From: Portugal, Europe Watch: Trailer, JustWatch Next: Horse Money, From What is Before, CocoteContinue reading “Vitalina Varela – An Artistic Meditation on Mourning”
Tabu Film Difficulty Ranking: 4
A Portuguese explorer wanders the African wilderness looking for something. He stares into the abyss whilst Africans carry his belongings past him. From the soothing voice of the narrator and the tingling piano we learn that the explorer is searching for an end. Not the end of the world, but an end to his life after his wife died back in Portugal. To end his life, he throws himself into a swamp as prey for the crocodiles. Ever since that moment, locals see apparitions of a woman sitting beside a sad looking crocodile.
Tabu is broken into two parts, following the introduction. The first part, titled ‘A Lost Paradise’ follows a middle aged activist called Pilar. She lives alone in an apartment in Lisbon. The only thing she looked forward to was a visit from a young Polish girl, however, at the airport the girl rejects her whilst posing as someone else. Her only friends are her old neighbour Aurora and Aurora’s assistant, Santa. Pilar is captured perfectly in one shot of her looking out across Lisbon from her balcony at night. Because of the darkness, she merges into the darkness and the city she looks at, connecting her loneliness and melancholy to the city she lives in. Both are full of melancholy and looking for definition.
The second part is titled ‘Paradise’ and focuses on Aurora’s years in Africa. ‘Paradise’ is filmed without dialogue. Instead the director, Gomes, opts for a narrator. Because of this, the whole section becomes a nostalgic ode to the past. It shows saudade (definition in the bullet points above) for the colonial times, a time when Aurora was free to define her life, in contrast to Pilar’s vague life in Lisbon. Whilst Tabu celebrates the freedom of living in a colony, it does not condone colonialism. Instead it offers a critique of the state of contemporary Portuguese society, that it still looks back to an imperial past for self definition.
Tabu is the perfect representation of saudade in film. It offers a nostalgic look at Portuguese colonialism whilst critiquing it. Watch this gem alongside the beautiful Colombian Embrace of the Serpent for an exploration of European colonisation.
(For the more advanced film viewer, I’d also recommend pairing either Elegy to the Visitor from the Revolution or the 7.5 hour Melancholia by Filipino Lav Diaz with the above)
You might have a vision about a particular place you’ve never visited, but you have to go there to really see what it is like. In Djon Africa, Miguel dreams of meeting his father from Cape Verde, so he decides to seek him out by going there. His fantasies of a place covered with beautiful women and parties are tested by reality.
From: Cape Verde, AfricaContinue reading “Djon Africa – Fantasy vs. Reality in Cape Verde”
Watch: Trailer, Watch on Amazon
Next: Wan Pipel, Wallay, Song of the Sea
The Courtyard of Songs Film Difficulty Ranking: 2
If you’re looking for a bunch of laughs after a long hard day at work, watch this. You have the option of watching the classic original from the Portuguese golden age, or the updated version (which I’ve reviewed here). Either way, watching it is your chance to experience life in Lisbon. You’ll meet a mix of Portuguese stereotypes that you’ll quickly fall in love with.
The film starts with a view of the neighbourhood. We can see lines of colourful bunting stretched across a courtyard in Lisbon surrounded by houses with balconies. A guy with a slicked back hair and a Mohawk walks out onto his balcony, scratches his balls, and cat calls an attractive woman walking past. The woman acknowledges him (luckily they know each other) and the narrator steps in to introduce us to all of the characters in the neighbourhood.
In this neighbourhood, everyone knows everyone. They are like one big family. They fight, they argue, but they will also support each other when it matters (such as when Amalia sings or when Evaristo bails out his neighbours). On the street, they share their emotions: their life ambitions, their love interests, and their gossip, which travels like wildfire. Gossip is their form of news. People are so eager to be on top of the local news, that they all follow the inspector round to try and solve the crime before him!
In addition, pay attention to the structure of the neighbourhood because it is typically Lisbon. The neighbourhood is divided into two levels: the street level, and the balcony level. People go to their balcony when they want to watch life in the neighbourhood and each character uses it differently. Evaristo uses it to watch out for Rosa, another character uses it to cat call girls, Amalia uses it to showcase her figure, and another uses it for his exercise bike. In contrast, people go to the streets when they want to share their emotions and party.
The Courtyard of Songs is great to watch to get an understanding of neighbourhood dynamics in Lisbon. The film is full of wittiness and laughs, a lot like a good episode of Friends. Watch this if you’re interested in visiting Lisbon, and if you want to go make sure you visit during the June festival!
The film starts with 9/10 year old Carlitos reciting the Aniki Bobo nursery rhyme (a Portuguese version of eenie-meenie-miny-moe). His Mum reprimands him for moving around while she is combing his hair and the doll he is playing with falls to the floor and breaks. His mum forces him out the house with his school bag which has “Always Choose the Good Path” written on it. He runs to school, bumping into policeman on the way.
On their way into the classroom, all the little schoolkids throw their hats up onto a row of coat pegs and rush into the classroom. No one is interested in their reading lesson which the director shows by a Battleship Potemkin style tracking shot. The shot moves from the back to the front of the classroom, showing all the kids are playing around. The shot stops on Eduardo smiling widely. The teacher shouts his name to start reading, but he can’t read. So one of the nerds (he has slick parted hair and glasses) takes over and reads perfectly.
Eduardo can’t read, but he does win the attention of the girls. He also leads the other kids in games of thieves and policemen. As a result of the following equation, he is obviously the bully.
Illiteracy+Games Ringmaster+Girl getter = The Bully
Sure enough, he gets into fights with Carlitos over a girl that Carlitos pines for. It is their rivalry which is strongly reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies, and the lack of adults in the film.
Aniki Bobo is one of the best examples from the Portuguese Golden age of cinema. In this film, children replace adults which both conveys the lack of adult authority in Porto during the Second World War and serves as a metaphor for adult class relations in Portugal. A classic from a director that witnessed both the silent and digital age of film.
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