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Reviews
Mistérios de Lisboa (2011)
Primogeniture is a system of cruelty, prominent in another time in history.
J. Leite: This film is about structure. The lengthy, laborious, "pointlessness" of this film mirrors the epic proportions of the theme of the movie: primogeniture of seniors and senores. This story is not about Kings, Queens, Princes, or Princesses. It is about Dukes, Duchesses, Counts, Countesses, Marquises, and Marquisessas. This theme becomes evident when a prince informs a count who is attracted to a princess/countess that one cannot take "from the firstborn to give to the second," and so the second must be married off or "placed," well to be sure, and relegated to obscurity. The rest of the film points us to the directions of various "seconds" and their stations in life directly related to their birth rank. The firstborns take the world stage; the seconds swirl amid the shadows of those given privilege and rank as inheritors of primogeniture. The Catholic Church is the hub around which these paths diverge and intersect, with the Church giving sanctuary to orphans, widows, and unfortunates. The long vignettes portray various subplots and the machinations which brought, mostly, either a fall from rank or a retreat from the world, or obscurity. Giving dignity to these seconds falls to the priest who, one infers, has a keen perception about the interplay of events and the machinations of sinister people in their noble lives. At the end of the tedium of this film, one feels that one has been through an ordeal commensurate to the ordeals of the seconds or "spares" in the story. This film was exquisitely produced, directed, scripted, and acted. I enjoyed this movie once I figured out what was happening, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there really was a Duke/Count de Sa.
I Am Dina (2002)
This wonderful movie is a psycho-drama, with wonderful characters, actors, direction, production, location. I was most captivated by the actress who played Dina as a child.
**Spoiler*J. Leite: _I Am Dina_ is a story about judgment. In fact, the name Dina means "judged," and various characters other than Dina are judged as well as she with similar consequences in this story. Male/female relationships in which the men are extremely harsh with women result in women who are dehumanized and hard as stone. The dominant imagery in this film is "hard-ness." This is visible in the ferocity of the fist all the way down (pardon the pun) to the wedding night and the ability to stand on ice barefooted. The oddity in behavior of these women can be attributed to the lack of femininity which men admire in women because their souls have been murdered. Notice Stina who is raped by Dina's stepson; she harbors such hatred for him and has become hard as well. Further, notice the wet-nurse who lost her baby after becoming pregnant and abandoned: hard as stone. Dina understands these women and because she has the power to help them and comfort them, she does. Dina doles out justice throughout this film. Although Dina finds a husband and a mentor who really care for her, she cannot forgive recurring abandonment and betrayal. Can Dina be saved? The final scene seems to suggest that she does find a man who understands her and her needs, and unlike the tutor, is in a position to do something about it. How do we know this? Because of the scene in which she, with a mother's love, jumps into the frigid waters of Norway to rescue her son after he falls off a boat, the man she loves dives into the same waters to rescue her. In that act he tells her how much he loves her and also he tells her that he will always leave her when he has a "mission," but he will always come back to her. Redemption! This film was beautifully executed, cinematography, score, actors, direction, script...and most of all location! This was a treat and what I call a tour-de-force. Well done!