lelia-agostinho Reviews

Our Beloved Month of August (2008)

Deep inside Portuguese soul

[10/10 · 2 September 2008]

Just forget all about globalization. Portugal and Portuguese movies are unique: you can see it in "Aquele querido mês de Agosto" (That dearest August month). In August those who live in big towns and the emigrants come back to their little villages, some foreigners appear as well and all this people join together with the (polyglote) locals. Little familiar bands play and sing for others to dance in the summer festivals and this popular songs become lovely when sang by the wonderful leading role actress. This film includes it's "making of" and plays with the idea of "how a Portuguese movie is made". It is funny, it is poignant, it is innocent and it is intelligent just like anyone. In this movie you can find all except bad taste. And Portuguese people can feel proud of being Portuguese!

Where Is the Friend's House? (1987)

Lovely

[8/10 · 12 December 2007]

I'm sorry I've seen this movie doubled in Spanish and not subtitled in Portuguese but, even so, I found it lovely. It is all about how children live in the adult's world and how they perceive and deal with them. It is also about how children can understand each other and help each other to survive the power and rules of adults. It is filmed very closely to the children which means we see the adults, houses, streets and landscapes from their point of view. The story is very well written, playing very wisely with our expectations. It is an almost timeless and universal story but the where and when it happens is brilliant.

Teresa, el cuerpo de Cristo (2007)

open mind movie

[9/10 · 28 June 2007]

I loved it because it's about the spirit, it's beautiful and never boring. We like to believe we live in a very open-minded time but Teresa, today, would probably be a psychiatric patient. This film is not a biography, and it's not really a story that is being told. This is about spirit. Teresa is dealing with the spirit through her life and this is strange enough when we must believe in matter and stories are about events chained in a logical way to look real. Real and unreal are no important matters here. The same spirit can divide or not divide concepts as life and death. Teresa knows the whole. Watching this movie can really open our mind.

Babel (I) (2006)

we are all together

[9/10 · 16 April 2007]

I loved this movie. It is supported by a very deep and boundless understanding of life and meaning. No matter how lonely one feels, we are all together in the world. Not just because of modern technologies and fast travels, but because Earth is our boat and ocean and sky. We all share life amongst each others and our minds are one. So this movie is wonderful in the way it stresses the connections between us all, no matter where and how we live. What we look like, what we think, what we feel, what we want are differences in the whole we share. The way this movie plays with prejudices and interpretations is excellent. All the work in it is wonderful.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)

All about sublime love

[10/10 · 19 January 2007]

Most films are about love but this one is about all kinds of love, how much we need it and how much we can misunderstand it. It's a very, very unusual film. I would think it would be for cinema lovers only but, as a matter of fact, everyone in the theater was touched by it. I live in a very small town and so I knew the people in the audience. As the film went on I thought some people would not understand it, because the edition is very, very original, so I was surprised that, not only everyone did understand but all were captivated by it. You get a sense of wonder and I believe the word for this film is: sublime. The relationship between love and death is clearly rendered. One of the best movies I have ever seen.

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)

People in the white bright snow landscape

[10/10 · 21 December 2006]

Atanarjuat is a beautiful film. To capture images in the ice, with so much light reflecting all over can be complicated, but Atanarjuat is a movie where this becomes an art. Against the white bright snow landscape people become really significant. It's amazing how we people can live in such a place. Atanarjuat came to the little village (3,500 inhabitants) where I live, in Alentejo, Portugal, about 3 years ago, but I'll never forget it. This film expanded my perception on how we can be human in so many different ways and in so many different places. The cold, the white, the snow and the light make a wonderful dream. The most incredible for me is how the people who made the movie were able to show the amazing diversity of beauty in what could be said a rather monotonous landscape. The story is so rooted in it and so universally human, at the same time, that this film is for all of us.