A 16th-century noblewoman awaits her husband’s return from war in a stately, highly wrought drama etched with refinement and intelligence
Rita Azevedo Gomes’s The Portuguese Woman is elegant, mysterious, implacably distant slow cinema, beautiful but opaque, composed on the stately level of the court masque, and with a delicate, if not precisely subtle, flavour of eroticism. I found myself utterly absorbed – more so because I went away and read the 1924 short story on which it’s based, by the Austrian author Robert Musil, known for his monumental and unfinished The Man Without Qualities.
In the early 16th century, an unnamed Portuguese noblewoman (played by newcomer Clara Riedenstein) has married the aristocratic Lord von Ketten (Marcello Urgheghe). When he goes to war in Italy, she stays behind with her retinue and ladies-in-waiting, waiting for his return for over a decade in a becalmed state of torpor and inscrutable discontent.
Rita Azevedo Gomes’s The Portuguese Woman is elegant, mysterious, implacably distant slow cinema, beautiful but opaque, composed on the stately level of the court masque, and with a delicate, if not precisely subtle, flavour of eroticism. I found myself utterly absorbed – more so because I went away and read the 1924 short story on which it’s based, by the Austrian author Robert Musil, known for his monumental and unfinished The Man Without Qualities.
In the early 16th century, an unnamed Portuguese noblewoman (played by newcomer Clara Riedenstein) has married the aristocratic Lord von Ketten (Marcello Urgheghe). When he goes to war in Italy, she stays behind with her retinue and ladies-in-waiting, waiting for his return for over a decade in a becalmed state of torpor and inscrutable discontent.
- 7/16/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
João Nicolau's John From (2015), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from May 12 - June 11, 2017 as a Special Discovery.João Nicolau has become one of the main voices of contemporary Portuguese cinema, next to the likes of Miguel Gomes or João Pedro Rodrigues. John From, his second feature, is a dreamy coming of age tale of both epic and intimate proportions, just like first love. By way of an irresistibly warm 16mm cinematography, a candidly charming protagonist, and the exuberance of Melanesia, Nicolau delivers a truly original, enchanting ode to adolescence and fantasy.Notebook: Is this a film about love, about fantasy, or about love being a fantasy?JOÃO Nicolau: Cinema and passion have two things in common. One is that they make you see things. The other is that they make those things become real. Within this frame, fantasy is just one layer of reality.
- 5/16/2017
- MUBI
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. João Nicolau's John From (2015), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from May 12 - June 11, 2017 as a Special Discovery.How can we begin to explain why João Nicolau is such a charming oddity in a Portuguese film scene that seems to thrive on individuality and personality? You do not mess with Colonel Tapioca lightly, as someone says at some point in John From, Nicolau’s second feature: the reference is both to a character from the adventures of Tintin and to a Spanish “adventure wear” brand that was very popular in Portugal in the 1990s. Nicolau’s films are full of these little rabbit holes that enrich the tales he’s spinning and sometimes make it seem as if you’ve been mysteriously inducted into the secret society of the Republic of Telheiras.
- 5/12/2017
- MUBI
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