Undescribable Perfection

Powerful

I'll tell you why so serious

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

In the face of fate, a difficult situation, a heavy blow, a lack of identity, or an identity at the mercy of revelations coming to light at fatalistic moments... the characters of Mysteries of Lisbon constantly seek to assert themselves, reinvent themselves, forge an identity. Padre Denis's father goes to priesthood after his loved one dies in childbirth. She had gone on the run with him in light of being an uncared-for wife. Padre Denis, being a bastard child, assumes a number of personas through the years. Joao, similarly, seeks an identity, at first by looking for his parents, then as a young adult by declaring himself the protector of the girl he falls in love with. The latter declares that sad events in her past have made her the nasty person that she is (which Joao, in his crush, cannot see). Joao's mother Angela goes from an unhappy marriage... to her son but in poverty... to the convent. Knife-Eater goes from a man with a heavy conscience to a noble nouveau-riche.In the end, Joao, confused by being a pawn in fate's and other people's dictates tries to leave without a trace, to either check out of life in a way or to reinvent himself somewhere far away. But his benefactors know how to find him. And he cannot turn his back on the past completely; he writes his story, not forgetting where he comes from. A fitting conclusion to a film also in part about storytelling. After hours of listening to people telling their stories, he finally decides to tell his.

Chilean-born screenwriter, producer, teacher and director Raúl Ruiz' 66th feature film which was written by Portuguese screenwriter Carlos Saboga, is an adaptation of a novel from 1854 by 19th century Portuguese writer Camilo Castello Branco (1825-1890). It premiered at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and is a France-Portugal co-production which was shot on various locations in Portugal and produced by Portuguese producer Paulo Branco. It tells the story about Pedro da Silva, a fourteen-year-old orphan who lives at a boarding school in Lisbon, Portugal which is run by Father Dinis during the Liberal Wars in the early 19th century. Pedro is searching for his origins and Father Dinis has managed to take his mind of his natural curiosity by having him focus on his studies, but one day after having received a visit by a countess named Angela de Lima who claims to be his mother, Father Dinis decides to help Pedro in his search for his identity.Distinctly and subtly directed by Latin-American filmmaker Raúl Ruiz, this intricate and exquisite story which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws a stately and memorable portrayal of an adolescent boy's conflicting road towards discovering his true identity during the 19th century and the destinies of all the people who in one way or another were connected to his birth. While notable for its brilliant milieu depictions, production design and costume design by Portuguese production designer, art director and costume designer Isabel Branco, cinematography by Brazilian-born cinematographer André Szankowski and the cogent editing by Chilean screenwriter, film editor and director Valéria Sarmiento and film editor Carlos Madaleno, this somewhat surreal and romantic period drama which is driven by it's voice-over narration, dialog, variegated characters and interrelated stories, depicts multiple intriguing studies of character and contains a remarkable score by Chilean-born composer Jorge Arrigada and Portuguese composer and professor of music Luís Freitas Branco (1890-1955).This rhythmic, multifaceted, at times humorous and invariably moving epic about human suffering, human relations, identity, love and faith, presents scenes where it is as if protagonists and antagonists were communicating within frames of art works and is a poetically atmospheric and melodramatic fictional tale which is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure and the compelling acting performances by Portuguese actor Adriano Luz, French actress Clotilde Hesme, Portuguese actress Maria Joáo Bastos, Portuguese actor and director José Afonso Pimentel and Portuguese actor Ricardo Pereira. An accomplished cinematic achievement and a masterful mystery which gained, among other awards, the Silver Seashell Award for Best Director Raúl Ruiz at the 58th San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2010 and the TFCA Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 15th Toronto Film Critics Association Awards in 2011.

I'm not sure it's possible to express a spoiler here -- the film just doesn't have any truly dramatic moments outside of one dueling scene, and even that is pretty uninteresting. It's amazing that someone decided the story needed over 270 minutes to tell. There are many scenes that are totally unnecessary to the story and many more that could have been shortened.There's a point where we see a couple get together, and we expect passion, fireworks, some real emotion. Alas, it is not to be. Way too many scenes are filmed from quite a distance, as if to say, "let's disengage ourselves as much as possible from this". The main effect is to prevent us from seeing the acting going on -- watching several people talking from such as distance, it's hard to tell what anyone is supposed to be feeling.And the pacing. This film is glacially paced, and taxes even the most patient of us. There better be a payoff, but it never comes. I made it to the end, and I can honestly say that I felt like I had wasted my time. There just isn't enough going on in this costume drama to care. About the only good thing I can say is that the production values are not too bad, although it seems that the budget must have precluded much location shooting -- we see coaches going by the same landscape over and over throughout the film.Summary: limp, boring soap.

I rarely had out 1's, and this film, while an exercise in endurance, cramping, and boredom, is not entirely garbage. The costumes and set are fairly acceptable for a period drama. The actors seemed competent.But beyond that, almost everything else about the film is garbage, and frankly I emerged from the cinema quite angry at having wasted 5 hours of my life (including intermission which only prolonged the pain) on it.Part One (i.e the first two hours) isn't so bad. By itself, and with almost ANY ending tacked on, it would probably rate 7/10. If I can still remember, I think it was about an orphan boy being raised in a religious environment, who is attacked for being a bastard son, and his mother comes to visit him during his recovery. From there, the tale unfolds about his mother's life and how she was unable to marry the man she loved (both of them being second-born) and being forced to marry someone else while pregnant with him.But it gets more and more convoluted and meaningless as the film drags on. You really feel the weight of it on your eyelids as the second part opens, and I swear it is as if not one of the characters from the first part is recognizable in the second part for about two hours.Frankly, I stopped caring, and amused myself watching everyone else not caring either, as we checked our cell phones for the time: 5:00. 5:15. 5:30. Oh, God, when will it end?! 6:00. 6:15. 6:30. 6:45. 7:00! Freedom! We bolted for the nearest exit. (This was an art cinema crowd, by the way).I weighed the possibility of complaining to the manager about the film, and demanding a refund based solely on the film's worthlessness, something I have NEVER done in a cinema. But I decided I'd rather just be done with it, and I got out of there.I hope your experience is better than mine, but don't count on it. You've been warned.Don't believe the hype.