Traces

When this film came out back in 22 I was really eager to see it, since it dwelled in the portuguese pagan traditions of the caretos, a subject seldomly approched in portuguese cinema, and which greatly interests me. But alas, it's only used for one of two plot points, and doesn't hold much interest in the film. Coud have still been a great film nevertheless, but falls short. I´ll start by comending the photogtaphy and cinematograhy, beautiful shots,plans and scenery, which for me are the best thing about this film. The actors are ok, lacking in some regards, but passable. The worst part is the plot, dull, predictable, it fails to interest and engage. It had potential, but it did not came into fruition. How this came to be a part of Cannes official selection, i´ll never know.

Good story , good filming , average acting , charaters clearly speaking like a person from Lisbon in a small village in the middle of portugal = Loads fake . ( Plenty of good actors that can talk like a villager ) actually plenty of them even better. It is indeed a good story and the directing is good. It is sad the same group of actors is chosen to pursue commercial goals . I think people are fed up of seeing this same faces all over the place. Its is simply just not real anymore .... The child actress that plays Salomé ( Leonor Vasconcelos ) is pretty good though. But I guess Portuguese cinema is a slave of their producers and noone wants to risk not having very well known faces on the screen anymore. Sad fake but reality . Goof movie overall.

I wanted to watch this film mainly for Nuno Lopes and Albano Jerónimo, two of the greatest Portuguese actors in modern times together in the same movie was enough to catch my attention, however they are not enough to make this an interesting story.

The synopsis sounded promising and it starts intriguing and dark, however the plot moves very slowly and allows for the audience to easily guess the story and how it will eventually unfold. The last 15 minutes are highly predictable considering the previous events yet they drag the conclusion without any twist or intensity just a really slow burner.

I get the themes and messages the movie tries to convey, going from guilt, chauvinism, awful traditions that keep existing for the sake of being traditions, however I felt it was a bit of a blend execution.

Even the actors portrayal for the most part feels very monotone which matches the entire atmosphere of the story, some of the events that happen during the film would probably ask for more intensity and drama yet it just feels too melodramatic.

Also Albano's character feels a bit forced I mean the other guys from the village have absolute no remorse whatsoever, they are all stone cold psychopaths and his character just happens to be an emotional pillar within the context of what happens?

I didn't buy into the story yet I will continue to look forward for more projects with these two guys!

A film that shocks, and ends up being predictable.

With a slightly lost plot, you need to be careful to notice that the timeline changes, since there is nothing in the image, scenery or even characterisation, that time changes... everything seems to be on the same timeline.

Álbano Jerónimo does an incredible job, praising all his talent and regretting the rest of the film, which is consumed by a good amount of purposeless silent moments, very typical of Portuguese films, apparently - it doesn't seem like an appealing thing to me, at least less for me - since if these moments were canceled the film would probably only be an hour long or even less.

I didn't like Nuno Lopes' performance in these films, it fell far short of what he's really capable of doing, and all the intrigue and drama ends up being a little predictable. At a certain point I already said what was going to happen, before it happened.

The photography leaves something to be desired and there are some moments in the film where the shadows of the wind turbine blades are poorly created in the image and the shadow is turned in the opposite direction, with a completely disproportionate size.

There are also a few seconds of image, almost at the end of the film, which I think would have been due to a lack of images, which feature a photograph of the village scene, where you can clearly see that it is a static image with nature sounds in the background.

The post-production is a bit amateurish - but that's it, you can always claim that it's style and concept... even so, it didn't inspire me anything positive.

In my opinion, it should have been well thought out, and there should have been more material filmed, as the repetition of footage and 'blank' and still moments is torturous.

Those two films above have influenced on this one, it is obvious, I don't even imagine how it could be different. It is a bit long yes, no one can deny, but it is really boring because character study is so deep, interesting to analyze, in the pure Latin tradition. Without any music the atmosphere is gripping, engrossing and it is so rare to have a film from Portugal to discover. I could not imagine Hollywood give us such a film, or maybe for Sundance film festival. That's the first time I watch such a movie from Portugal. It is really worth watching, but for not audiences, and that's precisely why I appreciate it. Downbeat at the most. Depressing, gloomy. But terrific.