José e Pilar

Yeah, that's a "love story."

...or given the message of his books, profoundly hypocritical in his own life

It's all very easy to reduce a documentary like this to just that: a documentary. I like to think of it as a window, nay, a door. I'm Portuguese and, beside a theatre play my dad bought for me and made me stand in line to have it signed by Saramago when I was a child, I never managed to enjoy reading his books. Loved the stories, struggled with the novels.

So, it was a huge surprise when I discovered this man, playful and witty as dense and morose; when I discovered his wife, thus far a very behind-the-scenes person, very outspoken but seldom seen; and the mere thought of having heaps of footage and manage to edit years of shadowing the couple to a mere two hours, seamlessly stitched together.

I couldn't help but feel deeply moved by the episodes the film depicts, the portraits the camera takes all the way through time and the love story between a rather senior Portuguese writer and a rather younger Spanish journalist. In Portugal, we say, 'love knows no age.' It does, actually. However, it knows no time. And that's what 'José And Pilar' tells us.

I fell compelled to send a copy to all my friends who, as I, live outside Portugal. It really is that good. Watch it and make sure you take it all in.

José & Pilar is one of the best documentaries out there, no doubt about it. The Director Miguel Gonçalves was able to put together Saramago's soul and life, comprising the importance of Pilar del Río in Saramago's world. Saramago's struggle to fight the right battles and live his life in accordance with his believes are extraordinary lessons of humanity and social sensibility. Moreover, Pilar's role in Saramago's life and her love for him are simply unique. The mixture of romance and wisdom gives the tone of the movie and it is a privilege to watch the Literature Noble Prize Winner in his intimacy, following his day by day routine, surrounded by his books, lover and, of course, the ocean... The volcanic island shoots are amazing! To sum up, the documentary is outstanding and deserves top score. I doubt anyone thinks otherwise...

I'm a José Saramago reader for about 15 years. This documentary it's just mind blowing. I saw it we my girlfriend and at the end I find myself thinking that the love between José and Pilar was a beautiful thing to see. In this documentary, you can really understand what about a relationship should really be. Fernando Meirelles did a great job showing everyone how brilliant and talented José Saramago was. I think everyone will be really touched with their love: "If I died at 63 before I meet Pilar, I would died a lot older then I am right now..." hi said. Really miss his books. "I think we are blind. Blind people who can see, but do not see" J.Saramago

It's so hard to make an engaging documentary. The usual process is to make the facts of stories you're supposed to be told into a coherent narrative line, even if in reality that line isn't so clear. That will provide the audiences with a story, something to follow. But how you follow that story is usually in a more external way than how you watch fiction, because in documentary you can't or won't have the same devices to fold you into the thing. You have always that trick on reenact some stuff, if the theme is history. That's lame to me, and lazy.

Now here you have something really interesting. The film shows us countless excerpts of the lives of the 2 protagonists throughout the course of about 2 years. The film is presented as a reportage, more than a documentary, meaning that images are what you make of it, words come up apparently loosely. No bent narrative is delivered to you. Or so it seems.

Underneath this apparently random display of images, there's a subtle layered structure. The life of the couple José/Pilar in the period of the film mapped to the story of the elephant in the book Saramago is writing. The story that this film displays mapped into the larger story of Saramago's life, with all its weight in the story of literature and Portuguese culture, as we get it in between the lines in several moments of the narrative. The whole idea of journey and encounter mapped into the love story of José and Pilar.

And ultimately, as the title denounces, that story is central here. The idea of a pair of people bound by the art of one of them, who chooses to share it, allow the other half to be a part of it. Live as one, that's the beautiful part of the story. I'm glad they chose to share a bit of that story with as, by allowing us to get into it.

His art matters. He is a humanist, has profound ideas, truly powerful ideas, and changed language, invented a new way on which people can express.

There is one moment when the metaphor for journey mapped into people's lives is perfect: in Saramago's hometown, one street has his name, another street which crosses the other one has her name. Crossed paths.

My opinion: 4/5

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