Alice

Yep, here's comes another Portuguese Tsai Ming-Liang... Another guy that thinks it's pretty cool to make a whole movie out of two pages of dialogue; that believes that rainy days, blue-tinted cinematography, Satie-like piano and the constant droning of passing cars and passing trains are an original way of expressing the anguish of modern urban existence; that pointless boredom, however well filmed (as indeed it was) can ever be something different than pointless boredom. What is truly absent in this movie, besides poor little Alice, is a story, as ever that detail that is never allowed to get in the way of the Big Ideas, Big Characters and Big Images of our filmmakers (except João Canijo, that at least makes the effort of riping-off Shakespeare). All the artistry in the world cannot save such an empty, empty, object.

There is much to be said about this one. It's fantastic to be able to appreciate such a picture, to live the moment where this finally happened. I don't know much about M.Martins, i hadn't heard of him before this one (and practically no one had). i also don't know what he'll do next. But i put this one along with a very few number of "difficult to get better" first tries by any director (a list with titles such as "a bout de soufflé" or "citizen kane").

The city is the theme. Forget the story. It is there. Period. It serves the purpose of grasping a city hardly seen on screen before this. Period. that's all there is to say.

So this succeeds where "Ossos" and "O fantasma" had failed completely; in showing Lisbon out of clichés, of preconceived warmed up imagery's. Time goes on, cinema has to catch it. This is catching up with time.

This brings the city to zero ground. The screens (how many do we see during the film?) that belong to Lopes's character are the white canvas where actions draw themselves, in blue. The camera (an experimenting young director, says me) tries to fetch them, tries to make them eternal, all the scenes, everywhere. Lopes (the actor, real life and in this film) tries to get to them, he participates, he can even show up in front of a camera, but he can never control it. So, the actor as a pawn, constantly exposed, never in control. This is cinema, and Mário (Lopes) understands it the moment he sees 10 times his face on the screens of a store. He also performs a play, a comedy, inside the play which is the film. Double manipulation. Great material! He is an actor, manipulated to appear the way this visionary director wants, and he plays an actor, who is forced to perform something he is not the least interested in, to be able to proceed with his other function, which he thinks he controls, but he doesn't.

The camera can be "god", a character, or it can grab a character and follow it. The camera can be the spectator, our curiosity moving around. Here, the camera is a mood, a spiritual landscape, such as the music. It's a dot placed on the infinite. So it doesn't matter if it focuses or unfocuses, or what it focuses, first or second plan, cars pass in front, also people strange to the scenes (every people are strange here). "Freewill" framing, apparent chaos, apparent "no man" camera. This is the true quality of Alice. All so contemporary, all so apparently chaotic, still, everything controlled we don't know how, nor by whom. This is Lisbon.

Still, i don't hold the optimism (nor the skepticism) of the common Portuguese cinema buff. I don't watch this one as "the new path that will improve Portuguese cinema for good". One film, especially on this author basis, doesn't change a hole (inexistent) cinema industry. But i do think that, from a cinematic point of view; this is worthwhile, and has a place on the top of my shelve.

Dialogs subtle, right, rigorous. Music may be the only apparition of the missing Alice. Photos, flyers and even Alice herself don't count. This is one of the best minimalist soundtracks ever. Glass would make Koyaanisqatsi differently if he could have seen this first. But than again, this is so much better than Reggio's living-death tail of industrialization.

The city is blue, so is Alice's coat, he's always seeking blue... and failing to find it. Think about. You should watch this along with "Lisboetas". This one first.

My evaluation: 5/5 fantastic cinematic essay.

P.S. - I just feel pity that watching the making of and the extras makes me feel that this was all luck, and no one involved gave a single thought to what i just said. I wish the extra material could be more useful than just curious (it could be both).

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Following the comments that have been posted up until now I also think this movie could be a little bit shorter or faster paced. Besides that...

Everything suits and fits the style that was intended. I'm not familiarized with the work of Manoel de Oliveira but I sure loved the consistency and emotional tension delivered by this fair example of good Portuguese movie production. Loved the cinematography and casting as well as the soundtrack which is nothing less than minimalist and straight to the point.

A sad story told in a "sad" way. The absence of dialog in some scenes is almost scary due to the tension involved around the baseline of the plot. The two main actors are capable of making us believe they are truly feeling broken inside, lost in their own senses, confused by an harsh reality, truly great work by everyone involved.

I'm not gonna write about the plot itself because if you're reading this you probably are already familiarized with it but I can say I was very depressed at the end and that's good in a drama.

By the end credits you feel ready to cry under your sheets. What you've just watched and felt is too catastrophic and heartbreaking to belong to reality and the scary thing is that you realized exactly that. There's little fiction about the whole thing...

7/10

This movie by Marco Martins is the portrait of two characters played by Nuno Lopes and Beatriz Batarda (best Portuguese actress ever) whose child disappeared, Alice. Watching "Alice" isn't watching one of the more award-winning Portuguese author movies, that keep saying nothing about Portuguese culture or society. "Alice" is truly a masterpiece. Not of directing, but the film as a whole is an impressive piece of art. The score played by Bernardo Sasseti is surely one of the best we've ever listened to, not just in Portuguese cinema but in others too. The music fully transmits the father's loss, and on the other half the cinematography, with the blue tone of color during the entire picture, haunts us with Alice's presence, beside she never appears in the entire picture, but she's the reason the movie happens. The movie is about hope, and absolutely about it's loss, because we fight so many in time to achieve something that sometimes we get tired and quit on the edge. "Alice" quits

One of the best Portuguese movies ever produced. A simple, straight story about Mario, a father searching for his missing daughter - Alice. Shooted in a dark, depressing way with strong and moving roles. Mario creates an illegal video surveillance network all over Lisbon, watching hours and hours of DV tapes every day in high speed, expecting to see some clue about Alice. One day the search seems to be over. If you like to watch different cinema with alternative views and ideas you can't loose this one! Won a prize at 2005 Cannes Festival. The music by Sasseti is also intense, somehow like some tunes by Tiersen in "Lenin" or "Amelie".