The photography, lighting, decor, costumes, and sets were outstanding, of painting-like quality. The craft and obsession with detail were obvious throughout.
If Movies were made of a collection of small moments of visual pleasure this would have been a 10.
But, in the tradition of a certain kind of cinema (Manoel de Oliveira is an obvious reference to cite here, in both good and bad) there were issues with character development, artificial dialogues that lend the characters less compelling than they could be, and pace that is often ludicrous (with singing in between, that I'm sure made sense at the time, but...) and confuses the story, making it almost as unbelievable as any Marvel-type effort.
4 Reviews
Artistically beautiful, but soulless empty.
Philip_20175 August 2020
I'm Portuguese so I figured I'd give this film a chance. How wrong was I.
"The Portuguese Woman" looks and feels like an artistic motion picture directed by Wed Anderson, except that the story and characters aren't really intriguing to watch. The film is about two hours long and by thirty minutes later I already felt I had seen over an hour!
Also, I agree with the other reviewer that the actress (Clara) whom played "The Portuguese Woman" wasn't actually Portuguese, but by nationality. She is stunningly beautiful, that's for sure.
5/10 feels like a fair score for this though anything less wouldn't be surprising either.
"The Portuguese Woman" looks and feels like an artistic motion picture directed by Wed Anderson, except that the story and characters aren't really intriguing to watch. The film is about two hours long and by thirty minutes later I already felt I had seen over an hour!
Also, I agree with the other reviewer that the actress (Clara) whom played "The Portuguese Woman" wasn't actually Portuguese, but by nationality. She is stunningly beautiful, that's for sure.
5/10 feels like a fair score for this though anything less wouldn't be surprising either.
Pretty but the Brechtian acting makes it too distant to really involve
mehobulls30 August 2020
The pace of life of those not at war is slow - in fact, it is so slow that Time is a main character in the screenplay and should have been paid a salary. The servants, always at the beck and call, have little to do waiting on her ladyship who at least has her leisure to keep her occupied. However, there are scenes of rural settings that help alleviate the press of time somewhat as does an excellent soundtrack.
Very slow film
LUIS2 April 2020
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