Manô

Not too many years ago, during a visit in New York, I had the opportunity to see a short film of then student George Felner. The film surprised me for its freshness, for its obvious difference, with a huge influence to the movies years (best movie years) of the silent comedies like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd; so I admitted I had expectations. When this feature film came out, with George's name on the poster, I had to see it. I'd start by saying that the film is surprising, with the amusing performance of the actors, George Felner, Diogo Infante and Adelaide de Sousa. Anyone would love to meet a character like Chaplin or Buster Keaton in real life, even better if he was in black and white (which must have required quite a lot of work with special effects); this film is exactly that. The result is a film I recommend to all without exception, because like good comedies, it manages to give us a difficult balance between laughter and crying, between its brutality and innocence. Innocence, because lets not forget in the old films, it was permitted to kiss the horse and not the girl. Mano is a very rich film, but also a film that is fun, and lets not forget, that doesn't just make us smile, but really laugh.

"Manô" is the first big feature of Director George Felner. Competing in a country where there is no support what so ever to cinema he was able to direct and cast in an excellent comedy, written by him self, and proving to the world that the love for the art and the pursue for our dreams is possible. The animated and black and white tricks are the proof that the director really knows what he's doing and that he's interested in sharing his experience with the rest of the Portuguese cinema community. His acting is mostly "face expression" and Manô is a very hard character to role. Congratulations and keep up the good work, i would love to see George's next movie.

Well, its been a while since we've seen re-runs of classic chaplinesque black and white comedies on TV.. Just as well that someone thought of making a film with that style of visual comedy. Quite an amusing movie, a mute film character from the black and white comedies of the 1920's appears in a modern 21st century Portugal. Quite innovative for a Portuguese movie to have such special effects. George Felner's character reminds me a little of Laurel who was the skinny one in Laurel and Hardy, and Diogo Infante perhaps in this case is Hardy, the one who gets upset and angry with him. It was also good to see Canto e Castro, a great actor who now passed away before the film came out, but all the same, a nice part for him to play on a last appearance. Some jokes are quite intelligent and others a little silly, but all the same quite entertaining.

This is a great first feature film for George Felner, a one-man-show (writer/director/actor/editor/etc) who after years of making hilarious short-films got his chance here to show his talent in a feature film. It has some of the best gags in movies (my two all-time favorites: Diogo Infante's character day dreaming of soft-porn fantasies with his secretary and the running gag of the guy at the fast-food place who is constantly ran over by Diogo's car), it it beautifully shot, the special effects are subtle and efficient to the film, making Mano a credible character out of an old movie, and it also has a heart-felt story which all movie lovers can relate to. We want to see more from George Felner! Keep them coming!

I had a good time with this film. I think it was funny and original.. Personally more Portuguese films should take a chance with comedy, and I'm not one to discourage or slander it's slapstick! Keep up the comedy Portugal, we're tired of Depressing intellectual feel-bad films! Some of the jokes were naive, but overall it was entertaining and far better than crime do padre amaro which had a huge success due to its sex and religion tactics.. Diogo did make a lot of the comedy work, he compensates Mano's innocence, coming from a far more visual and naive world of comedy. I liked it and I recommend anyone to see it! When you pay money to see a film, you try to have fun, or stay home.