Fogo-Fátuo - João Pedro Rodrigues
Released in 2022, Fogo-Fátuo was part of the Director's Fortnight in Cannes 2022 and selected for Sevilla Film Festival 2022.
Fogo-Fátuo is perceived as a romantic and comic film and approaches the story of Alfredo (King of Portugal), highlighting his youth and his romantic relationship with a fireman. João Pedro Rodrigues consciously decides to keep a satire tone in each scene of the film, while creating (in his own words) a "musical fantasy".
This film has a bittersweet taste. Starting with the strong points of it, in the first part of the film, the director shows us the Portuguese royal family on the intimacy of their own palace. The greatest scene of this film would be the dinner of the royal family while listening to the tragic news of the deadly fires that are destroying Portugal. Besides the beautiful composition of it - the prince in the front, the King and Queen on the side, and the two other princes that are not relevant in terms of Portugal's succession, not facing the camera - it must be emphasized the brilliant satire in it. With the voice of the current Prime Minister of Portugal talking about the fires on the television, the King of Portugal is showing no interest or care in the horrifying situation of his own country - representing a perfect and accurate picture of the Portuguese current government. While the King looks at this situation with barely disguised contempt, the Queen of Portugal, conscious that the viewer is watching the royal family (while breaking the fourth wall), shows in a very fake way, her concern about the current situation of Portugal, while blowing some candles. All this part is representing, with extreme accuracy and great humor, the current state of the Portuguese political scene - the idea of "putting on a show" and being "politically correct" in front of the viewer is amazingly portrait by Margarida Vila-Nova and Miguel Loureiro.
The other strong point of this film is the brave decision of the director to portrait Portugal and the monarchy - which was known for being extremely conservative - and combine it with a graphic homosexual love story. It should also be referred the heavy satire that João Pedro Rodrigues does to the Church, specially at the end of the film, by dressing up the two nuns with fashion items. The best part of that last scene would be the combination of this humorous moment with a classic behavior of Portuguese old ladies - the constant whisper, repetition of certain quotes and the classic overanalyzing the life of the other people.
The sweet taste of the film is brilliant enough, but then the bitter taste starts to be revealed. The constant and exhausting repetition of the "comedy" regarding penis and the sexual desire of Alfredo starts to fade the essence of the film away. From the very beginning - the scene where Alfredo and his father are in the forest - the director has a urge to compare the Portuguese forest to penis - until the very end where Alfredo is naming forest names after graphic pornographic pictures. Perhaps the goal of this is to constantly make the viewer shocked in a way that film sticks with them and, therefore, its satire.
At what point is necessary to shock the viewer, with no breaking point, with the same "joke" in order to share a specific idea or message? João Pedro Rodrigues had a brilliant and well structure satire but ended up on ruining it through exhausting and repeating scenes.
Fogo-Fátuo is perceived as a romantic and comic film and approaches the story of Alfredo (King of Portugal), highlighting his youth and his romantic relationship with a fireman. João Pedro Rodrigues consciously decides to keep a satire tone in each scene of the film, while creating (in his own words) a "musical fantasy".
This film has a bittersweet taste. Starting with the strong points of it, in the first part of the film, the director shows us the Portuguese royal family on the intimacy of their own palace. The greatest scene of this film would be the dinner of the royal family while listening to the tragic news of the deadly fires that are destroying Portugal. Besides the beautiful composition of it - the prince in the front, the King and Queen on the side, and the two other princes that are not relevant in terms of Portugal's succession, not facing the camera - it must be emphasized the brilliant satire in it. With the voice of the current Prime Minister of Portugal talking about the fires on the television, the King of Portugal is showing no interest or care in the horrifying situation of his own country - representing a perfect and accurate picture of the Portuguese current government. While the King looks at this situation with barely disguised contempt, the Queen of Portugal, conscious that the viewer is watching the royal family (while breaking the fourth wall), shows in a very fake way, her concern about the current situation of Portugal, while blowing some candles. All this part is representing, with extreme accuracy and great humor, the current state of the Portuguese political scene - the idea of "putting on a show" and being "politically correct" in front of the viewer is amazingly portrait by Margarida Vila-Nova and Miguel Loureiro.
The other strong point of this film is the brave decision of the director to portrait Portugal and the monarchy - which was known for being extremely conservative - and combine it with a graphic homosexual love story. It should also be referred the heavy satire that João Pedro Rodrigues does to the Church, specially at the end of the film, by dressing up the two nuns with fashion items. The best part of that last scene would be the combination of this humorous moment with a classic behavior of Portuguese old ladies - the constant whisper, repetition of certain quotes and the classic overanalyzing the life of the other people.
The sweet taste of the film is brilliant enough, but then the bitter taste starts to be revealed. The constant and exhausting repetition of the "comedy" regarding penis and the sexual desire of Alfredo starts to fade the essence of the film away. From the very beginning - the scene where Alfredo and his father are in the forest - the director has a urge to compare the Portuguese forest to penis - until the very end where Alfredo is naming forest names after graphic pornographic pictures. Perhaps the goal of this is to constantly make the viewer shocked in a way that film sticks with them and, therefore, its satire.
At what point is necessary to shock the viewer, with no breaking point, with the same "joke" in order to share a specific idea or message? João Pedro Rodrigues had a brilliant and well structure satire but ended up on ruining it through exhausting and repeating scenes.