Posted on Sunday, 25 December 2011

O ESTRANHO CASO DE ANGELICA (de Oliveira, 2010) - Up until a conversation mentioning first “the crisis”, then anti-matter, and finally proton colliders, I was somehow assuming that this was a period film. It wasn’t just the stiff costumes and the retro camera wielded by the photographer, but also the rather formal mood and the painterly compositions, which reminded me of another fairly recent Portugese movie by an old director, MISTERIOS DE LISBOA. They are different movies entirely though, and not just because of the period: LISBOA is very, very plot driven, with many interweaving strands, while this has just the barest wisp of a plot, really just an intriguing premise (a photographer sees a beautiful dead woman come to life through his viewfinder) that very little is done with. I liked it though - the small observations, the poetry of the language, and the gorgeous images were enough for me. 

O ESTRANHO CASO DE ANGELICA (de Oliveira, 2010) - Up until a conversation mentioning first “the crisis”, then anti-matter, and finally proton colliders, I was somehow assuming that this was a period film. It wasn’t just the stiff costumes and the retro camera wielded by the photographer, but also the rather formal mood and the painterly compositions, which reminded me of another fairly recent Portugese movie by an old director, MISTERIOS DE LISBOA. They are different movies entirely though, and not just because of the period: LISBOA is very, very plot driven, with many interweaving strands, while this has just the barest wisp of a plot, really just an intriguing premise (a photographer sees a beautiful dead woman come to life through his viewfinder) that very little is done with. I liked it though - the small observations, the poetry of the language, and the gorgeous images were enough for me. 

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