Historia de Lisboa

Wenders has shot a visual gem with rich sound and music, whose story-line and entire raison-d'etre is a tribute to film-making itself. Every frame is composed, dramatic, and the complementary colour theme of blue-yellow-red (predominantly sky blue) is adhered to so closely, it's phenemonal and delectable.

Waiting for the supposed main character Friedrich, played by Patrick Bauchau, to show up in the film, eventually becomes a metaphor for those times in life when one waits for the "main event", and it's a long time coming. Life is what happens while we're waiting for life to begin.

Rudiger Vogler's Phillip gets to deliver a wonderful lecture to all pretentious artists everywhere who've lost their way, and to art film-makers like Friedrich, especially. We're so happy to hear him dressing down Freidrich, and doing so more articulately than we could have done, it gives this fairly slow-moving film a wonderful sense of resolution and direction.

A very human film about the ordinary, the magic in the ordinary, and the ability of film to convey that magic. Loved it.

I watched this movie a few days ago with the strong impression of having seen it before. Anyway my first impression as it started was great because I felt as lost as the personality on the screen and I am sure that was Wender's intention. We are first and foremost lost in translation as we are lost as tourists on the road to Lisbon. We are children once again. This film is marvelous. Definitely my favorite Wenders movie to date. It captures almost all the things which never cease to fascinate me such as the arts, music, travel, women, friendships, poetry......love. A pure example of how much more valuable it is to open the heart rather than the mind. A wonderful introduction to the music of Madredeus and definitely a great advertisement to visit Portugal which was already in my agenda.

The first time I watched "Lisbon Story" I was disappointed and rather annoyed at what seemed a pretentious and self-indulgent experiment.

Then several months later, I watched it again, and was captivated by it, enjoyed it thoroughly, and found it to be a good-hearted, affectionate salute to motion pictures and by extension to art in general. Though the film's humor frequently borders on being downright corny, I couldn't help enjoying even that aspect because of the obvious good will with which it was presented. It feels refreshing to have a film-maker work so hard to amuse the audience! That in itself is a token of respect.

Wenders has made here a film that's slippery, puzzling, and that eludes the mind's grasp at every turn, yet in the end delivers a powerful and even joyful message. It takes a certain amount of courage to send a positive message to an audience these days--or even in 1994, when the film was released. I applaud Mr. Wenders and I applaud this film. I'm very glad I thought to watch it again--I will definitely see it again in future, too.

This movie is, without the question, the most beautiful movie ever written about the city of Lisbon. It shows on the inside, all the old houses and narrow streets that Portuguese people hold so dearly...

The plot is pretty simple: Phillip Winter (Rüdiger Vogler) is a sound ingeneer for a German director who moved to Lisbon, and he receives a letter from his friend to come to Portugal and help him do this movie about the capital, through sound capturing of all the people, small noises, and even feelings that float in the air. Vogler accepts the challenge, and goes on a trip to Lisbon.

In the city, he gets acquainted with a local band, Madredeus (who perform a beautiful soundtrack for Lisbon Story), and some of the local kids... After a few weeks, he realizes he's in love with this town, so full of charm and emotion all over, and the rest I leave for you to see. There is also a bit of romance, between the main actor and Teresa, the lead singer of Madredeus (which is, in fact, a beautiful Portuguese girl).

Wim Wenders, as always, has great directing on this one, showing the places that we never thought that would contain so much beauty as they do. He's a great director, and this is a great picture, in a way of a documentary, but greatly captured.

Strong feelings are expected. Wonderful movie.

Fascinating scenes, especial sounds, divine music which all end in a praise to the art of cinema, by the director who most of the time proves to be a real poet.