User reviews

A Dumasian twenty years later the director of "La Salamandre" and of "Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000" has done it again, he has given us another major masterpiece, this time based on a remarkable novel by Antonio Tabucchi.

An attempt to account for and cope with the unpredictable, irrational and painful twists and turns of life, leads this film unambiguously to the doors of poetry, ultimately "personified" in it by the ghost of Fernando Pessoa. Never before has a film so remarkably embodied the very essence of the poetic art. Tanner has found its exact cinematic counterpart. This film does not lecture or philosophise, it engages the viewer head on in a both deep and deeply moving fashion.

What is the nature of life? What is the nature of art? How can art influence our lives? These are the questions of this movie. The main character, a man who lives both in the world of dreams and reality, searches his past, in order to understand its meaning. He has meetings with the ghosts of his dead friend, his dead lover, his dead father and Pessoa, the great portuguese writer. These four encounters give him clues about what he is looking for. Beside that, he finds himself in front of art, discovering how it modifies our comprehension of life. It's based in one of Tabucci's (the italian writer)books: "Requiem". This few lines cannot resume the greatness of this movie.

The last thing I can say is: If you like art, I recommend you to see it. If you ever wonder about the nature of dreams, or you live in dreams half of the time, I think you'll feel like this movie was made for you.