills, with Joaquin Phoenix and "L'Évenemént" by Audrey Diwan. Let's wait looking forward!
Licorize Pizza - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 16th November 2021 - 3/5 STARS
The story of Alana Kane, 25 years old, and Gary Valentine(15 years old), crowing up, running around and taking place in California, San Fernando Valley, in 1973.
Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson: Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood (Silver Bear) , 2012 -The Master (Silver Lyon Venezia).
Stars: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Ben Safdie.
One dialogue: Alana asks: "What does your penis look like"?-Gary answers: "circumcised", Alana: "then you're fucking Jew". Romance, comedy, drama, some sexual material and some drug use.
Interweave several stories in the same plot-long takes through travellings use and sound and music. It's just a series of events unrelated to each other without getting anywhere, why is the movie called "Licorize Pizza"?
Cinematic influences:: Stanley Kubrik, Blake Edwards, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorcese, Robert Altman, Jacques Tati, Sidney Lumet and Jonathan Demme.
DON'T LOOK UP - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 11th December 2021 - 5/5 STARS
This is a film that surprises us greatly, for many other happenings. Owing to a discovery by an astrologer (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his fellow (Jennifer Lawrence) about a big comet that will destroy our Planet within six months, causing the Universe to disappear. After informing the President(Merryl Streep) that give no attention to it.
Throughout the film, we are seeing the raw and a lot of truths denounced, like the ever-widening gap between riches and the poor gap between riches and poor, all of which are reported with a sense of humour, the multiple alienations of current lives of the human drama, especially the manipulation, who initially are not taken into consideration. Portraying a President who will react and take action in accordance with polls and elections, forgetting human interests and only the cry coming from the deep soul of the astrologers warning of sociopaths, fascists between us and the quality of the pink magazines and television channels, the ilusion and false sedution to capture votes.
An excelent direction of actors, making us vibrate intensly.
BENEDETTA - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 3rd November 2021 - 5/5 STARS
The 83-years-old Dutch director Paul Verhoeven active both in Netherlands and Hollywood will now premiere a highly controversial film "BENEDETTA"!
Director, screenwriter and producer, graduated from the University of Leiden his filmography covered 26 Films, of different kinds somewhat violent, erotic, satyrical and science fiction and dramas.
The best known: Robocop (1997), Total Reccal (1990). Starship Troopers (1997). Basic Instinct (1992), Turkish Delights (1993).
With his movie "Showgirls" he become. a "Cult" having won also with this movie "The Golden Raspberry" award in addition to being nominated by others.
Got a "Cesar" for ELLE (2016) a "Golden Globe",(2016) and "Saturno" (1987).
BENEDETTA (Virginia Efira) will only now appears, after two years of delay due to Verhoeven's disease and the Pandemic. Tells the true story of a legendary nun set in the 17th century leaving in a Convent in Pescia, it was adapted from the book "The Life of a Lesbian nun in Renaissance Italy" by Judith C. Brown, inspired by the dramatic events that took place inside the Convent. It was considered by the director "a damned film. yes. made with honesty".
Benedetta, later mother superior, ho was possessed with mystical, visions with Christ, and arising with bloody stigmata, although it was self-flagellation,(later it was discovered that was self-inflicted) stressing human and special female sexual desire. after inviting a young brown girl (Daphne Patakie) with whom it comes to engage in a romantic relationship, voyeurism, sadomasochism, repression and rebellion against an obscurantist society. At that time the Church is going to investigate the fact of such "Miracles".
We can see in a scene a woman appears extracting some milk from her breast in presence of the Nuncio(Lambert Wilson) lubricious gaze(that was called to investigate). Every scene is surrounded by artistic beauty from the paintings, tapestry, to the furniture, creating a superb atmosphere, from the old masters. Cinema is endowed with a great cultural and psychological load! often understood as softcore, but wrongly because in Verhoeven there is a huge refinement and a great artistic beauty of scenes, especially that we should never confuse with the current trend, of other films, the abuse of erotic scenes for other purposes...
At the premiere in New York, it happened a demonstration and protests against the film by a group called "America Needs Fátima"!
A movie that praises and fulfils the pleasure of watching the Cinema-the 7th Art!
Bong Joon HO - Review by Antonio Lourenço, 7th August 2021 - 5/5 STARS
The authentic and original south Korean film Director, Producer and screenwriter, reveals himself in contemporary cinema, intelligent and emotional, sometimes with biting humour and emphasis on strong social components, raising questions and social inequalities, GENRE-MIXING, BLACK HUMOR, AND SUDEN TONE SHIFTS.
Considered one of the best directors, especially after winning Cannes Palma d'Or, in 2019. It addresses family and drama with contours of the psychological thriller and suspense. A journey in search of that point, metaphorical which can erase the traces of pain.
Bong shows the Korean actors, constantly eating (as they are endowed with excellent cuisine) and disabled young people also appear, by creating false and metaphorical situations in order to provoke violent actions, sometimes with blood, and using flashbacks between the plans, not revealing the happened crimes, he let us get involved and causing the spectators anxiety and some anguish and reflections, letter involved in the riddle, whose criminal is it (?).
FILMOGRAPHY
BARKING DOG NEVER BITE=Flandersui Gae- (2000) is a black comedy. We are advised at the beginning that "no animal was harmed during the filming.
MEMORIES OF A MURDER=Salinui Ghueck- (2003)- crime thriller (one of the best)! ,
THE HOST (2006)- the monster film,
Tokyo (2008),
MOTHER=Madeo-(2009)- Corajouse mother to prove is sun was not guilt,
"SNOWPIERCER (2013)- Science fiction action film,
ONJA (2017)-a super pig,
PARASITA (2019)-Oscars 2020- Academy Awards: best picture, Best Director, International Feature Film and best original screenplay.
Snowpiercer: Science Fiction film, spoken in English. It was inspired by the comic strip "La TRNSPECENING". Review by Antonio Lourenço, 7th September 2021 - 5/5 STARS
All the action takes place in a dystopian future and is related to climate change.
The inability of human beings and groups to act, in the face of the unknown.
The experience almost ending with the world population, except for the inhabitants of Snowpiper.
An extensive railway engine, that circulates throughout the Planet, via a railway.
After the disaster, the train is divided into two social classes: the front occupied by the privileged class and the tail by the working and poor classes.
It was decided to organize a revolution in order to take control of the machine!
The story about Joseph Losey Review by Antonio Lourenço, 7th April 2021 - 5/5 STARS
Was an American Director, Producer and screenwriter, that studied in Germany with Bertold Brecht. Blacklisted in Hollywood, in the 1950's, he moved to Europe where he made their remainder of his films, mostly in the United Kingdom. Among successful, were the films with screenplays by the dramaturg Harold Painter. "The Servant" and "The Go-Between" (1971) , "Monsieur Klein", (with Alain Delon), won the César awards.
Losey was four times nominee for:
- Both the Palme d'Or, (winning once);
- The Golden Lion;
- And two times Bafta nominee (with Nicolas Ray), school classmates. Beginning as a student of Medicine and ending in drama.
The writer Sinclair Lewis offered to Losey his first work, written for the stage: "Jay Hawker", to directing a theatre in New York. Losey visited “The Soviet Union” in 1935, to study the Russian stage and a seminar on film, taught by the famous Sergei Eisenstein. Also met Bertold Brecht and the composer Hans Eisler. From 1946-47, he directed several plays on Broadway worked with Bertold Brecht and the actor Charles Laughton in the US. Losey went, with Both Losey and Brecht, in the House Un-American Activities Committee (anti-communist). After this, the following day he left US (the land of "Liberty")! At “The Maxine Elliot Theater”, he went on with the play "Life of Galileo". Again, with C.Laughten in the role. Losey's first feature film was a political allegory " The Boy With Green Hair"(1947). The Producer of Fritz Lang's classic "M" hired Losey to Direct a remake.
In 1946, he joined the Communist party. Meanwhile, Howard Huges began purging it of leftists and Losey ask to release him of his contract and left for Italy, after one year returned. Stelled, in London, did his first film " The Sleeping Tiger"(1954) under the pseudonym Victor Hanbury, feared being blacklisted by Hollywood, based on the play by Harold Pinter's screenplay:
- "The Servant"(1963) (forbidden by censorship in Portugal);
- "Accident" (1967);
- And "The Go-Between" (1971) with Britsh Academy Film award with Grand Prix Special du Jury of Cannes Film Festival (1967).
Joseph Losey films are naturalistic and Expressionism. Worked with the famous playwriter Harold Pinter on the Marcel Proust´screenplay, but died before. Note: Marcel Proust wrote 7 books: "A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu"(In Search of Lost Time ) considered one of the best's 20th Century writer.
In 1975, realized a film on Brecht's "Galileo" and follows "Monsieur Klein".
In 1979, filmed Mozart's Opera "Don Giovanni, shot in Italy. Following: "LA Truit" with Isabelle Huppert.(1982)Nominated Golden Venice Lion.
He died at his home, in London, on June 22 (1984), four weeks after completing "Steaming", that was made on the year after his death.
Note: Hollywood blacklist MacCarthysm make so many victims. Also, like one of the greatest screenwriters, called Dalton Trombo, who refused to testify before that American Activities committee and have to work clandestinely on major films.