Capitães de Abril

Principally it is the story of two men who were part of the Portuguese revolution. It was easy to understand the contest, but usually directors starts from a historical fact to speak about something else, or they shows also the period before or after this fact, here everything happen during that couple of days when the revolution acts. It could also be seen as a kind of documentary. The movie focalize to these two people, showing as normal they were, not like common heroes, because the revolution come from people. Although it was made from military army from the title you can understand that they were just "capitaes" as the main characters. Nice colors and lights during the whole movie, excellent work for the director being her first movie, she doesn't fall to the banal way. Well shown emotions and passion of people and crowd. The character of Maia (main one)is well-made and there is also a good interpretation for Stefano Accorsi, able to show Maia's limits, this not-being an hero.

Being half-portuguese doesn't render me half-blind (nor half-prejudiced) when discussing portuguese films. Not that I get to do that very often anyway. But this film was such a rush of adrenaline! Yes, that's right - it was mostly accurate as far as history went/goes - but it pulled no punches on venturing beyond usual portuguese-film territory: things like using real locations in the middle of traffic-congested Lisbon and recruiting a real crowd to stand in for the real crowd of almost 30 years ago. And by God did they get it right! OK, to sum it up: very emotional if you've lived through it, but you'll spot minor improvements that could have been made as well as plot necessities that were. If you're just watching it randomly, you're in for a good historical romp, only of the very recent History kind and a bit more thought-proving than usual. Even by European standards, yes.

9/7 8:45 pm APRIL CAPTAINS (**** out of a possible 5)

Excellent, if slightly overlong film about the Portuguese coup d'etat in 1974. Best Line: "Coup d'etat. Can we come in?" The humor was a welcome surprise. Spoke with writer/director Maria de Medeiros afterwards. She was very sweet and lovely and asked me to "salute my mother" for her since they met recently in Avingnon.

I've seen this film a few minutes ago and i'm still carrying that feeling of satisfaction and identification with the characters you usually get with movies that touch you someway. And, if the film wasn't particularly intelligent, one thing touched me the most: its array of technical achievements. I already knew it was the most expensive movie of Portuguese history. I already knew they had cranes, dollys, steadycams and all sorts of sound and image devices. I also knew they payed 5000 escudos (something like 25 dollars) to each extra, for each day of filming, since I was on the set, shouting alongside the others. But my fear was that the director who had a movie debut of 5 million dollars wasn't up to the challenge, spending most of her money learning and using basic shots. But it was surprising to see that Maria de Medeiros used her resources with taste, and professionalism. As for the story, I think it's somewhat simplified, but, given the budget, I think it's still incredible to see what they accomplished. As a future director, I hope and pray that Portuguese cinema continues to evolve this way, inventing, surprising, earning profit, and (most importantly) audience. Two thumbs up, I loved it. Bravo!

I never understood why an Italian actor is the lead actor here.

Not enough Portuguese actors in the age group or trying to capitalise on a more international recognition of Stefano?

Sorry but for such an important event in PT history you should stay with Portuguese actors or it does not look authentic at all... Would a known English actor play George Washington? It would look fake.. As I said too bad.

Too bad because the story is worth knowing and in particular the character Salgueiro Maia which became the face of the revolution and by the way went to school in my Ribatejo village (Coruche).