Vale Abraão

Dreary, dull exhibition of post-modern amoralism. Not a single interesting, likeable, or unlikeable character from top to bottom. Almost watched the whole thing til I realized I could have listened to The Ramones instead.

I thought it was Rio Paiva. Definitely not Ribeira Grande. But then I discovered the beauty of Douro connection with Paiva. First of all, this is not a movie. There are no: high budget, jet set, studio tricks, special effects; neither any interest on that subject/form of film-making. Which is good, because it identifies Portuguese history (time and space) trough still images, giving some approach to Portuguese society and its complexity in terms of traditional behavior. This is a good film to fall asleep and then watch it sleeping. The process in which the narrative is constructed is very similar to other great Oliveira's masterpieces. As a film that you can watch sleeping, I do not pretend to make my statement as cynical as some would guess. But, instead of that, I pretend to clearly point this movie as one of the most potential surreal films I've ever watched. The plot makes it own sense if you really want to get involve in its own poetry. This is not a star system production, fortunately. Therefore, "watch it, then argue into the night".

My opinion about Portuguese cinema has never been the best. I have always considered that, despite the beauty of the places in our country and the quality of the actors and technical personnel, there are no directors capable of doing something that is, at the same time, minimally palatable to the general public and technically well done. Either Portuguese directors opt for a vain and irritating academicism, and make films that never leave the festivals and end up forgotten, or they surrender to the money-making machine and release idiotic comedies with low-level jokes.

This film, considered by many to be one of the best made by Manoel de Oliveira, is a good example of the academic, dull and unintelligible film I mentioned above. I believe the film was a delight at festivals, and I don't think it's to be despised that the film has won awards and some good reviews in Tokyo and São Paulo... but the fact is that, after almost thirty years, it's a film forgotten, even by nerds.

For the film, Oliveira asked writer Agustina Bessa-Luís for an original script. Without any kind of demerit, the writer gave her a story that, in essence, is an adaptation of "Madame Bovary", which passes through the Douro scenarios and is inspired by them to obtain a certain literary lyricism. It will certainly be an interesting book, but it is not a good story for the cinema, and Oliveira ignored that. Watching the movie and reading a book are the same thing, thanks in part to a narrator who doesn't shut up for a minute and who seems to be reading aloud.

The story follows Ema, the main character, from youth to death. Contrary to what many argue, I think the character is not an innocent teenager, despite her young age: she knows she is very beautiful, she knows the effect this has on men and seeks him out, having fun like a Lolita. The rest of the film is an anachrony, with the characters acting as if they lived in the 19th century and not the 1980s: Ema's marriage to Carlos de Paiva, owner of Vale Abraão Estate, is arranged by her father; the couple's very formal social life almost emulates that of Flaubert's nineteenth-century bourgeois; the habit of sleeping in separate beds is nonsense, and the explanation of the doctor going out at dawn to see the sick simply does not make sense. Oliveira and Bessa-Luís tried to recreate a 19th century bourgeois experience in the present day, but the portrait is anachronistic and unbelievable.

The film has several reasonably well-known actors, some of them with a past to consider, in theatre, cinema and television. However, none of them do well here. Leonor Silveira tried everything to be elegant and seductive, and the way the actress moves and observes is, in fact, hypnotic... but also proud and vain. The character proves to be unpalatable in his boring and tiresome monotony and in his affected, arrogant ways. Cécile Sanz de Alba, the young actress who played Ema as a teenager, is magnificent, beautiful, but empty of content, and only does what she has to do. Luís Miguel Cintra is a good actor, but here he gave life to an empty man, an inert and amorphous "cuc...old", without any emotion. Ruy de Carvalho is a shadow of himself. Diogo Dória and José Pinto can add little or nothing.

Technically, the film has several points of merit, I recognize that. The constant breaking of the so-called "fourth wall", with interpellations and looks directly at the camera, as well as the use of a narrator, lead the audience to be part of the film as a mute, observer character. The film makes good use of the landscape of the Douro Valley and the farms and stately homes where it was filmed, although certain details are inconceivable (the use of candlelight, for example). Cinematography is, without a doubt, a striking point, with the use of mirrors, shadows and various light effects that Oliveira worked tirelessly. I admire and respect that, but it's not enough to make a good film, it doesn't make up for the monotonous atmosphere or the excessively slow pace of a film with funeral tics and a soundtrack to match.

I know this is considered to be Oliveira's masterpiece but it's not even one of his best movies. The plot is dull and drags on forever to the point where the ending is a relief and the acting is just terrible or non-existent. The movie starts, disturbingly, with the story of a young woman who seduces the men to the point where they go crazy. I say disturbingly for two reasons: one is that the woman protagonist is shown as a devilish creature that uses defenceless men and sucks the life out of them, a misogynistic trope that should have been abandoned long ago. The other is that the woman is as young as 14 when the story starts. To be clear, the movie sexualizes a 14 year old girl. If you find that repulsive, as you should, steer away from this movie, because it doesn't get better. The young girl, played atrociously, "seduces" an older man, a doctor, who, years later, ends up marrying her. She then becomes an expressionless, cold woman for the rest of her life (or, at least, that's what the movie shows, even if unintentionally) and cheats on her husband with every single man that crosses her path. This is all framed with images of the Douro Valley in a way that doesn't do justice to that amazing region. It's all dull, predictable, and boring until the end. Having seen most of Oliveira's movies, I have to say that, in my view, not only is this not his masterpiece, it's even one of his worst movies. Avoid, unless you are looking for a sleeping pill.

"Abraham's Valley" may be the most extraordinary achievement of Portuguese cinema which confirms that Manoel de Oliveira is among the world's greatest filmmakers capable of creating an unmistakably personal style and sensibility while depicting the human condition. I agree with the first comment which pointed out that one cannot speak of a direct adaptation of Flaubert's novel, but it should also be mentioned that de Oliveira – comparable to Robert Bresson and his film versions of Dostoyevsky's works – conveys the theme into his very own microcosm, and leaves the source material behind while at the same time maintaining key elements of the narrative and the ambivalence of the main character.

The rigid and formal aestheticism which de Oliveira had been developing throughout his long career doesn't require camera movements, and stands out due to a brilliant sense for composition that actually seems to owe a lot to the staging techniques of early silent cinema as well as the eclectic rigours of C. T. Dreyer and Straub/Huillet. The few times the camera moves it creates an amazing effect on the viewer, as if de Oliveira were re-inventing the effect.

The antique interior decorations and the spellbinding landscape of the Douro valley reshape the overall baroque but vital feel of a film which is constantly guided by an omniscient voice over that funds Flaubert's Emma and the one played by Leonor Silveira. "Abraham Valley" is in my opinion one of the most beautiful and authentic masterpieces of recent decades, but since the critical world doesn't seem to give much credit to Portuguese cinema in general (aside those co-productions which feature international stars) the viewer might be lucky enough to catch this film during a retrospective at a cinematheque.