The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (2020) User Reviews

Return of the Doctor

[MarcoParzivalRocha · 6/10 · 6 October 2020]

Adaptation of Saramago's novel, where Ricardo Reis (heteronym of the poet Fernando Pessoa) returns to Portugal in 1936, 16 years after his exile in Brazil. For connoisseurs of Pessoa's work, in this case, Ricardo Reis, and Saramago, the film has the right pace and atmosphere, for those unfamiliar, the plot becomes confusing, due to the eccentricities, meta moments and somewhat "robotic" dialogues of the film.

The interactions between Ricardo Reis and Pessoa are the best parts, in particular a scene in which both speak trash about Alberto Caeiro (another Pessoa's heteronym).

What I liked the least was the way that the female characters were portrayed (Lídia and Marcenda), too much objectified, without the proper context of their past, life and relationship with the character of Ricardo Reis.

The photography, in Black&White is good, and the score "trap us" in a Noir atmosphere of the '30s, in a very convincing way.

Overall, it's a good film, far from the best from João Botelho, but still, a nice portuguese flick.

Too ambitious

[valadas · 7/10 · 15 October 2020]

But despite a good movie in terms of performance , images and scenes it does not come up totally to its ambitious psychological purpose. The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa is dead nut he appears to his heteronymus Ricardo Reis to check what he is up to having returned from Brazil after a 16 yeara absence. The dialogues between them are psychological fascinating and almost the whole movie is about that with the exception of a few sentimental contacts Ricardo has with two girls much youger than him. The atmosphere of the movie is a bit too depressive but it can be seen with some vision and intelectual enjoyment.