Vitalina Varela

Superb use of sound and camera, fascinating performances. My first Pedro Costa film--what a joy to view it. Reminded of Sokurov's "Mother and Son"--had he made it, it would be probably titled "Wife and Husband." This Pedro Costa film is definitely one of my best 2019 films. Winner of Golden Leopard and the Best Actress awards at Locarno film festival. Well deserved!

Pedro is very well know outside the country he lives and films on, not that much in the country he actually lives, the country I also live. I think the reason for that is, one: the films are complicated, and two: his filming a reality people don't know and don't want to see. There's a lot of people that don't really understand what "his" saying, and I can't blame them, because I also don't understand, in some, a large portion of it, Pedro himself says he doesn't either. To watch "his" films I ask for the company of my mother. She explains the films to me, a rare occasion for her, because she's accustomed to being me doing the movie explanations. She's seeing a reality she lived 50 years ago, right after the 1974 revolution, a revolution made only for some.

In this movie Vitalina Varela performs her own person role in an event of her personal life as a non-professional actress.

As a Capeverdian living in Cape Verde (a former Portuguese colony) she saw her husband leaving to work in Lisbon, Portugal. Only 25 years later she managed herself to leave to Portugal to join her husband. However she arrived there three days after his death. Then an atmosphere of sorrow and bitterness sets itself in the movie even suggested by the image darkness, the slow movement of characters and their foreground plan faces. Meanwhile Vitalina becomes aware that her husband's behaviour was rather illicit.

A remarkable movie direction by Pedro Costa.

I came to Pedro Costa's 'Vitalina Varela' with quite high expectations. Its expressionism, artistic camera work and oddly-staged lighting (filmed initially in the pitch darkness of night, objects and faces duly highlighted, gradually easing towards daybreak and sunlight) are dashed by a painfully slow story delivered by actors who barely move. Social realism is one thing, most scenes are apparently shot in slum places with non-professional actors, but having people who can act and a dialogue beyond meandering prose is surely the way to go. Even art shouldn't be this painful!

I watched this movie praised by most critics for its beauty. And it is a beautiful shot movie because of mis-e- scene, acting, lightning and camera. It is all superb in its self inflicted-limitations. Very simple mis-en=.scene and dressing of mostly very poor slum interiors, all shot at night. Fascinating acting of the woman Vitalina who's face is so great to look at in the many close ups. The lightning which makes with its claire obscure and brilliant color accents everything into a Carravagio painting. And the camera which chooses always a fixed cadre like a painting and gets the light and colors in a subtle way. There is hardly a story cause there is no development. It is more the depiction of the failed life of the just died husband of Vitalina, told to us through her eyes, her monologues, searching for details and questions to the priest who buried him. In one scene the husband is shown seen on his slender young naked back lying in the matrimonial bed still in Cabo Verdi. The now young wife Vitalina stands up and walks out of their self build house into a beautiful but dry landscape. The general theme of the movie is the misery of life in general and that of Cabe Verdian migrant workers in particular. My question watching the movie was and is what is the function of all this beauty, what is it for? Is it to show that allthough life is miserable the figures in this movie experience it as beautiful? The answer is negative cause they are desperate in their life and see no light. Is the beauty meant to soften our experience of viewing all this malheur? Of course it does. How to watch so much ugliness for such a long time if there is not something nice to be seen? It has that softening and pleasurable effect but it is not the main function of all this esthetica . I think the function is deeper. Is it l'art pour l'art: beauty for beauty sake? Maybe but what does that mean here? I think that in a religious way we are shown the deep humanity of all these unlucky and unhappy people and the possibility to reconcile ourselves through this beauty with human life. At least I think it is meant that way by the maker of the movie. Did it work that way with me? In a way yes but not in a satisfactory way. Maybe that's my fault.