SOUND IN CINEMA - MUSIC IN FILM
FIRST UK PORTUGUESE FILM FESTIVAL
SAT 26 JUNE – SUN 27 JUNE BARBICAN CINEMA
THU 8 JULY – FRI 9 JULY RITZY CINEMA
A film season celebrating the myriad influences that shape Portuguese music, from Arabic to sub-Saharan to trans-European and operatic.
Musical opulence synchronised with remarkable imagery, in a rapturous cinematic feast.
A Buñuelian homage slash opera film by acclaimed director De Oliveira, who satirizes the aristocratic society at the end of the 19th Century, and a compelling fictionalised documentary from director Miguel Gomes are some of the festivalʼs highlights.
Barbican Cinema
SAT 26 JUNE - 2 pm
FADO, STORY OF A SINGER (PG*)
(Fado, História d'uma Cantadeira) UK Premiere
Portugal 1943 Dir. Perdigão Queiroga 110min
Amália Rodrigues, supreme diva of Fado, plays Ana Maria, a fadista who falls for a humble guitar player. Around Ana Mariaʼs ascension to fame congregate crowds of spellbound bohemians, fadistas and visiting industrialists. Júlio believes he his being betrayed and ponders running off to one of Portugal’s African colonies. Ana Maria is torn between the fear of mislaying her first love and the allure of wealth and fame. We are left wondering where the boundary between fiction and the re-enactment of Amáliaʼs own past is being sutured in this unique journey about the Lisbon of the 1940s.
SAT 26 JUNE - 4pm
MY VOICE (PG*)
(Nha Fala) UK Premiere
Portugal/France/Luxembourg 2003 Dir. Flora Gomes 110min
A delightful musical comedy with music by the creator of Soul Makossa, Manu Dibango, unquestionably one of the great popular musicians of Africa. Musical flow and the lilt of language entwine in this musical comedy. Leaving Guinea Bissau for Paris, Vita makes the promise to her mother to never sing again. Family legend has it that a curse will obliterate those women who dare to sing. In Paris, Vita meets Pierre, falls in love and sings for joy. Vita is horrified, but Pierre, beguiled by her talent, convinces her to walk into a studio. The record is an overnight success. Fearing her mother will learn of her broken promise, Vita decides to return home… To die!
SAT 27 JUNE - 6 pm
THE CANNIBALS (PG*)
(Os Canibais) UK Premiere
Portugal 1988 Dir. Manoel de Oliveira 99min
Oliveiraʼs Os Canibais is a direct response to composer João Paesʼ challenge to create an opera-film; with Paesʼ score, in turn, binding together the pieces in this maverick feature where disruption and sarcasm are given Buñuelian primacy. Margarida (Oliveiraʼs eternal muse Leonor Silveira) suffers the rage of a neglected admirer. A reflection on desire and eroticism, this is Oliveiraʼs most abstract, piercing, and irreverently uproarious film. By means of a violinist-narrator who addresses the audience directly, Oliveira exposes the dilapidation of upper-class values, complete with the extreme theatricality of falling-off mechanical limbs, musical interludes and the cannibalism that the title promises.
SAT 27 JUNE - 8.45pm
PERPETUAL MOVEMENTS: A CINE-TRIBUTE TO CARLOS PAREDES (PG*)
(Movimentos Perpétuos - Homenagem a Carlos Paredes)
Portugal 2006 Dir. Edgar Pêra 68 min
This is trademark Pêra, but pointed at late Portuguese guitar genius Carlos Paredesʼ career. It mixes archival film and sound with interviews, 8mm ʻunsteady-camʼ and optical mosaics to the extreme, to give us an iridescent portrayal of Paredesʼ genius. The montage is as relentless as the guitaristʼs finger-work, the footage as compelling as the music is poignant. Pêraʼs method is luxuriously baroque and the remarkable music and Paredesʼ unassuming demeanour burst through the hordes to give us a counterpoising gist. In the midst, we discover the notoriety Paredesʼ music brought to the Portuguese guitar, raising it to the rank of an autonomous instrument and transforming it into a symbol of Portuguese music.
All films with English subtitles
Tickets:
Standard - £7.50 online (£9.50 full price)
Barbican Members - £6.50 online (£7.50 full price)
Concessions - £7.50
Under 15 - £4.50
Special Ticket Offer: Enter promotional code ʻ26271ʼ when booking online, or quote ʻFilmvilleʼ for telephone bookings, and receive a ticket at the discounted price of £5,50. Subject to availability.
Bookings:
Box Office: 020 7638 8891
http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/series.asp?id=845&show=listing
RITZY CINEMA
THU 8 JULY - 6.30 pm
OUR BELOVED MONTH OF AUGUST (PG)
(Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto)
Portugal 2008 Dir. Miguel Gomes 147min
In the heart of Portugal, amid the mountains, the month of August is abuzz with people and activity. Emigrants returning home set off fireworks, fight fires, sing karaoke, hurl themselves from bridges, hunt wild boar, drink beer, make babies. If the director and film crew had got straight to it and resisted the temptation to join in the festivities the synopsis would come down to: Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto follows the relationship between father and daughter, and the daughterʼs cousin, plus all musicians in a dance band. The film was the Portuguese submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in the 81st Academy Awards.
FRI 9 JULY - 6.30 pm
THE ART OF AMÁLIA (PG*)
(A Arte de Amália) UK Premiere
Portugal 2000 Dir. Bruno de Almeida 90min
The lament and almost unbearable melancholy of Amália Rodriguesʼs music goes to a place in the soul that only music can stir. In her voice and magical presence lie the exquisite sorrow of the Fado. The success of this beautiful and lovingly crafted documentary owes in to how the film-maker resisted the temptation to editorialise and simply allows us to share in the magnetism and elegant passion of this icon. There seems to be an inevitable emotional correlation between the Portuguese Fado and American Blues. Documentary filmmaking at its best.
All films with English subtitles
Tickets:
Standard - £9.00 online (£7.00 b4 5pm)
Members - £7.00 online (£5.00 b4 5pm)
Concessions - £8.00 (£6.00 b4 5pm)
Child - £5.00
Box Office: 0871 704 2065
http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Ritzy_Picturehouse/
SOUND IN CINEMA - MUSIC IN FILM THE FIRST UK PORTUGUESE FILM FESTIVAL
Curated by Filmville as part of the City of London Festival, with special thanks to Instituto Camões in Portugal and the Portuguese Embassy in London
* Films locally classified
For PRESS TICKETS, SCREENERS, and any press enquiries, please contact:
Fernanda Franco
M: +44 (0) 7939 941 831 E: press@filmville.org